A man who started a company in his junior years at Zhongshan University was sentenced to 18 months in jail in Guangzhou on Monday for spreading pornography on the Internet.

A total of 866 users had registered for pornographic movies on a Web site operated by the man, Lu Weilin, and his business partners from April to September last year.

Lu and six other college students were widely reported as spearheading college youth by starting a private business when they established Zhinuo Digital Technology Ltd. in 1999. The Zhinuo company began to work with Xinzhou Digital Culture Development Ltd. to offer movie services on the Internet last April. Of the 131 movies they offered, 51 were pornographic.

Zhinuo made more than 60,000 yuan (US$7,250) by charging registration fees. Before he was arrested, Lu, 26, was also the vice

president of www.easeway.com.cn, China��s biggest sports database company.

He took a part-time job with an advertising company while other students were involved in on-campus activities. Liang, a classmate, remembered Lu as a ��very talented guy.�� Lu drove his classmates to a banquet in his new car before graduation.

Lu was arrested last September. In the following five months, 90 percent of the employees left the Zhinuo company. A manager with the company regretted the involvement in pornography, saying Lu and his partners had originally planned to run a legal movie business.

Source: Shenzhen Daily