Sohu.com must pay, ruling says

BEIJING (AP) -- A Beijing court has ordered the popular Chinese Web portal Sohu.com to pay 140,000 in damages for distributing Hollywood movies online without permission, the movie industry's trade group said Friday.
A subsidiary of Sohu.com Inc. also must publish an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, the Motion Picture Association said.
Sohu spokeswoman Zhang Xin said the company was aware of the ruling but had no comment.
China is regarded as the world's leading source of illegally copied movies, software and other goods, despite repeated government promises to stamp out the underground industry. The MPA blames piracy in China for costing U.S. studios 244 million in lost box office revenues last year.
The group says Chinese regulators are encouraging a market for pirated movies by allowing only a few dozen foreign titles per year for theatrical release. It said five of the 10 movies cited in its lawsuit against Sohu were not released theatrically in China.
According to the MPA, Sohu distributed "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "S.W.A.T." and other titles in 2004 and 2005 through a subscription download service on its Web site. In a statement, the MPA said it has 35 others lawsuits pending in Chinese courts alleging movie piracy.
Based in Los Angeles, the MPA is the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America. Member companies include the Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista International Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Releasing International Corp., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox International Corp., Universal International Films Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros.
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