Case study (Business Weekly) Updated: 2006-02-07 09:33
Illegal movies
The Motion Picture Association of America told the National Copyright
Administration (NCA) that Beijing Online Jiuzhou Information Technical Service
Co Ltd is illegally profiting by offering movies such as " The Pacifier", "Super
Agent 2" and "Trojan" through its website at www.116.com. The NCA handed the case over to the
Copyright Administration of Beijing for investigation.
The subsequent investigation found the website was registered with the
Chinese Ministry of Information Industry. It was illegally selling downloads
without the permission of the intellectual property rights holder. The Copyright
Administration of Beijing ordered the company to stop pirating the films and
imposed a fine of 90,000 yuan (US$11,000).
Music copyrights
The international Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) filed a
complaint with the National Copyright Administration that www.real2000.org was illegally providing
songs such as "I'm Sunny" (Wo Shi Yang Guang De) and violating copyrights. The
website's server was traced through the IP address to a machinery room in China
Telecoms Changde Branch, in Central China's Hunan Province. The National
Copyright Administration legally handed the case over to the Hunan Provincial
Copyright Administration for investigation.
The investigation found that "Audio-Visual Music 2000" was a personal website
started in April 2004 by Lei Zheng, a worker at a phosphate fertilizer plant in
Shimen, Hunan Province. Without the permission of the copyright holder, Lei
copied 150,000 songs to his website's server, and provided free downloads for
subscribers. He released advertisements on the website, charged for downloads of
mobile phone ring tones, and illegally earned 6,000 yuan (US$735).
The Hunan Provincial Copyright Administration has already ordered Lei to
stop. It confiscated one server, imposed a fine of 10,000 yuan (US$1,225), and
closed the website. (For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates) |