Hunting Pirates in Beiping

This chapter provides a background on how the Shanghai shuye gongsuo (SBG) set up an unusual private police force to combat piracy. Throughout the 1930s, the SBG's Beiping Office of the Piracy Investigation Committee, abbreviated as the Detective Branch, hunted down pirates in the old capital and beyond. Even though these would-be law enforcers had no legal jurisdiction over such matters, the Detective Branch staff tirelessly pursued those who violated the SBG members' copyright and punished them with their own means. The Detective Branch's antipiracy operation in Beiping constitutes in itself a unique story, but its real significance lies in the possibility it opens up in understanding detection, enforcement, and negotiation that mediated the intellectual property law and its effect in early twentieth-century China, when different conceptions and practices of copyright grew intertwined. Operating in the gray area between legality and illegality, the staff of the Detective Branch inspected bookshops in the old capital city and surrounding market towns. They launched raids, partnering with local police, to crack down on piracy and, sometimes, resorted to criminal activities themselves, such as fraud, bribery, or home intrusion, to ensure their success.