Six members of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have filed copyright infringement suits against Chinese file-sharing company Xunlei Networking Technology and are seeking 7 million yuan ($1 million). The company is partially owned by Google who has had its fair share of copyright battles in the U.S.

The MPA is also asking for a public admission of the copyright infringement and a promise from Xunlei to halt any future infringements.

The MPA alleges Xunlei allows users of its file sharing service to download copies of movies, including "Spiderman 3," "War of the Worlds," and Miami Vice." The MPA listed 32 titles in its complaint and sent 78 infringement notices to Xunlei over five weeks.

"These actions demonstrate that copyright holders can and will vigorously defend their property by any legal means," Frank Rittman, the MPA’s Asia-Pacific vice president. "P2P piracy is a huge problem in China, which if left unattended will threaten the continued development of legitimate online services supported by copyright owners," Rittman said.

The plaintiffs involved in the case against Xunlei include Twentieth Century Fox International, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Buena Vista International, Universal International Films and Warner Bros.
 

“We have been watching [Shenzhen Xunlei Networking Technologies] for some time and we have observed that like many file sharing networks/enablers in China, the content available through them includes copyright-infringing versions of Motion Picture Association member company films,” says Mike Ellis, senior vice president and regional director, Asia Pacific, of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

Ellis is not happy about Xunlei and wants Google to convince the company to respect intellectual property rights. “It is our hope that Google will influence its partner in a manner appropriate to a company with the stated philosophy of ‘You can make money without doing evil,’ he says. “From our perspective, copyright theft falls under ‘evil.’”

Considering Google’s trouble it has had with copyright issues concerning YouTube this latest news is not a real surprise. Google has not commented on the situation beyond saying they respect copyrights.

Ellis did not say if the MPA was planning any legal action against Xunlei.

The MPA projects that its member companies lost $280 million in China in 2005 and $1.2 billion in Asia-Pacific. The numbers are based on what consumers would spend if pirated film were not available.

The MPA is the international branch of the Motion Picture Association of America, the American film industry’s lobbying group.

It will be interesting to see what Google does next. Will they be good or will they be evil?

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Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

If Google made a New Year’s Resolution to increase its presence within the Chinese nation in 2007, then the company is off to a good start.

Just a day earlier, Google announce a partnership agreement with China Mobile to provide its search technology to the nation’s mobile users. In buying a piece of Xunlei, an subsequently providing search services to the download site, Google opens up yet another platform for its products to the elusive Chinese Internet user base.

The company has purchased this opportunity at a bargain price. According to an International Herald Tribune article on the deal, sources close to the deal say that Google paid about $5 million for a 4 percent stake in Xunlei.

The content restrictions that the Chinese government has placed on the Internet have been a bane for U.S. companies looking to get a foothold in the market. China boasts an online user base at somewhere around 130 million users, second only to the United States in that regard.

Since it is extremely difficult for foreign nations to establish any kind of presence within the Chinese market, partnerships like the ones Google has made with China Mobile and Xunlei become increasingly important, as local Chinese startups tend to draw a large percentage of the nation’s user base.

David Barboza talks about this in the article:

So, it would appear that Google has a long mountain to climb in order to catch, much less surpass Baidu (and most likely other local companies that offer other services similar to Google’s) in terms of Chinese market share.

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Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.