Do not write, sell, or distribute crack patches, keygens, or cracked software; once sales hit the numbers, it is sentenced as copyright infringement

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. Cracking or selling crack tools for profit — earning 30000 yuan or selling 50000 yuan — is enough for a criminal sentence, up to 10 years. Someone who made cracked dongles paired with pirated software for sale saw three co-defendants get between 1 year and 3 years 2 months

Cost

No money spent. The trade-off is dropping fast money from selling cracks, registration codes, or cracked dongles. Do not post crack patches to forums or cloud drives either. The hard part is that cracking looks like technical work, not like theft

Benefit

Civil side first. The Copyright Law allows rights holders to add technical measures to works. Technical measures are effective technology, devices, or components that prevent or restrict others from using a work without permission. Without the rights holder’s permission, no one may intentionally bypass or destroy technical measures. No one may manufacture, import, or provide to the public related devices or components for bypassing technical measures. No one may intentionally provide technical services to others for bypassing technical measures. Computer software is a work; doing any of these is infringement and requires stopping the infringement and paying damages. Damages are by the rights holder’s actual losses or what you earned. If that cannot be calculated, refer to what a normal license would cost. Intentional infringement with serious circumstances brings 1 to 5 times. If public interest is also harmed, the copyright authority may confiscate illegal gains. Illegal business volume of 50000 yuan or more may be fined 1 to 5 times that amount. Below 50000 yuan or if the amount cannot be calculated, a fine of 250000 yuan or less is possible. Criminal side next. Amendment (XI) to the Criminal Law wrote “intentionally bypassing or destroying technical measures” into the crime of copyright infringement, on the premise of profit. Illegal gains of 30000 yuan or more, or illegal business volume of 50000 yuan or more, bring up to 3 years, with a fine concurrently or alone. At 10 times those figures, the sentence is 3 to 10 years plus a fine. Someone who knows another person is committing copyright infringement and still provides devices, components, or technical services mainly used to bypass or destroy technical measures faces the same crime once the same thresholds are met. Official case 1: From March (3) 2019 to July (7) 2022, Liu made “dongles” that could bypass software technical measures for profit. He also copied pirated software and sold it together with the dongles. His illegal business volume was over 1060000 yuan. Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court found especially serious circumstances and sentenced him for copyright infringement. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate said this was the first nationwide “intentionally bypassing or destroying technical measures” copyright-infringement case after Amendment (XI) took effect. In April (4) 2023, Shanghai courts sentenced the three defendants in this string of cases to between 3 years 2 months and 1 year, some suspended, with fines from 700000 to 80000 yuan. Official case 2: Medical-equipment repair worker Liu spent 80000 yuan in a QQ group to buy 50 cracked dongles, then resold them online for a few thousand yuan each. Plugging one in bypassed the medical equipment’s identity check and entered the maintenance software. Shanghai Putuo court sentenced him to 1 year 2 months, suspended, plus an 80000 yuan fine. Official case 3: From May (5) 2021, Li and others in Xuzhou had crack programs made for game machines and produced crack devices to sell. Illegal business volume was over 39000000 yuan. In November (11) 2024, 10 people were sentenced to between 3 years 6 months and 2 years 6 months, some suspended, with fines from 11000000 to 1500000 yuan (nationwide)

Notes

The beneficiary is you yourself. The Copyright Law leaves a few openings: testing the security of computer systems and networks, and doing encryption research or software reverse-engineering research, may bypass technical measures. But the same article says you must not provide the bypassing technology, devices, or components to others. So your own research is fine; distributing or selling is not. Free distribution of crack patches does not meet the crime of copyright infringement, because that crime requires profit. Civil infringement still stands; the software company can send a lawyer’s letter and sue for damages. Litigation first-instance ordinary procedure starts at 6 months; lawyer fees are generally paid by yourself. Putting a whole cracked software package online for download counts as disseminating a work without permission; the criminal threshold is in Section 9, item 24 (sharing cloud-drive resources). Game cheats that bypass anti-cheat are in item 2 of this section (game cheats and aids).

Sources · 7

1. 全国人大常委会 (2020). 刑法修正案（十一）（第二十项，即刑法第二百一十七条第六项）. spp.gov.cn/zdgz/202012/t20201227_503682.shtml
2. 全国人大常委会 (2020). 著作权法（2020 年修正，第三条，第四十九、五十、五十三、五十四条）. npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202011/t20201119_308…
3. 最高人民法院、最高人民检察院 (2025). 关于办理侵犯知识产权刑事案件适用法律若干问题的解释（法释〔2025〕5 号，第十三条）. spp.gov.cn/xwfbh/wsfbt/202504/t20250424_69397…
4. 最高人民法院、最高人民检察院 (2025). 知识产权刑事保护典型案例（案例六：刘某生、刘某侵犯著作权案）. spp.gov.cn/xwfbh/wsfbt/202504/t20250424_69397…
5. 最高人民检察院 (2024). 最高检：指导办理全国首例「故意避开或者破坏技术措施型」侵犯著作权案. spp.gov.cn/spp/2024zgjtzwlft/202402/t20240228…
6. 检察日报 (2023-04-18). 售卖盗版加密狗 解锁医疗设备安全系统（最高检官网转载）. spp.gov.cn/spp/zdgz/202304/t20230418_611586.s…
7. 国家版权局 (2025). 2024 年度全国打击侵权盗版十大案件（案件六：江苏徐州李某某等人破坏技术措施侵犯著作权案）. ncac.gov.cn/xxfb/ywxx/202508/t20250801_925366…