Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and five other Hollywood film studios were awarded a total of $25,500 from a Beijing seller of pirated DVDs, the China Court Web site reported Friday. The case was heard in Beijing Xicheng District People's Court. The defendant was a video shop belonging to the Beijing Yongsheng Century International Cultural Development Co. The pirated films included "Lord of the Rings" and "The Day After Tomorrow," the Web site said. It did not identify the five other studios. Pirated films are popular in Beijing and other parts of China. Besides legal video shops, such as the defendant in the case, there are numerous street peddlers of pirated videos. Chinese product piracy has worsened tensions with Washington, which filed a World Trade Organization complaint in April accusing Beijing of violating trade commitments by failing to protect copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights. |