Hundreds of thousands of the BTChina.net 's daily users would have received a message saying the site had been shut down after receiving a government notice.(Photo:Xinhua)

By Song Shengxia

The government shut down at least one widely popular media file-sharing website Friday and blocked another in an attempt to curb the spread of unlicensed and pornographic content.

Had they attempted to access BTChina.net in the last few days, hundreds of thousands of the website's daily users would have received a message saying the site had been shut down after receiving a government notice, likely from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and/or the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Similarly, the popular Garden of Eden website, ydy.com, appeared to have been blocked.

But contrary to other media reports, a similar website, uubird.com, was still accessible as of Monday night.

The latest action against peer-to-peer file-sharing websites comes on the heels of a recent campaign targeting pornographic downloads on mobile phones across the country.

The two State authorities mentioned above were not immediately available for comment on the latest action. But according to China Business Network (CBN), the shutdown order and block were part of the authorities' campaign to crack down on websites that operate without licenses, offer pornographic and obscene content, or provide copyrighted content without approval.

The peer-to-peer downloads themselves are called bit torrents, which allow users to download files of all sizes from other users, and to upload content to other users' computers.

Such websites are generally funded by selling placed advertisements.

BTChina, founded in 2003, had gained a large user base thanks to its free offering of many popular TV shows and movies, especially the latest American shows and Hollywood hits. According to Alexa, a website-traffic analysis agency, BTChina attracted 250,000 visits daily from China and abroad.

China's Ordinance on the Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information, which was put into effect in 2006, states that providing works, performance, or audio-visual products through an information network, so as to acquire economic benefits, is illegal.

The Administrative Department of Copyright shall give a warning, confiscate illegal proceeds and issue a fine of less than 100,000 yuan for violations, the ordinance says.

Such shutdowns are widely unpopular among many Web users. More than 95 percent of 15,693 people polled on 163.com opposed the closure of file-sharing sites.

In another poll on 163.com, more than 64 percent of 5,424 Web users said they will watch movies and TV shows on other sites.

Ongoing campaign

The latest crackdown started in September and really started gaining steam last month. By the end of November, 414 websites that allegedly offered unauthorized video content were shut down.

The move prompted industrial insiders to speculate on whether the campaign would be expanded to affect other larger online video-download websites such as Thunder 5 and Verycd.

Unlike bit torrent websites, Verycd, a personal website, has long been planning to transform itself into a formal commercial site. Last year, Verycd was urged by the administration to add copyright information on its homepage.

Thunder's situation is even worse. As China's largest online-download software company, the website has been sued many times over the years.

One such suit featured six American film companies suing Thunder for infringing on their copyrights.

Liu Qiqi, spokeswoman for Youku.com, a leading online video-sharing website in China that is ranked 56th in global Internet traffic, said the administration's move is beneficial to regulating China's online video sites.

"I'm not worried about our operations," she said. "Only small online video websites, especially those incapable of doing a better job on copyrights, will be the worst hit by the move," she said.

However, Youku itself has struggled with copyright legal troubles.

Two weeks ago, a district court in Beijing ruled Youku should pay 450,000 yuan in compensation for illegally broadcasting 47 movies whose copyrights in China are held by Voole.com, a member of the China Online Video Anti-Piracy Alliance.

"Alliance members have found Youku illegally broadcasting 289 shows. Another court session will soon follow over other copyright violations," an anonymous alliance member told CBN.

Legalization steps

Under copyright and policy pressure, video websites are also seeking to standardize operations by offering increasingly more authorized copyright content and shifting their operation models.

On December 2, PPLive, another video-sharing website, wooed a 100 million yuan fund from the Shanghai municipal government, becoming the first government-financed website.

Some video-sharing sites have worked to collaborate with the country's official film distributor in an effort to fend off copyright infringements.

In October, Tudou.com, another leading Internet video website, announced that it would partner with China Film Group Corporation and China Mobile to tap into the mobile video industry and charge viewers for videos.

Xiong Ying, an associate professor of law at Beijing Administrative College, told the CBN that the rampant occurrence of copyright violations stemmed from the low cost needed to operate websites that share pirated content, the high cost of protecting copyrights, difficult law enforcement and low awareness of copyright protection.

But Pu Zhiqiang, a patent lawyer in Beijing, said the copyright issue could be well addressed as long as Chinese Web users have access to affordable and authentic resources.

Guo Qiang and Liang Chen contributed to the story