Games copyright case claims a Web of deceit

A Shanghai court has accepted China's first lawsuit about alleged intellectual property violation of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and another one is pending from the same media company.

CCTV.com is seeking compensation of 2.1 million yuan (US$306,000) from Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Co Ltd, one of China's largest download-service providers, accusing it of broadcasting the Olympic torch relay live without authorization.

The plaintiff is also demanding that Xunlei make a public apology on its Website, www.xunlei.com, and the China TV Program newspaper.

The case went to the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court because the server of Xunlei, which runs www.xunlei.com, is provided by Shanghai Wangsu Technology Co Ltd.

CCTV.com said in the lawsuit that the live channel of Xunlei telecast online the Olympic torch-relay section in Wuzhong City of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on June 30.

CCTV.com owns the official Olympic Internet and mobile broadcast rights on the Chinese mainland and Macau.

CCTV had authorized CCTV.com to air its programs of torch-relay activities on the Internet exclusively and Xunlei had no rights to proceed, the lawsuit said.

The broadcast of the torch relay on the Website of Xunlei would cause a huge economic loss to CCTV.com because Xunlei was a popular Website and achieved a large number of clicks, the lawsuit said.

Xunlei said it had not found any relevant record of the telecast on its server.

Because any Website users could upload programs to the Website, it was difficult to find who made the broadcast in question, Xunlei officials told the court.

Luo Weimin, Xunlei's deputy president, said the Website had paid particular attention to cleaning out and monitoring possible Olympic-copyright violations.

On Wednesday in the Guangdong Intermediate People's Court, CCTV.com launched an action against Century Dragon Information and Network Co Ltd that runs www.21cn.com.

In this case CCTV.com is seeking compensation of 4.1 million yuan, alleging the Website broadcast the Olympic torch relay live on Mt Everest, or Qomolongma, on May 8.

Xunlei has already been involved in two other significant intellectual-property lawsuits.

Six leading United States film companies sued Xunlei in February for allegedly helping Netizens download pirated films and are seeking compensation totaling 7 million yuan.

Xunlei was also ordered to pay 150,000 yuan incompensation by the Pudong New Area People's Courtto Shanghai Youdu Broadband Technology Co for providing a download link for thepopular film "Confession of Pain" without authorization.