LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Five US film studios filed a lawsuit against a Chinese website and a cybercafe in Shanghai which they suspect of facilitating illegal downloads of their movies, the specialist magazine Hollywood Variety said Friday.
The studios are 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios. Their lawsuit filed in September in Shanghai targets Beijing-based Jaboo Interactive Services and Technology and the East Cybercafe in Shanghai.
The suit accuses Jaboo of illegally downloading 13 films including "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," "X-Men 2" and "Night at the Museum."
The plaintiffs claim 27,000 dollars in damages per title plus legal fees and court costs, for a total of 432,000 dollars, the magazine said.
The legal action coincides with a US-China dispute over intellectual property rights in the World Trade Organization, where Washington accuses China of being lax in prosecuting acts of piracy.
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