Copyright violations on the Internet have overtaken pirated disks as the major source of copyright infringement lawsuits being handled by courts, judges said.

A local court will begin a hearing on Monday over a lawsuit filed by six major studios of the Motion Picture Association of America against Xunlei.com, one of the biggest video information and downloaded software providers in China.

The plaintiffs have accused Xunlei of allowing the users of its file-sharing service to download movies made by the six companies free of charge.

Disputes soar

According to statistics from the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, the court accepted 30 cases involving online copyright disputes in 2006 and the number soared to 76 last year. In the first three quarters of this year, 46 such cases have been accepted by the court.

Judges said the cases had increased as some Websites were offering song and movie downloads without authorization in a bid to grab market share. They suggested copyright owners and Internet service providers share their profits after negotiating instead of acting in opposition.

"Copyright owners and Internet service providers should communicate better with each other," said Li Shulan, chief of the intellectual property court under the intermediate court. "Creating a profit sharing system is the only way for both sides to keep long-term profits."

In one case, the Beijing Yashen Culture Broadcast Co Ltd sued the Shanghai Yuesheng Information Technology Co Ltd because it offered the playing and downloading on its Website of 276 songs without approval. Stars like Sami Cheng and Tan Kheng Seong were involved.

The court ruled in September that Yuesheng should pay 300,000 yuan (US$43,941) in compensation to Yashen because it had violated Yashen's copyright.

In the first half of this year, tudou.com, a well-known movie and TV Website, China Mobile's Hunan branch and seven Internet bars were ordered to pay between 7,000 yuan and 60,000 yuan to the copyright owners of movies and Hong Kong TV serials for offering their products.

These lawsuits first targeted large Websites, then turned to small and medium Net companies and were now aimed at Interet bars, the judges said.

"On one hand, copyright owners are asking that their interests be completely protected,'' Li said.

''On the other hand, Websites operators argue that the works should be allowed to be spread online with their advanced technology.''

(Shanghai Daily December 1, 2008)