Chinese State Bans Video Sites, Huge eDonkey Site Survives
Written by enigmax on October 31, 2008The Chinese government has stepped in and banned 10 video sites, while giving warnings to 17 others. The sites were accused of ‘regulations violations’ ranging from running a service without authorization, through to displaying violent or horrific content. None of the charges relate to piracy, even though one of the sites is China’s biggest eDonkey indexing site.
The West would dearly love China to clamp down on Internet piracy, so when 10 video sites were recently banned by the Chinese government and 17 others were issued with warnings, it looked like some progress may have been made. It wasn’t to be.
According to a report from Xinhuanet, China’s State Administration of Radio Film and Television has taken action against 17 sites it claims violated various regulations, including the publishing of horrific, violent or pornographic content, and operating a video site without proper approval. None of the sites appeared to have been warned or shuttered due to piracy issues.
One of the sites that has been warned, VeryCD, is China’s largest eDonkey indexing site. In operation for around 5 years, it claims to link to more than 30 terabytes of data. VeryCD also operates a service known as MP3! which aims to be the world’s largest index of MP3 files, which would understandably attract some copyright action.
However, a visit to VeryCD appears to show the site pretty much intact and packed with links to the latest movies, music, games and software. So, it appears the site was warned, rather than banned. Details are scarce, what might it have been warned about if it is not related to copyright infringement?
Of course, pornographic content is available on eDonkey, that is one option. Another possibility lies in the list of complaints about the various sites – there is one which reads “spreading video programs that violate national regulations”. VeryCD actually created their own version of eMule, which has been downloaded more than 30 million times. Could that be the cause of the warning?
Whatever the problem, unusually for a file-sharing site, it wasn’t piracy.
Via SHD
Previously: Pirate Bay Talk: How To Dismantle a Billion Dollar Industry
Next: Futurama’s Anti-Piracy Message, Just Do It
22 Responses
heh, those crazy chinese, what will they do next?
Oh btw, you wrote action twice in there…
1st!!!
damn
fail :P
of the epic kind
Whatever We chinaman do what we want.
Including capitalising words in the middle of sentences?
fail ^^
What’s the main point of this post? What the hell is it trying to say?
China sux
Oi be nice to the Chinese they outnumber us pretty well…
VeryCD is one of the best ed2k sites out there.
While on the subject of Chinese p2p sites. Check out:
http://www.siluhd.com/
http://www.chdtv.net/
Both public bt/ed2k sites serving massive amounts of High Definition movies/tv.
Oh… you have to register in Chinese, but isn’t that what google’s for?
lol #1
…action action…
he must’ve wanted some emPHAsis.
In many countries around the world, especially those with rigorous censorship, the content of media is judged much more strictly than copyright compliance.
Ni hao! Ni Shenti Hao Ma! (My college is teaching the Chinese language):D
30 Terabites is big?
Dont get it…
i feel compelled to include my inane comment to this collection of inane comments
Yes 30 Terabytes of data can be big.
data can be almost everything.
if 1 data is a e2d link that lets u DL a complete TVSHow of lets say maybe 90GB….
also i think 30 Terabites are alot for u to take, if u are the snack for very small ants that bites you 30 tera-times…
“Whatever the problem, unusually for a file-sharing site, it wasn’t piracy”
there is no piracy on filesharing sites. piracy is the illegal manufacture and sale of conterfeit products. piracy is stealing revenue from the copyright holder
filesharing is not piracy
http://www.h33t.com
So they don’t like violent/grotesque content but they can skin animals alive? I’m not a moralfag, but wow. :)
http://offsystem.sf.net
is the new edonkey for chinese
this is safe and anonymouse torrent
Soooo ….. Piracy is okay, but porn will never be. it always takes porn to really drive an important issue. In othe words if it weren’t for porn, the internet would just be another replacement for t.v.
“the gates are wide open now! it gonna happen, whether you like it or not!”
Gavin Newsom (Mayor of San Francisco) 2008
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