CCTV.com, the official website of China Central Television, has sued Xunlei.com for broadcasting unauthorized videos of the 2008 Olympic torch relay and the 2008 Spring Festival Gala.
Liu Lu, director of the Olympic copyright protection center of CCTV.com, told local media that the Olympic torch relay videos were directly broadcast on Xunlei.com and the 2008 Spring Festival Gala was made into a video collection. Liu says the online broadcasting rights of CCTV's programs all belong to CCTV.com, and any website that uses these contents without the authorization of CCTV.com constitutes an infringement.
Wang Wenbin, general manager of CCTV.com, says that the lawsuit against Xunlei.com aims to warn other websites and to prevent similar Olympic-related copyright infringement. CCTV.com has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee as China's only official Internet and mobile broadcaster of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and therefore owns exclusive rights to the broadcast of all audio and video content via online and mobile distribution channels in Greater China.
CCTV.com reportedly started to prepare for this lawsuit around the 2008 Spring Festival in February and it has collected much evidence. Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court formally accepted the case on August 4, 2008, according to local media sources.
