Hollywood Studios Sue Chinese Website, Internet Cafe
Five Hollywood studios are suing a Chinese online service and a Shanghai Internet cafe for allegedly offering pirated downloads of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and other hit films, state media reported on Thursday.

Hollywood giants Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios are suing Beijing-based Jeboo.com and an Internet cafe in Shanghai for allegedly providing illegal downloads of their movies.

The case was filed in the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court on Sept. 28 and case is now pending, according to media reports.

The studios are seeking damages of 200,000 yuan ($27,000) per title plus legal fees and court costs, for a total of $432,000 in compensation. They are also demanding that the defendants stop the practice immediately and make a public apology, reports official news agency Xinhua.

The complaint names “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,” “Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle,” “X-Men 2,” and “Night at the Museum” among the films “distributed without authorization.”

Jeboo.com was founded in 2004; it claims to be China's largest movie download provider, with a database of nearly 30,000 movies and TV series that have online certificates, reports Xinhua. The company has not commented on the pending case.

Variety reports that Frank Rittman, regional legal counsel for the Motion Picture Association said that the MPA is coordinating the action on behalf of the five studios mentioned.

Rittman said Jeboo’s revenues come through software that allows streaming and downloading of content in Internet cafes. Cafes then charge their end users. Variety quotes estimates according to which more than 28 million people in China use Internet cafes mainly for watching movies.

In September, Hollywood studios won damages from a Beijing business selling copies of “Lord of the Rings,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and other successful movies.

The U. S. has complained to the World Trade Organization that piracy of American goods, including movies and software, is abundant in China. Xinhua reports that China has intensified a crackdown on piracy, confiscating more than a hundred million illegal CDs and DVDs in 2006.