Film group strikes back against pirates

Protection association files first suit against websites, Internet cafes

The China Film Copyright Protection Association (CFCPA) announced at a recent news conference that it will sue the movie portals 365pub.com and Cnnip.com as well as a few Internet cafes for piracy.

It is reportedly the first civil case filed by the CFCPA since it was transformed from a trade association to a copyright management organization in 2008.

The two dotcoms provide films to Internet cafes and collect use fees, yet many of the films shown were not authorized for use by copyright holders, said Zhu Yongde, CFCPA chairman said.

"The copyrights of pirated films belong to CFCPA members who have authorized us to manage them," Zhu said.

After collecting "abundant solid evidence", the CFCPA decided to file a complaint requesting a halt to infringement, a public apology and monetary damages, Zhu said.

"Playing pirated films on the Internet for just three days probably lost us 100 million yuan at the box office," said An Xiaofen, president of Dasheng International Media and producer of the popular Chinese action film Ip Man 2.

Just a week after the action movie hit cinemas nationwide on April 27 a pirated version went online.

"After noticing the downloads rising to 200,000, I had a sleepless night," An said. By May 5, the number reached 10 million.

At least one third of the viewers of pirated downloads might otherwise go to the cinema or buy copyrighted DVDs, so the piracy resulted in a loss of about 100 million yuan, An said.

The movie Aftershock produced by Huayi Brothers also suffered from infringement. A pirated version of the film was online even before it hit the big screen. On the very first day the film opened in cinemas, pirated DVDs went on sale on the street.

"Losses caused by the piracy were beyond calculation," said Sun Jianhong, legal adviser of the movie company.

Nearly 96 percent of the films playing on the Internet are pirated, according to CFCPA statistics - which may be why only about 10 percent of the films shown in cinemas in the first half of this year made a profit, An said.

"If piracy cannot be checked and instead becomes wilder, I believe even this 10 percent will stand little chance to survive," An said. "Then we would see a serious hazard to the Chinese movie industry."

Compensation awarded by courts is too low to curb piracy effectively, industry insiders said.

Because it is hard to prove the losses and illegal gains, the courts usually award compensation below the maximum of 500,000 yuan. In some case copyright holders prevailed in their claims only to be compensated with just a few hundred yuan.

"Dwarfed by the huge gains from infringement, such low compensation can do little to curb piracy, " CFCPA Chairman Zhu said.