CCTV Files Lawsuit Against Google-backed Xunlei over Olympics Piracy

The news that the Chinese TV network CCTV has inked a deal to use Mediasentry parent Safenet to protect their online transmissions of the Olympic Games with a new type of DRM protection got spread quickly on the Web. But the real boom came from the announcement that the Google-supported Chinese P2P platform Xunlei got sued by CCTV for copyright infringement related to the Olympics.

CCTV accuses Xunlei of having broadcasted video of the Olympic torch relay without having their consent. According to Pacific Epoch CCTV sued Xunlei in Shanghai's Second Intermediate Court on Augst 4th and intends to send through this lawsuit a warning to those who might be thinking of similar violations.

Moreover, it seems that CCTV has created a dedicated Olympic rights protection center to deter infringement attempts. It also put together an Olympic Copyright Protection Squad whose declared purpose is to stop users from uploading unauthorized content. The Pacific Epoch reads:

"During the Olympics, the partners plan to establish a hotline to report copyright violations and designate space on their sites to announce copyright violators and their punishments."