The competition in China's internet video sharing market has intensified recently with dozens of major video web sites being sued for piracy by a group of online video copyright owners.

 

The anti-piracy alliance calls for online video web sites to prevent spreading of unauthorized video work.

Sohu dot com is one of the initiators of the campaign.

Charles Zhang, CEO of Sohu.com, said, "More than 200 million Chinese Internet users watch video from the web sites. If the problem of those sites involved in piracy is solved, the long-lasting piracy problem in China will be solved."

As one of the sites mentioned, online video service provider Xunlei has lashed back at Sohu.com.

Zou Shenglong, CEO of Xunlei, said, "Their so called anti-piracy alliance is under a fake name. If they say we are pirating, let's compare who holds more authorized works and who has paid for the copyrights. We are now dishing the dirt of each other. Sohu is an all-round player of piracy itself. From video, music to novels, they cover the whole scale."

According to Xunlei, they now have authorization to use 58 hundred videos and invested 100 million yuan in purchasing copyrights last year.

But the alliance believes that having some authorization for works does not actually mean a web site is authorized.

Liu Hong, Internet anti-piracy Alliance, said, "We are now emphasizing the percentage of their authorized works. If a web site has ten thousand movies and nine thousand of them are unauthorized. Can we say the site is legal?"

The alliance says they have collected more than two hundred pieces of evidence showing copyright infringement on two major video web sites, Xunlei and Youku dot com, and filed charges with the courts.

But while their high-profile campaign was underway, a member of the alliance, Voole dot com, was charged with distributing pirated videos. And the accuser is another member of the alliance.

Gao Lulin, Deputy president of China Internet Association, said, "It's right to protect the copyright. But the protection should not be part of a business's strategy against competition."

The industry insider also said web sites should be fair and self-disciplined when facing the problem of piracy. The protection of copyright should not be used as a strategy to strengthen themselves and weaken their competitors.