A shop selling pirated DVDs has been sued for 3.43 million yuan
($439,740) by seven US movie companies.
The companies, including Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and
Disney, took the shop named "Leying" to the city's No 1
Intermediate Court, to seek compensation.
Three of the lawsuits were settled on Tuesday, and the other
four will come before the courts by the end of this month.
Leying is the same shop which previously traded under the name
of Kadi, well-known to many expatriates in Shanghai for selling
pirated products, Shanghai Youth Daily quoted Yang Jun, a legal
representative for the seven companies, as saying yesterday.
Kadiwhich used to enjoy brisk businesswas exposed by the same
newspaper last year for selling pirated DVDs.
The shop was later redecorated and changed its name to Leying,
but the proprietor remained the same, according to Yang.
The shop changed its name after being sued by the seven movie
companies. Although the court had sent two summons to the shop, no
representative from Leying showed up in court on Tuesday.
The court gave verdicts in three of the cases, demanding Leying
to stop selling pirated DVDs of Lord of the Rings and some other
movies, and compensate New Line Cinema 7,000 yuan ($895), Disney
12,000 yuan ($1,535) and Warner Bros 6,000 yuan ($770).
According to Shanghai Youth Daily, Leying has been trading in
pirated DVDs for years and it reputation spread among foreign
visitors. It soon attracted the attention of the Motion Picture
Association of America.
The association brought a similar lawsuit against another
company selling pirated DVDs in Shanghai last year. It was ordered
to pay compensation of 158,000 yuan ($20,256) and fined 50,000 yuan
($6,410).
(China Daily March 8, 2007)