Five Hollywood film companies have filed copyright lawsuits
against a Chinese movie download provider and an internet cafe for
allegedly providing pirated film download service to internet
users.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Walt Disney Pictures,
Paramount Pictures Corp., Columbia Pictures Industries, and
Universal City Studios, accused Beijing-based Jeboo.com and a
Shanghai internet cafe of violating their copyrights.
"The internet cafe provided movie download service through the
software developed by Jeboo.com. Among others, 13 movies, including
Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Charlie's Angles 2, X-Men 2, and Night
at the Museum, were distributed without authorization," read the
indictment.
The studios demanded compensation of some 3.2 million yuan
(about 432,000 US dollars) and required the defendants to
immediately stop the practice and make a public apology.
The case will be heard at Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's
Court on Nov. 29, according to sources.
Founded in 2004, Jeboo.com claims to be China's biggest movie
download provider, with a database of nearly 30,000 movies and TV
series that have online certificates.
"All the audio and video products on Jeboo.com are provided by
our partners. Jeboo.com has the right to provide download service
through the internet for them according to contracts signed between
Jeboo.com and our partners," said the copyright statement of
Jeboo.com.
Xie Jiangping, president assistant of Jeboo.com, said the
company has been preparing for the hearing. Xie refused to comment
on whether it had violated the film companies' copyrights.
Early in March, 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and five other
Hollywood studios filed a copyright lawsuit, saying that Beijing
Yongsheng Century International Cultural Development Co. was
selling pirated films including "Lord of the Rings" and "The Day
After Tomorrow".
They won the case in September and got 192,000 yuan in
compensation from the company, under the verdict by Beijing Xicheng
District People's Court.
China has intensified a crackdown on pirated DVDs and other
illegal duplications and plans fundamental changes to the situation
this year, according to a circular jointly issued by six government
departments, including the public security and culture
ministries.
China confiscated around 110 million illegal CDs and DVDs in
2006, according to the Ministry of Culture.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2007)
