The Motion Picture Association, which includes six movie studios, has filed copyright infringement suits in China against Shenzhen Xunlei Networking Technology, a popular P2P file sharing service. The suit alleges that its users are illegally downloading hundreds of movies despite repeated warnings. The group is seeking 7 million yuan ($1 million) in damages, and a public admission to the alleged copyright infringement and a pledge from Xunlei to refrain from future infringements, reports AP.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Xunlei is backed by Google (NSDQ: GOOG), who invested a reported $5 million in the service a year ago. Besides Google, the company previously had $20 million in venture backing from Morningside Ventures and IDG VC Partners.
From MPA’s release (PDF link): MPA sent 78 separate notices of infringement to Xunlei over a five week period before initiating the litigation.
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2008\/02\/17\/419-studios-sue-google-backed-chinese-p2p-site-xunlei\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_0a90be714b2cb7ce01c2eb73199197a6","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}