Skip to Content

Win a Samsung 22-inch LCD monitor from Joystiq!

Hollywood Sues Chinese Company

Filed under: Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Distribution, 20th Century Fox

Normally the big studios would let the MPAA deal with international pirates, and the MPAA would work with individual governments on the arrests and punishments of these criminals. But in a rare case, the five majors are investing in an actual trial in order to sue a Chinese bootlegger. The difference this time is that the pirate in question is not an individual or part of an illegal group, but a company. The Beijing Shiji Haihong Commerce and Trade Company, to be exact.

The studios are seeking 2.5 million yuan ($312,000) in damages for the company's copying and distributing of titles including The 40-Year Old Virgin and The War of the Worlds to their subsidiary video stores. The amount may seem pretty small considering the trouble that Hollywood will encounter while following through with the suit, but I guess, to the studios, money is money, and the message that it sends to other Asian companies should be significant, too.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

Sponsored Links