Fifty leading Chinese websites signed an agreement Tuesday promising not to provide access to pirated movies.

The websites, such as www.china.com.cn, www.people.com.cn and www.163.com, will not provide pirated movies on their online viewing and download service, according to the agreement.

Instead, they will cooperate with www.quacor.com, a legal online movie provider, said Lai Bin, an official with the Copyright Protection Center for China which initiated the alliance.

China Film Copyright Protection Association is also a participant of the alliance.

"The alliance aims to promote a cooperation mechanism that benefits both the websites and film industry as well as the public awareness of copyright protection," he said.

Late November, Quacor sued two Chinese websites, www.tudou.com, a YouTube-like website, and www.Xunlei.com, an online music and movie provider, for illegally offering an online download service of The Sun Also Rises, the latest movie from Chinese director Jiang Wen.

Quacor said that it had obtained the exclusive online distribution rights to the movie.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)