Around 150 Chinese films are played free of charge on some US websites, including almost all the famous Chinese films.

The China Film Copyright Protection Association has asked American law offices to investigate this case, and has made plans to appeal to the US courts.

The association's president Zhu Yongde says it is clear that those websites were never authorized by the film producers to play the films online and their free services of playing and downloading Chinese films are violations of copyrights.

In July, China and the US singed a memorandum on the cooperation of film copyright protection. It highlighted the responsibilities of the Chinese side to crack down on pirated films. However, since there had been no proven pirated cases found in the US, no provisions were set to regulate the US side.

A senior official from China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television notes that if the violations are proven true, China will ask the US to take similar actions.

(CRI November 4, 2005)