PPTV Ordered to Pay 25,000 Yuan for Unauthorized Broadcast of Ultraman TV Series

by caip4427 on 2012-02-19 16:28:08

It turned out that PPTV played the science fiction TV series *Di迦a奥特曼* on its website without permission. The People's Court of Pudong New Area, Shanghai ruled in the first instance that this behavior infringed upon the information network transmission rights of Shanghai Century Huachuang Culture Image Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Century Huachuang Company), and sentenced Poly Media Company to compensate 25,000 yuan, rejecting the rest of the litigation requests. The reporter learned today that the second instance court recently upheld the original verdict. According to the introduction, the Ultraman series of children's science fiction TV series was launched by Japan's Toho Production Corporation, and has a history of more than 40 years. In April 1996, the 52-episode continuous drama *Di迦a奥特曼* was completed, and entered the Chinese market in the same year. In 2006, the Di迦a奥特曼 image was registered with the National Copyright Bureau, and the following year, the Century Huachuang Company obtained the exclusive right to use Ultraman in mainland China. On January 26, 2011, PPTV uploaded the TV series *Di迦a奥特曼* to the website without authorization for online viewing, which was discovered by Century Huachuang Company. On June 16, under the on-site witness of two notaries, the act of PPTV playing the entire series of *Di迦a奥特曼* online, inserting commercial advertisements, and recommending the series to the "Anime Hit List" was recorded. On June 24, Century Huachuang Company sent an email to Poly Media Company, requesting the removal of the infringing video, and attached a program quotation for *Di迦a奥特曼*, indicating that the non-exclusive license fee for the series was 104,000 yuan, with an authorization period of 2 years; on the same day, Poly Media Company deleted all the infringing TV series from the PPTV website.