Two Americans, Randolph Hobson Guthrie III and Cody Abram
Thrush, received prison sentences from a Shanghai court yesterday
along with two Chinese accomplices for selling pirated DVDs
online.
"Nearly 120,000 pirated DVDs were found at Guthrie's home and in
a temporary warehouse rented by Wu Shibiao," said Qin Jiongtian,
prosecutor from Shanghai No.2 Intermediate Procuratorate.
Guthrie, the suspected ringleader, was sentenced to 30 months in
jail and fined 500,000 yuan (US$60,459).
Shibiao, Wu Dong and Thrush were given jail terms of up to 15
months and fines of 10,000-30,000 yuan (US$1,209-3,628).
Guthrie and Thrush will be expelled from the country after
serving their prison terms, the judge pronounced.
Police said the four had sold pirated DVDs for US$3 through eBay
and another website called "Three Dollar DVD" from November 3, 2003
to July 1 last year.
According to receipts from courier companies and data seized
from Guthrie's computer, they claimed that over 180,000 pirated
DVDs worth more than 7 million yuan (US$840,000) had been sold by
the company.
The judge found evidence of them selling about 133,000 pirated
DVDs worth over 3.3 million yuan (US$393,000) to more than 20
countries including the US, Australia, the UK and Canada and
earning nearly 1 million yuan (US$120,900).
The case was last year categorized as one of the country's top
10 IPR (intellectual property rights) cases by the State
Intellectual Property Office.
Investigators swung into action when the Bureau of Investigation
of Economic Crimes under the Ministry of Public Security received a
report from the US Embassy in China last April and immediately
started to coordinate with their US counterparts.
Guthrie, Wu Dong and Thrush were arrested about two months later
and Wu Shibiao turned himself in shortly afterwards.
"Guthrie denied in court that he had ever sold any DVDs on eBay
and claimed that he dealt only in shoes and purses; but the
evidence against him was overwhelming," said Qin.
The four convicts did not say in the courtroom whether they
would appeal the sentences.
The same day, the start of a national weeklong public awareness
campaign, the chief judge of the Supreme People's Court's
Intellectual Property Rights Tribunal said work against IPR
violations had intensified because domestic and overseas pirates
were colluding.
Speaking in Beijing, Jiang Zhipei said authorities had been
aware of transnational piracy but were often unable to seize
suspects. He was delighted that a major case had been solved due to
joint China-US efforts.
Jiang said courts would continue to enforce IPR, adding "the
number of cases is likely to rise in the second half of this year
due to the new judicial interpretation late last year that aims to
make it easier to prosecute IPR crimes."
Last year, courts heard more than 12,000 IPR cases, up roughly a
third on the previous year. Of them, 151 cases involved foreign
individuals, businesses or other organizations.
(China Daily April 20, 2005)