Fifty Chinese movie web-sites have jointly established the 'China Alliance of Legitimate Movie Web-sites' as a disciplinary alliance which aims to provide legal movies online and stop offering pirated movies.

Initiated by Copyright Protection Center of China (CPCC), Movie Copyright Protection Association of China (MCPAC) and online movie provider www.quacor.com, the alliance will provide copyright protection and registration for its members, as well as marketing and regulatory services for distributing legitimate movies online.

Sites such as Tom.com, 163.com, China.com.cn and People.com.cn promised to cease offering pirated movies and protect legitimate movies. The monitoring works and legal services will be provided by www.quacor.com.

Li Guomin, vice-chairman of MCPAC, said the growth of the market for online pirated movies is damaging the country's local film industry and is jeopardising its healthy development.

'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.

According to MCPAC there are about 30,000 Chinese websites that specialise in providing access to visual arts, including films.

Last November, Quacor sued two Chinese websites, www.tudou.com, a video-sharing site, and www.xunlei.com, an online music and movie provider, for illegally offering downloads of Jiang Wen's The Sun Also Rises.

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