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)