Beijing Courts Slap Net Cafes in Copyright Rulings

Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service

Three Beijing courts handed down fines to 10 Internet cafes in a handful of intellectual property rights cases Wednesday, Chinese state media reported Thursday.

The Xicheng District Court ordered one cafe to pay the top fine of 23,000 yuan (US$3,290), with three others paying between 6,000 and 8,000 yuan. All were found guilty of allowing unauthorized access to copies of films by Huayi Brothers, one of China's top film studios, English-language newspaper China Daily reported. It did not give the names or locations of the Internet cafes, nor any penalties given to the six other cafes involved in intellectual property rights cases, which were involved in cases heard by courts in the Beijing's Chaoyang and Dongcheng Districts.

These latest suits are significant because of the involvement of a local film studio. Lawsuits by Hollywood studios have become more common over the last few years. In February, Motion Picture Association (MPA) members sued Shenzhen Xunlei Networking Technology, a peer-to-peer network operator based in southern China, for facilitating the unauthorized download of Hollywood movies.

In late 2007 suit by Motion Picture Association members against Beijing-based online entertainment site Beijing Jeboo Interactive Science & Technology. Jeboo lost that case in early March, but retaliated later that month by counter-suing the MPA, saying the group's public statement on the case damaged its reputation.

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