LeTV.com, a Beijing-based video website, said yesterday it will take its competitors to court for copyright infringement.

The site discovered on Oct 31, 2008 that Maxthon, a company known for its internet browsing technology, gave an online broadcast of the movie "Set Off" (Ji Ri Qi Cheng) to which LeTV claimed exclusive rights. This news came from a press release by Haidian District Court.

LeTV claims it asked Maxthon to stop broadcasting the movie immediately and asked Maxthon and another video website to pay 100,000 yuan in compensation.

Maxthon could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"We invest one third of our revenue each year to buy copyrights," Chen Ping from LeTV's marketing department told METRO yesterday.

"We purchased the exclusive rights to broadcast 60 percent of the popular movies and TV series produced in 2009 in China, like "The Noodle Story" by director Zhang Yimou.

"And in 2010 we aim to invest over 100 million yuan to buy more rights," he said.

This is not the first time for LeTV to ask for compensation from its competitors.

LeTV.com sued both Youku.com and Tudou.com, two domestic video sharing sites, last May for illegally broadcasting the TV series Qian Fu. LeTV.com asked for 60,000 yuan from Youku.com.

In September 2009 Youku bounced back by launching three of its own lawsuits against Sohu, one of China's largest portals, for copyright infringement and defamation, according to Beijing News.

Despite the money, LeTV claims seeking compensation is not as important as setting the grounds for fair market competition.

"As authorities try harder to oversee and regulate the market, companies like us will finally benefit," Chen said.

Wang Yong, a lawyer from Beijing Lifang Law Firm, said copyright cases are on the increase. He was positive about the future in terms of copyright cases.

"As laws and regulations get stronger, websites that use pirated content will lost popularity," he said.

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