Shanghai: five jailed over online game

Four young men and one juvenile have been jailed for setting up private servers to host an online game and infringing the copyright of the game's owner.

Changning District People's Court sentenced them to between seven months and two years in prison.

Shanghai Yetime Network Technology Co Ltd owns the rights to the game "Priston Tale" issued by the copyright owner, a Korea-based company.

It said it will file a civil suit against the five convicts to cover losses estimated at three million yuan (US$394,737).

The gang leader, 33-year-old Yan Shaodong, bought a Japanese version of the game in 2006, the court heard. He recruited the others, aged between 17 and 32, to help him translate the game, set up two servers, look for players and maintain the Website.

Yan said that Shanghai Yetime never contacted them nor asked them to stop copyright infringement. He promised to pay the others 800 yuan to 2000 yuan a month. They didn't charge players for the game but sold virtual tools for money, which could fetch up to 1,000 yuan, the court learned.

The gang earned about 70,000 yuan from the game, but Yan argued that their earnings didn't cover the cost of buying the game and setting up the servers, leaving no profits.

Wang Qi, 32, was responsible for setting up the servers and was paid 30,000 yuan. He surrendered himself to police after he learned Yan was caught in May this year.

Chen Ke joined Yan after he graduated from university. "I was looking for a job and was recruited by them to set up the game Website," Chen told the court.

Chen Shaoyu, 17, is still a student who was paid 2,000 yuan for selling virtual tools. "I love computers and just wanted to learned something more. I didn't know that private servers violated the law," Chen said.