The Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court has recently ordered a local company named "Yue Ying" to pay 200,000 yuan (26,316 U.S. dollars) in damages to four U.S. film studios for selling pirated DVDs.
The studios represented in the lawsuit were Columbia Picture Corp., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Paramount Picture Corp. and Universal City Studios LLLP. Twenty-one pirated movies included "The Day after Tomorrow","National Security" and "War of the World".
Launched by Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), seven U.S. film studios cooperated to sue Shanghai pirated disks sellers, making continuous success.
In March, the same Shanghai company was sued by Disney Enterprises Inc.,Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and New Line Cinema and lost the case.
"The MPA wants to attract the attentions from both the government and public through the way of continuous lawsuits and crackdown, warning people pirated DVDs were violating the law." said Yang Jun, the representative lawyer of the corporations.
Yue Ying was founded in 2004, when it was known as KaDe Club. A lot of foreigners who bought pirated DVDs there told their friends the place after they went back. It brought KaDe Club not only more and more customers but also the MPA.
In 2006, KaDe changed its name to Yue Ying in order to avoid the MPA's investigation. Its illegal business, however, remained, even expanded.
After three years of investigation, the MPA decided to file a suit against one of Yue Ying's shops in Zhenning Road, Shanghai. The shop then changed its name but kept selling pirated DVDs.
"We are neither the former KaDe nor Yue Ying, we don't know the former boss either." said a shop assistant. But they still used the card provided to customers printed "KaDe" on.
"The fighting against pirated disks never stops," an official of Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court said.
Last December, Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ordered "Shanghai DiKai" company to pay 158,000 yuan (20,789 U.S.dollars) in damages to six U.S. film studios including Paramount Picture Corp. for selling pirated DVDs.
In another case, a company in Beijing was ordered by local court to compensate five U.S. film studios including Columbia Picture Corp., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. 164,000 yuan (21,579 U.S.dollars) at the end of last year.
"The issue of intellectual property rights is very complex in China." Yang Jun, the lawyer said. "It will take a long time to educate ordinary people. Many of them consider selling and buying pirated disks a moral issue rather than illegal actions."
"The Chinese government has been working on protecting intellectual property since 1990s and supports U.S. firms protecting their legal rights," said Zhou Shijian, an executive director of the Chinese Association of American Studies.
Source: Xinhua
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