Recently, the National Copyright Administration officially released a report titled “China’s Copyright Protection and Development Status (2025)” in both Chinese and English. The report system summarizes the achievements of the four major sectors of copyright legal construction, administrative law enforcement, industrial services, and international cooperation in China in 2025. It is not only a comprehensive summary of the development of copyright industry in the past year, but also clarifies the governance ideas of emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, digital cultural and creative industries, and copyright finance. It points out the direction for the construction of a strong intellectual property country and the high-quality development of cultural industries in China.

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1、 Core data released: The number of copyright registrations has exceeded 10 million for two consecutive years

The report shows that the total number of copyright registrations in China will reach 10.677 million in 2025, once again reaching the level of tens of millions after breaking through 10 million for the first time in 2024. among which

In terms of law enforcement:
By 2025, copyright departments across the country will investigate and handle 4170 cases of infringement and piracy;
2920 infringing and pirated websites have been shut down;
Delete 1.16 million infringing and pirated links;
For the 21st consecutive time nationwide, the “Jianwang” special operation has been launched to combat online infringement and piracy.

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2、 New trend in the industry: AI copyright governance has fully entered the practical stage

In 2025, with the deep landing of artificial intelligence technology, copyright disputes will also emerge in a concentrated manner. This annual report sends a key signal: AI copyright governance has bid farewell to the stage of pure theoretical exploration and has officially landed in real application scenarios such as judicial trials and administrative law enforcement, posing a new challenge to industry compliance.

（1） Judicial judgment takes precedence, establishing basic rules for AI copyright

In response to the new infringement issues arising from artificial intelligence, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has released relevant typical cases to guide judicial organs in handling new cases such as using AI for infringement and avoiding technological protection measures. At the same time, multiple courts have made benchmark judgments and gradually established a framework for AI copyright adjudication.

（2） Upgrading governance dimensions: from cracking down on pirated content to regulating the generation mechanism

In the traditional copyright supervision model, the focus of law enforcement is mainly on the terminal content level such as pirated links, infringing websites, and illegal dissemination platforms. Entering the AI era, infringement forms have become more covert and complex. Unauthorized access to massive amounts of original content for training large models, AI generated works that are highly similar to the original, using tools to wash and change faces in batches, and using automated programs to produce infringing content for profit are constantly emerging.

This also fundamentally changes the logic of copyright governance: regulation no longer focuses solely on “finished content”, but extends to the mechanism of content generation. The focus of regulation and verification has shifted towards fundamental issues such as the compliance of model training data sources, originality of generated content, and legality of the use of technical tools.

（3） Risk spreads across the entire industry chain, posing compliance challenges

The popularization of AI technology has enabled copyright risks to run through the entire process of content creation. Risk may arise in both the training phase of large models and the content generation phase; It exists not only in the distribution scenarios of public domain platforms, but also hidden in the use of internal knowledge bases and office systems within enterprises.

Nowadays, various institutions such as media, short dramas, advertising, e-commerce, gaming, education, legal technology, etc. cannot stay out of the matter. How to ensure the legality and compliance of AI generated content sources has become a mandatory course that all digital enterprises must face. While AI empowers industrial development, it also forces various industries to establish sound copyright risk control systems.

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3、 Conclusion

Artificial intelligence has reshaped the mode of creation and also reconstructed the boundaries of copyright protection. For enterprises, understanding the policy orientation and regulatory trends behind this report, actively establishing an AI copyright compliance system, and valuing the collaborative layout of software copyrights and patents are necessary to avoid risks and safeguard their rights in the wave of technology. Artificial intelligence has reshaped the mode of creation and also reconstructed the boundaries of copyright protection.

In the future, with the continuous improvement of the copyright legal system and the upgrading of governance capabilities, respecting originality and protecting copyright will become a consensus in the digital age. Under the dual pursuit of rules and technology, innovative vitality will also be fully unleashed, continuously safeguarding the long-term development of cultural and digital technology industries.

 

↓↓↓↓↓ Click on “Read Original Text” below to view the full text of “China Copyright Protection and Development Status (2025)”!

Original Text：https://www.ncac.gov.cn/xxfb/tzgg/202606/t20260605_992949.html

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