Five movie giants including Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Columbia Pictures Corporation, and Universal City Studios, filed a series of lawsuits against Beijing Jeboo Interactive Science and Technology Company, Ltd. and an Internet café in Shanghai.

The accusers claimed that the company, which runs Jeboo.com, the largest online cinema in China, transmitted movies they produced without their permission and demanded the infringement be stopped immediately. The corporations also asked for an official apology and compensation totaling more than 3.2 million yuan (US$433,000).

The Internet café listed in the lawsuit allegedly provided thirteen movies produced by the five film companies through an ordering system developed by the hi-tech firm; the plaintiffs consider it an accomplice to the infringement.

Jeboo.com has network copyrights for almost 30,000 films and television programs. The company was established in 2004 and is the first provider offering the original versions of broadband network movies and television programs in China.

Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court has received the indictment forwarded by the movie companies and the case will be heard next Thursday. Beijing Jeboo Interactive Science and Technology Co., Ltd has entrusted a lawyer to deal with the accusation, Xie Jiangping, vice president of the hi-tech firm told China Business News.

The lawsuit has been carefully planned and may be a first step towards a campaign safeguarding copyrights in China's network industry, according to an anonymous senior insider.

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, November 22, 2007)