Pirated CDs case played out in court

Taiwan-based Rock Records Co Ltd has taken three companies to court for copyright infringements, accusing them of producing or selling pirated compact discs.

The three defendants are the Shanghai Lianjia Supermarket Co Ltd, a Guangdong-based technology company and the Liaoning Radio and TV Broadcast Publishing House. Rock Records is demanding a public apology from three defendants in the Legal Daily and a total of 280,000 yuan (US$40,000) in compensation. It has asked the three companies destroy the pirated CDs.

The case came before the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court yesterday for the third time but the court has yet to determine a verdict.

Rock Records said the copyright of 20 of its songs were infringed.

The court heard that the third defendant, the publishing house asked the second defendant, the technology company to make 10,000 copies of the karaoke-mode CDs in 2003. The Shanghai Lianjia Supermarket Co Ltd, which manages Carrefour, told the court that all the CDs found in its Shanghai outlets were from a local audio-video company which gave assurances they were legal.

Rock Records accused the supermarket of failing to check the source carefully. A test carried out by the court showed that the legal CDs provided and the pirated CDs were from the same source.

The third defendant denied it had copied CDs from Rock Records. "The report only proved there were copies," said the attorney surnamed Wan for the Liaoning publishing house. He also questioned whether Rock Records had the right to the copyright.

Evidence showed Rock Records were authorized to the copyright of the songs from a Nanjing-based publishing house in 2006. But the pirated CDs were produced well before in 2003.