CCTV.com, the official website of China Central Television, recently won its lawsuit against a Guangzhou-based website for illegally broadcasting an Olympic torch relay program without permission.

According to case statements, on May 8 last year, Shijilong Information Network Co Ltd made the live program of the Beijing Olympic torch relay on Mount Qomolanma available on its website without authorization from CCTV and CCTV.com.

In its lawsuit, CCTV.com asked that Shijilong make a public apology and pay about 4.1 million yuan in compensation.

"Since we got approval from the International Olympic Committee, for recognizing CCTV as China's only official broadcaster of the Beijing Games and its related torch relay, the State-owned television and its network have been making great efforts to make the programs about the Olympic games," said Liu Lu, director CCTV.com's copyright protection department.

In addition, CCTV.com also gained the unique official Internet broadcasting rights for programs related to the game, which included audio and video content of 3,800 hours of Olympic events, opening and closing ceremonies, test events, cultural events before and after the Olympics, the Olympic flame gathering and the torch relay.

Copyright infringement

The plaintiff said the online broadcasting rights of CCTV programs belonged to CCTV.com, and that any use of the contents without authorization was a copyright infringement, according to a source from Legal Daily.

"Shijilong's action seriously infringed upon the rights and interests of CCTV.com and caused great economic losses to the plaintiff," Long Chao, CCTV.com's attorney for the case, was quoted by Chongqing Commercial Daily as saying.

Long said illegal broadcasting of the Olympic-related programs through media outlets had been common since the pre-games Olympic torch relay.

Most websites immediately deleted the illegal programs after receiving CCTV's warning, but not Shijilong, according to Long.

The Intermediate People's Court of Guangzhou in the capital of Guangdong province ruled in favor of CCTV.com and ordered Shijilong to pay 300,000 yuan in compensation.

The court added that the reason for reducing the compensation from CCTV.com's request for 4.1 million yuan to 300,000 yuan was the positive broadcasting effect of Shijilong's action.

Shijilong had no immediate comment about the case.

The lawsuit represented the second time CCTV.com had alleged video copyright infringement by a website in connection with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Another lawsuit

Before the dispute with Shijilong, CCTV.com filed a lawsuit against Xunlei.com, one of the country's larger download service providers.

In that case, CCTV.com accused Xunlei.com of illegally broadcasting the Olympic torch relay during the Wuzhong leg in Ningxia Hui autonomous region on June 30, 2008.

CCTV.com asked Zunlei.com to make a public apology and pay more than 2 million yuan in compensation, according to a source at Xinhua News Agency.

The Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai municipality has accepted the case involving CCTV.com and Xunlei.com.

Xu Xuan, a professor at the Intellectual Property Academy at Jinan University, said that the lawsuit would be a milestone in the battle between traditional media and Internet media.

"For years, the fast-developing Internet media posed a huge challenge to traditional media such as newspapers, television and broadcast. The battle between traditional media and website media for legal broadcasting rights has lasted for several years," Xu said.

Xu said the lawsuit filed by CCTV.com was a sign that China's traditional media is willing to fight against online patent piracy and enhance awareness about protecting intellectual property rights and patent rights to safeguard their role in the broadcasting industry.

Lang Jinsong, a professor at Communication University of China, said that it is necessary to establish a network or an association to oversee online patent piracy and manage copyrights and patent rights in the broadcasting industry, as well as to balance the developing roles of the traditional media and website media.

(China Daily 11/09/2009 page9)