Law and safety / Chapter 11
This section’s metrics are personal freedom and money — what you get back is “don’t get locked up” and “don’t pay damages.” People who write code or do technical work often treat the items below as “just technical problems.” In fact they map to specific criminal offenses, or to a concrete civil sum you may have to pay. Each item gives the numbers in the statutes, plus cases published on the websites of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Supreme People’s Court. Criminal-law citations use the consolidated text “as amended by Amendment (XI) to the Criminal Law” republished by the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. Item 1 is the general one: how to judge before you act, and what to do first if something goes wrong.
Items in this section are grouped by theme below; numbers in parentheses are item numbers.
Before you act: Before acting, ask whether anyone will file a police report (item 1).
Cheats, scripts, and cracks: Game cheats and aids (item 2); ticket-snatching, fake-order, and coupon-farming scripts (item 3); crawl only public pages that need no login (item 4); tools that auto-skip or block ads in other apps (item 18); crack patches and keygens (item 20).
Touching others’ systems: Do not run your programs on others’ computers (item 8); do not test others’ systems without written authorization (item 9); report vulnerabilities as required (item 10); DDoS traffic attacks (item 21).
Side gigs and client work: Development orders for gambling, fraud, or adult-content apps (item 5); circumvention tools and VPN accounts (item 11); AI relay sites (item 19).
Leaving and ownership: Hand over account access when you leave (item 6); do not take source code when you leave (item 7); non-compete agreements (item 12); code written with company resources belongs to the company (item 13); GPL and other open-source code (item 14).
Shipping a product: Collect only personal information the business needs (item 15); complete ICP filing before launch (item 16); generative-AI security assessment and algorithm filing (item 17).
Before you act, ask one question: will the vendor, platform, or company file a police report. Investigating authorities have the power to obtain server logs, payment records, and group-chat records. …
Selling a cheat to 20 person-times, or earning 5000 yuan, is enough for up to 3 years; especially serious cases get 3 to 7 years. …
Even if a script does not modify memory or crack anything and only sends requests faster than a person, it can still lead to a conviction; earning 5000 yuan or causing the other side 10000 yuan in losses is enough. …
Bypassing login, token, signature, and similar protections to take data, when circumstances are serious, brings up to 3 years, or 3 to 7 years if especially serious. Crawling personal information is worse. …
If you take a development order knowing it is a gambling app, you are treated as an accomplice in operating a casino. …
Account passwords the company gave you do not mean you may still use them after you leave. Illegally controlling a system, when circumstances are serious, brings up to 3 years. …
Copyright in code written on the job generally belongs to the company; client lists may also count as trade secrets — taking them is taking the company’s things. …
Controlling others’ computers, servers, or cameras without permission reaches up to 3 years at 20 devices, or 3 to 7 years if especially serious. …
The statute looks at whether you had authorization and how much you obtained — not at what you meant. …
Individuals are also covered by the (网络产品安全漏洞管理规定). Before the vendor has a fix, you must not publish the vulnerability, and must not publish vulnerability details for systems currently in use. …
Any individual or entity that builds their own outbound network connections or uses international channels outside of state-provided public telecom services may be ordered by police to cease internet access, receive a warning, and face fines up to 15,000 yuan plus confiscation of any illegal earnings. …
A non-compete means for a period after leaving you may not work for a competitor — up to 2 years — and the company must pay compensation monthly. …
Software written mainly with company equipment, intranet, or business data, for which the company bears responsibility, has copyright belonging to the company; you keep only the right of authorship — and the same if the contract so provides. …
Copyright infringement requires you to compensate the copyright holder based on their actual losses or the profits you earned from the infringement. …
Collect only information the business needs; for users under 14 get guardian consent. For violations, first an order to correct; the App may be stopped. …
Filing costs nothing; domestic servers without filing that refuse to correct will be shut down. Claiming filing is free while actually charging brings a fine of 3 to 5 times illegal gains, or 100000 to 1000000 yuan. …
Generative AI services aimed at the public that can shape opinion or mobilize people need a security assessment and algorithm filing before launch; changes or shutdown also need amendment or cancellation filings. …
Making software that skips or blocks ads in other apps for users may get you sued for unfair competition. Not charging money may still count; the law’s “operators” include individuals who provide services. …
An AI relay site is a website that resells foreign large-model APIs at low prices. …
Registration-code checks, dongles, and similar verification are a software’s technical measures; bypassing them without permission is infringement, and you must pay even if you charge nothing. …
Using DDoS so others’ websites, servers, or games cannot open is the crime of destroying a computer information system. Serious consequences bring up to 5 years; especially serious consequences bring 5 years or more. …
Press / to search