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A total of 2.29 million infringing links related to films released during China's Spring Festival movie season like Ne Zha 2and Venom: Themk Last Dance have been removed since January as authorities intensified crackdown on illegal recording and distribution, Xinhua reported on Sunday. 

As of February 20, more than 40 individuals involved in illicit filming and dissemination have been arrested, while 22 cases of copyright infringement have been investigated, with 4,116 repeat offenders undergoing restrictions.

This marks the seventh nationwide initiative targeting film piracy. The crackdown aims to not only prevent illicit recordings in theaters but also to disrupt illegal distribution channels on social media, cloud storage, and dedicated piracy platforms, as reported by CCTV News. 

The intensified enforcement comes amid a record-breaking Spring Festival box office season. China's movie industry saw a surge in ticket sales, with the total box office revenue exceeding 9.5 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) during the holiday period, making it one of the highest-grossing Spring Festival seasons in history. Several films, including Ne Zha 2and Boonie Bears: Future Reborn, contributed to the booming performance, drawing large audiences nationwide, with Ne Zha 2so far becoming the seventh highest-grossing film in global box office history, amassing 14.384 billion yuan as of press time and continuing to rise, according to ticketing platform Maoyan.

Among the notable cases, law enforcement in Beijing apprehended a foreign national accused of illegally recording Venom: The Last Dance and Cesium Fallout under the direction of an overseas piracy group. In Tianjin, an individual was found to have recorded Ne Zha 2in a local cinema and shared it online to boost their social media following. Similarly, authorities in North China's Shanxi Province and Northeast China's Jilin Province uncovered cases where individuals live-streamed or uploaded unauthorized recordings of Boonie Bears: Future Rebornand Ne Zha 2, leading to rapid online dissemination.

"Film piracy through illegal recording is an infringement, and its unauthorized distribution is a crime," Shi Wenxue, a veteran cultural critic based in Beijing, told the Global Times. "Such protective actions are necessary as with the rise of the small screen economy, high profits can be made through piracy, and with the increasing number of technological means, these infringing and illegal activities have become more rampant. As a result, efforts to combat this issue have been strengthened in recent years."

Meanwhile, operations in East China's Zhejiang Province, East China's Anhui Province, and Southwest China's Chongqing dismantled larger-scale piracy networks that distributed illegal copies of Ne Zha 2and Creation of the Gods II: Demon Forcethrough dedicated websites and apps. 

In Zhejiang, authorities dismantled a major piracy operation, arresting 11 individuals accused of running a network that amassed over 14 million yuan in illicit revenue. In Anhui, a similar case saw 10 suspects taken into custody after allegedly profiting more than 12 million yuan from pirated content. Meanwhile, in Chongqing, law enforcement uncovered a scheme where pirated films were distributed via USB drives, leading to the confiscation of 5.3 million yuan in unlawful gains and the arrest of five individuals.

"The biggest challenges currently facing film copyright protection are not only the lack of awareness about copyright but also technical difficulties. With the popularization of big data technology, the existing technological tools can also be applied to combat infringement and remove pirated links, or to set commands to make downloaded pirated content unwatchable. Strict penalties and the widespread promotion of copyright awareness, combined with technological measures, are the only ways to effectively reduce piracy," Shi said.