Beijing movie website aims to sue competitors

LeTV.com, a Beijing-based video website, said yesterday it will take its competitors to court for copyright infringement.

The site discovered on Oct 31, 2008 that Maxthon, a company known for its internet browsing technology, gave an online broadcast of the movie Set Off (Ji Ri Qi Cheng) to which LeTV claimed exclusive rights. This news came from a press release by Haidian District Court.

LeTV claims it asked Maxthon to stop broadcasting the movie immediately and asked Maxthon and another video website to pay 100,000 yuan in compensation.

Maxthon could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"We invest one third of our revenue each year to buy copyrights," Chen Ping from LeTV's marketing department told METRO yesterday.

"We purchased the exclusive rights to broadcast 60 percent of the popular movies and TV series produced in 2009 in China, like The Noodle Story by director Zhang Yimou.

"And in 2010 we aim to invest over 100 million yuan to buy more rights," he said.

This is not the first time for LeTV to ask for compensation from its competitors.