BIZCHINA / Copyright
Case study
(Business Weekly)
Updated: 2006-03-06 09:37
Piracy gang
Shanghai Shanda Network Technical Development Co Ltd filed a complaint
with the National Copyright Administration over the "Long Teng Chuan Shi"
website (www.66woool.com), which it claimed had set up private servers
to run "World of Legend", an online game. It said this infringed on
Shanda's legitimate rights and interests. The website servers were traced
to a location in Jingzhou, Central China's Hubei Province. The National
Copyright Administration legally handed the case over to the Hubei
Provincial Copyright Administration for investigation.
The Jingzhou Municipal Copyright Administration established a special
action team to investigate the case. Officials found that the website had
been built and operated by an Internet piracy gang. The gang had rented
the site and network resources from Lante E-commerce Co Ltd in Jingzhou
to set up private servers for online games. It also profited by selling
virtual game equipment.
The gang listed a number of bank accounts on its website. A special
website, www.ggwoool.com, advertised their private servers through
Internet search engines. The website also provided links to other private
server websites and profited by advertising other private servers. They
successively applied for more than 10 domain names and nearly 50 IP
addresses. The preliminary investigation found that the gang was
operating 80 servers and had a business volume of nearly 1 million yuan
(US$125,000).
Due to the scale of the gang and the amount of money involved, the
Jingzhou Municipal Copyright Administration legally transferred the case
on December 1 to prosecute for criminal liability.
Movie copyrights
Beijing Jidongxing Film & Teleplay Co Ltd filed a complaint with the
National Copyright Administration over Huaxia Video (www.52vcd.com),
which it claimed had illegally distributed movies such as "A Chinese
Odyssey" and infringed upon its copyrights. The website server was traced
through its IP address to Changsha, in Central China's Hunan Province.
The National Copyright Administration legally handed the case over to the
Hunan Provincial Copyright Administration for investigation.
The investigation found that Huaxia Video was a personal website and was
not registered with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
The website's owner, Xie Shiming, duplicated videos without permission,
and provided them as downloads to members.
Huaxia Video had approximately 600 members, an illegal business volume of
40,000 yuan (US$4,963), and illegal earnings of 20,000 yuan (US$2,481).
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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