MPA settles with Bejing Jeebo over movie piracy

A settlement has been reached with a Chinese company accused of providing cybercafes with copies of movies by MPA member studios.

Announced Thursday, the agreement was reached on February 28, and will settle any pending litigation. Five MPA member companies had filed complaints with the Shanghai No.2 Intermediate Court in September and December of last year.

The suit involved the unauthorized use of 20 titles, including Click, Hitch, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest. Movies were provided as part of a downloading service in these cybercafes.

Jeboo provides video content as a service to these cafes, which pay a monthly subscription fee for it. While a majority of the content on the service is indeed licensed for use, these movies were not.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Jeboo acknowledged their infringement and pledged to end the unlicensed activity. In addition a "significant amount" was paid to the plaintiffs.

It was unknown if the deal also included an arrangement to officially license content in the future. Jeboo has so far not responded publicly to the settlement.

"We're very pleased with the outcome. Services like Jeboo have profited from copyright infringement and undermined the development of legitimate online services," MPA Asia-Pacific counsel Frank Rittman said.

The MPA estimates that about $1.2 billion USD in revenues were lost in the Asia-Pacific region in 2005, the last year for which the group provided such data.