11 arrested in massive Beijing film piracy case

Beijing police have arrested 11 suspects in a case involving a major online provider of high-definition film downloads. The scale of piracy was described by authorities as "unprecedented."

Illegally run under a Beijing-based technology company allegedly set up by the main suspect surnamed Zhou, silu.com is said to have more than 400,000 registered members and offered unlicensed downloads of 18,772 films and TV series that ranged from art-house world cinema to domestic and foreign blockbusters, according to a statement issued by the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office yesterday.

The website, which also provided some 3,316 music albums and 208 game software packages, registered an accumulative 20 million downloads and attracted tens of thousands of visitors daily, the office said.

Uploaders of download sources on the website are said to be based in eight countries and regions including the United States and Japan.

According to the office, Zhou's company had seven employees, 140 website administrators, two online shops and two bricks-and-mortar stores.

The statement said a detailed investigation into the case is under way and criminal liability will be pursued for profit-oriented uploaders whose offers resulted in more than 50,000 downloads.

Suspects in the case also practiced other online business methods such as advertisement sales, hardware sales, user donations and a member credits system, the statement said.

"The illegal website is suspected of piracy, spreading materials with lewd content and illegal business operations, and the scale of its piracy and dissemination is unprecedented," the statement said.

The action is China's latest bid to strengthen intellectual property rights protection, following the destruction of some 29.44 million pirated publications, including audio and visual products and books, earlier this year.

In another development, a revised draft of the Copyright Law was submitted to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council for approval last month.

The draft highlights the protection of online work copyrights and specifies liabilities of content providers and website operators.