Studios Sue Chinese Download Website

Beijing-based Jeboo.com and an Internet cafe in Shanghai face a legal showdown with Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios, the Xinhua news agency reported. The film-makers allege Jeboo.com created software the cafe used to run a movie download business, and they are demanding 3.2 million yuan ($432,000) in compensation, Xinhua said. Jeboo.com promotes itself as "My on-line cinema" and claims to be China's biggest film download provider with close to 30,000 movies and television series customers can copy onto computers.

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The case to be heard in Shanghai promises to be one more skirmish in a battle of words and legal threats between China and the United States, which says the rough-and-tumble Asian economy does far too little to stop commercial pirates. Washington has complained to the World Trade Organization that slipshod Chinese rules have allowed a booming industry in pirated American goods, including movies and software, costing American firms billions of dollars. On Chinese streets, pirated DVDs cost as little as $1, much less than legitimate copies sold in wealthy countries. And Web sites offering downloadable entertainment are popular among the country's tens of millions of Internet users.

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The studios say Jeboo.com and the cafe distributed 13 films without permission, including X-Men 2 and Night at the Museum, Xinhua reported. Other U.S. companies have sued and won against Chinese copiers. In September, studios won damages from a Beijing business selling copies of "Lord of the Rings" and other popular films.