A Beijing man charged with copyright infringement might be sentenced to 14 months in prison and fined 80,000 yuan, the local procuratorate said yesterday.

Huang Yangsheng is accused of exporting more than 6,000 DVD discs of popular American drama series, Hollywood blockbusters and cartoon series to buyers in North America and Europe between 2006 and last year, the Beijing Tongzhou district procuratorate told METRO.

Huang had been attracting buyers with two English websites he set up in December 2006. The sites were only accessible by overseas Internet users, who could post requests for DVDs. Huang would run background checks on the buyers before mailing them the discs on demand, prosecutors said.

Huang also sold foreign buyers DVD players to run the discs, prosecutors said.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) tracked Huang’s websites and reported his case to Chinese authorities in 2007. MPAA said Huang’s actions constituted copyright infringement because his websites provided a large number of pirated video products from China to overseas consumers.

Chinese prosecutors said Huang had illegally netted more than 100,000 yuan in profit by selling the DVDs at $1.2 per disc, or 8.2 yuan.

MPAA officials in Beijing were not available for comments by the time of press yesterday.

Huang was arrested on the charge of illegal business operation in Tongzhou district last December.

This is not the first time MPAA has accused Chinese individuals or video providers of piracy in recent years. 
                                                                                                Source: IPR in China