CCTV.com, the website of China Central Television, had filed a suit against another Chinese website for live broadcasting an Olympic torch relay leg without permission, a source with the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai Municipality said on Thursday.
CCTV.com, run by the CCTV International Networks Co. Ltd., claimed in the suit that xunlei.com, one of the country's largest download service providers, had broadcast live the Olympic torch relay on June 30 in the Wuzhong leg in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
The plaintiff said the online broadcasting rights of CCTV's programs belonged to CCTV.com and any use of these contents without authorization was considered as a copyright infringement.
Chinanetcenter was also accused by CCTV.com as Xunlei's Internet service provider. CCTV.com demanded the accused to make a public apology and compensate more than 2 million yuan (291,545 U.S. dollars).
The source said the Shanghai court had accepted the case.
CCTV.com has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee as China's only official Internet and mobile broadcaster of the Beijing Games.
(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2008)