软件最终用户侵权的刑事责任

On the Criminal Responsibly of End-User Software Piracy

针对目前社会上侵权盗版猖獗,法律发挥的效用却很有限的现状,认为最终用户或者称为消费者——一类特殊的侵犯主体,他们在市场中一方面是上帝,只有权利没有义务,另一方面却是软件侵权的最终完成人；如何处理二者关系,使得软件这种特殊的技术产品的知识产权既得到保护．又不侵害消费者的权益；而软件侵权的民事责任问题已经基本清楚,但是由于不足以威慑侵权人,所以追究刑事责任就成为软件业的期望；指出中国大陆目前尚不完全具备对最终用户侵权追究刑事责任的条件,只能逐步有条件地过渡到对最终用户承担刑事责任。

Software products are protected under the copyright law, but this protection has been fairly ineffective, especially at times when the law is dealing with a special group of infringers-the end-users or the customers in the circumstances of rampant intellectual property right infringements and software piracies. In the market, the end-users, as buyers, enjoy rights without being restrained by any obligation. On the other hand, they are the actual infringers of software copyright. Then how to protect the intellectual property rights of this special kind of technical products and meanwhile not to affect the interest of the customers have become a serious issue. Civil responsibility of software piracy has been roughly clear, but since this is not enough to deter infringers, it is expected in the software industry that criminal responsibility will be ascertained. However,caution has to be exercised on the issue of criminal responsibility of end-users. As China's Mainland is still not able to meet the necessary conditions, the transition from civil responsibility to criminal responsibility has to be carried out in a gradual and conditional way.