By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-10 07:22

Fifty websites signed an agreement initiated by the Movie Copyright Protection Association of China (MCPAC) on Tuesday promising not to provide access to pirated movies.

The sites, which include China.com.cn, People.com.cn and 163.com, have said they will no longer offer the films via their viewing or download services.

According to the latest figures from the MCPAC, more than 61 percent of netizens watched free movies online last year.

University students topped the audience list, followed by white-collar workers.

The association said there are about 30,000 Chinese websites that specialize in providing access to visual arts, including films.

Li Guomin, vice-chairman of the MCPAC, said the growth of the market for online pirated movies was doing an enormous amount of damage to the country's film industry and was jeopardizing its healthy development.

"The Internet is a revolutionary way to get access to the visual arts, but the public has to be made more aware of the need for copyright protection," he told China Daily yesterday.

"If these infringements continue, producers might simply stop making movies altogether.

"And then 162 million Chinese netizens will lose the service they have now," Li said.

But the authorities have a lot of persuading to do.

Wang Qian, a student at a Beijing university, said she watches movies online because it is easy and free.

"I recently watched the new film, Lust, Caution, online for free. Hardly any of my classmates buy DVDs anymore, and even fewer go to the cinema," she said.

"Even if I show my student card, I still have to pay up to 60 yuan ($8.25) to watch a movie at the cinema. That's almost all my spending money for the week," Wang said.

Most of the movies are uploaded anonymously by netizens, she said.

In November, Quacor.com, an authorized online movie provider, sued two Chinese websites, Tudou.com and Xunlei.com, for illegally offering downloads of The Sun Also Rises, the latest movie from Chinese director Jiang Wen.

Quacor said it had exclusive online distribution rights to the movie, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency yesterday.