China closes file-sharing sites in crackdown

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING — China has closed one of the country's largest file-sharing sites in what it says is a fight against copyright infringement, but could be seen as another measure aimed at controlling what content the country's Web users can find online.

The file-sharing site BTCHINA — a major source of overseas movies, television shows and games in the country — has been closed since Friday, and another site, VeryCD.com, was down Wednesday. A report in the Southern Metropolis Daily said other file sharing sites would be closed in the coming days.

The State Administration of Radio Film and Television said BTCHINA did not have a license to distribute audio and video content. "SARFT has deleted our site's registration and shut down our site," a notice on the BTCHINA site said.

The owner of VeryCD.com, Huang Yimeng, wrote on his blog that his site was down due to a server problem, but he told The Beijing News in a report Wednesday that "we also don't have a license."



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