深圳日报：反盗版联盟再诉迅雷 索赔500万

　　Liu Minxia

　　A BATTLE in the name of copyright protection escalated to a dramatic climax yesterday when an anti-piracy alliance initiated by Internet firm Sohu.com and Shenzhen-based P2P video service provider Xunlei held press conferences simultaneously in two adjacent hotel rooms in Shenzhen.

　　Founded on Sept. 15, Beijing-based Sohu’s anti-piracy alliance in cooperation with Joy.cn and Voole.com had earlier announced that it would come to Shenzhen yesterday to launch a joint lawsuit against Xunlei for offering pirated movies on its Gougou.com Web site.

　　The alliance planned to tell a press conference that it has filed charges against Xunlei for pirating 369 video works, at Shenzhen’s Nanshan District court.

　　In a “forced response,” the Shenzhen company also arranged a press conference in a room next door to have its voice heard, Xunlei CEO Zou Shenglong said yesterday.

　　Xunlei filed a lawsuit against Sohu’s Sogou.com for copyright infringement at Beijing’s Haidian District People’s Court on Monday, and the court agreed to accept the appeal, Zou said.

　　Gougou.com, under the aegis of Xunlei, directly competes with Sogou.com, an arm of Sohu.com Inc.

　　To fight for reporters’ attention at the scene, Xunlei yesterday employed several dozen young men to hand out pamphlets which read: “A pretentious alliance.” Zou, the company’s chief executive, was on hand to answer journalists’ questions after the press conference organized by Sohu.

　　In the room next door, the anti-piracy alliance received a new supporter, Letv.com, a Beijing company. The companies showcased the original documents they would submit to the court today as proof.

　　“Piracy is a tumor. Who wants it to grow larger?” said Colin Shao, chairman and CEO of Voole. “More companies need to join hands to fight piracy.”

　　The reason the companies were initiating the war now was because they could no longer bear the financial cost of piracy, said Zhang He, president of Joy.cn. “It’s a tough battle to fight, but it will bring favorable changes,” Zhang said.

　　But Zou, in another room, listed the lawsuit Sohu lost within the past year for pirating music, videos and photographs. “I support copyright protection, but I doubt their purpose,” Zou said. “Such a spat won’t achieve any fruitful result. It may lead to the collapse of a company and won’t change the prevailing situation in the industry.”

　　Video service providers, many containing peer-to-peer download tools, have won buyers in China despite piracy concerns, which has led to the success of Xunlei, Youku.com and Tudou.com, each occupying a market share of more than 20 percent.

　　The skirmish started in September when the anti-piracy alliance was formed. Sohu CEO Charles Zhang said on the day the alliance was formed that it would claim compensation of 100 million yuan (US$14.6 million) against Youku.com for pirating 503 videos and retain the right to claim for criminal liabilities.

　　In response, Youku.com said Sept. 17 that it had filed a lawsuit against Sohu.

　　Youku.com accused Sohu of infringing its copyright and reputation. The Web site required that Sohu should stop its copyright infringing activities and apologize to Youku.com.