Star Image Media, one of the largest movie and TV content providers in China, has filed a lawsuit against Shanghai Media Group, Baishitong Network Television Technology Development Company and Hangzhou Shentong Investment Company, accusing them all of infringing Star Image's copyrights.

Zhuang Jianbing, a lawyer from Star Image, says that Star Image is the copyright holder of the popular French movie "L'Empire des Loups" in China, but a Jinjiang Inn hotel in Hangzhou was offering the movie to their customers without being approved by Star Image.

Zhuang says that as there are not clear rules on the intellectual property right protection of new media including IPTV, it is difficult to define which party should be responsible for the infringement, so Star Image has sued all three parties of SMG, Baishitong and Hangzhou Shentong, which are the IPTV license owner, hardware and service provider and terminal service provider, respectively.

SMG is the first IPTV license owner in China, Baishitong is a new media company affiliated to SMG and responsible for its IPTV operation. Hangzhou Shentong is the investor of the Jinjiang Inn Hotel where the said movie was offered.