China Hits Piracy By Shutting Down One Of Its Most Valued Movie Hub

[Guest Ethan]

China Hits Piracy By Shutting Down One Of Its Most Valued Movie Hub

Siluhd.com used to be one of the country’s most famous websites, but now it’s been shut down by China’s authorities.

Having more than 130 employees, 1.4 million registered users, and over 10 years of servicing the public with high-quality pirated movies, Siluhd.com was amongst China’s favorites. The portal’s CEO, along with some of the directors, was detained last week, and the website was shut down.

The announcement came through a local news portal called Sina. According to their report, Siluhd used to offer hundreds of thousands of HD movies (in Blu-Ray format), TV series, music tracks, and even games. A probable cause for the portal being targeted by the Chinese authorities was that it charged its members with 50 yuan (approximately $8.10) every month. However, it is yet unknown how much money their system generated along the years.

China’s World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated every April (on the 26th), and this year’s event came with a big, fat prize. According to statements offered by Chinese officials, Zhou and seven of the website’s directors were detained on suspicion of copyright infringement; out of the 139 employees, 30 could also be detained, as they allegedly uploaded copyrighted content.

“Police found in Zhou’s house more than 190 1-TB hard disks carrying over 10 thousand pieces of movies and TV series,” Caijing wrote last Friday.

Along with Siluhd, several other established websites, most of which offering free video/music streaming and downloading services, were shut down, Sina informed.

However, unlike Siluhd, their predicament could only be temporary, as one of them (yyets.com) resumed its business the next day after the popular event.