Recently, Tianjin North Net New Media Group Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "North New Media", stock code 833612) encountered infringement doubts.
China Business News has learned that Tianjin Radio and Television, the controlling shareholder of North Media, and Tianjin Unicom, its IPTV business partner, have been sued by Love TV Media (Beijing) Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Love Media) for copyright infringement and unfair competition. The case will be heard in Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing.
At the same time, North New Media was also questioned about the legality and compliance of its IPTV business, and was complained to the China Securities Regulatory Commission by Love Media.
Controlling shareholders were sued for infringement claims amounting to more than 20 million yuan
Public information shows that Northern New Media was established in 2012 by integrating bus mobile TV and Internet TV (including IPTV) and other resources. It is the main operating body of IPTV in the administrative area of Tianjin, and was listed on the New Third Board on October 12, 2015.
According to the data, Love Media is the holding subsidiary of CCTV International Network Co., LTD., the operator of the operational business of the national IPTV Central Integrated Broadcast control platform, responsible for the business negotiation and agreement signing with radio, television broadcasting institutions and telecom operators in the three networks integration region, and responsible for the connection of the IPTV central integrated broadcast control platform with local sub-platforms and telecom transmission networks.
The reporter learned that, due to copyright infringement disputes and unfair competition disputes, Love Media in March this year to Tianjin Radio and Television, China United Network Communications Co., LTD. Tianjin branch (Tianjin Unicom), Huichuan (Tianjin) Business Hotel Co., Ltd. three institutions filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court, and on March 11 was approved to accept the case, The case will be heard in the coming days.
According to the court case and evidence submitted by Love Media, Tianjin Radio and Television and Tianjin Unicom have been cooperating to operate IPTV business in Tianjin since 2011. Without CCTV's permission, a large number of CCTV's TV channels and programs have been appropriated in the live TV and playback services they provide to users. Huichuan (Tianjin) Business Hotel Co., which provided the service in its own operations, is also a defendant.
According to media reports, the number of IPTV users in Tianjin has grown to more than 900,000, with an annual income of nearly 100 million yuan. The revenue is usually collected from users by Tianjin Unicom and then distributed to new media in northern China. And this part of the business and income, are loaded into the North new media, is its important main business income. As can be seen from the annual report of Northern New Media in 2015, this part of revenue reached more than 76.74 million yuan, accounting for nearly 51% of the operating revenue of Northern New media in that year.
In view of this, Love Media applied to add North New Media and Tianjin Network Broadcasting and Television Co., Ltd. as co-defendants in this case.
Reporters learned that this lawsuit to Tianjin Radio and Television and Tianjin Unicom claim infringement damages of more than 20 million yuan, and the total profit of Northern new media in 2015 was more than 43.5 million yuan.
Sun Maocheng, a senior partner of Beijing Gaowen Law Firm, which represented Love Media in the lawsuit, said that Tianjin Radio and Television Station had unauthorized access to a large number of CCTV channels and programs without the permission of the rights holders, and refused to correct after repeated negotiations, which was blatant infringement and piracy and flagrant defiance of laws and regulations. Sun Maocheng said that such large-scale infringement and piracy is indeed very rare in today's world where copyright awareness is generally raised and copyright on the Internet is relatively standardized. It is especially inconceivable that it happened in a broadcasting agency.
In this connection, the reporter repeatedly contacted the legal representative of Tianjin Radio and Television Station, the controlling shareholder of North Media, but his phone has not been answered. At the same time, the reporter called the person in charge of Tianjin Unicom telephone, the other side told the reporter "wrong number", immediately hung up the phone, after several calls no answer.
In addition, the reporter interviewed Zhang He, secretary of the board of directors of Northern New Media, and the other side began to say that this is just a common commercial lawsuit, nothing to make a fuss about. Later, the other party said that the defendant listed in the indictment submitted to the court did not have North New media, North new media has nothing to do with the case. When asked by reporters about new media's IPTV business in northern China, Zhang He did not answer the reporter's specific questions, but referred the reporter to the company.
Later, this reporter contacted Ms. Liu, the media person in charge of IPTV business of Northern New Media. Ms. Liu said that she would contact the reporter after reporting to her leadership. The reporter contacted her several times, but no reply was received as of press release.
New media in northern China have been accused of illegally obtaining huge revenues
It is worth noting that at the same time as the lawsuit was filed, Love Media continued to complain to the China Securities Regulatory Commission about Northern Media.
The complaint listed the illegal facts of new media in northern China, including: failed to connect with the central IPTV integrated broadcast control platform, illegal operation of IPTV business; A large number of CCTV live channel signal and film content, constitute serious infringement; Avoidance should disclose information, information disclosure there are major omissions.
The complainant said that according to the evidence of IPTV in Tianjin, the IPTV business operated by North New Media was alleged to have infringed almost all 32 TV channels and more than 50 TV programs of CCTV, constituting serious infringement.
Due to the innovation of the IPTV business and the importance of home TV terminals, the country has developed a much stricter license management system for the IPTV business than for video websites, according to Wu Chunyong, a radio and television industry expert and chief editor of Fusion Network. In this regard, The State Council alone has issued three documents since 2010.
According to No. 344 (2010) and No. 43 (2012) of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the construction of IPTV integrated broadcast control platform shall implement national unified planning, unified standards, unified organization and unified management, and the integrated broadcast control platform shall adopt a central and provincial structure. Among them, the central IPTV integrated broadcast control platform is responsible for the organization and provision of CCTV and other national program resources; The IPTV integrated broadcast control sub-platform is responsible for the organization and provision of program resources in the province, and the contents of the two parties are aggregated and then uniformly provided to the IPTV transmission system of telecom operators.
Subsequently, the State Administration of Press, Radio, Film and Publication issued Article No. 97 in April 2015, requiring that "all provinces shall not provide program signals without establishing an IPTV integrated broadcast control sub-platform in accordance with the document requirements of the State Administration and before connecting with the general platform of CCTV IPTV integrated broadcast control in accordance with the standards."
According to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television's Decree No. 6, "private networks (including IPTV) and audio-visual program service providers of targeted media shall conduct standardized connection with each other in accordance with the administrative regulations and relevant standards of the radio, film and television authorities, and provide necessary technical support and service guarantee for the connection."
Sun Maocheng said that although the policy requirements of IPTV are clear, the local IPTV business carried out by Tianjin Radio and Television Station and Tianjin Unicom did not connect with the IPTV integrated broadcast control platform of CCTV according to the requirements of these documents, which belongs to the "unauthorized provision of program signals" mentioned in Article 97. Therefore, the complainant believed that the IPTV business operated by Northern New Media was conducted in violation of the policies and regulations of The State Council and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and illegally obtained huge income.
Accused of failing to disclose information in a timely manner or being at legal risk
The complaint pointed out that the law firm hired by North New Media issued a Supplementary Legal Opinion (I) on August 19, 2015 in response to the inquiry on "whether the company's business meets the requirements of national industrial policies" of the National Share Transfer System Company. It mentioned the No. 97 document of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, which "requires CCTV to strengthen cooperation with provincial TV stations. Complete the construction and docking of IPTV broadcast control platform as soon as possible, so as to speed up the construction of a unified national IPTV integrated broadcast control platform ". However, the opinion on the same document "before the establishment of IPTV integrated broadcast control sub-platform in accordance with the requirements of the State Administration documents and the connection with the main CCTV IPTV integrated broadcast control platform in accordance with the standards, The core requirement of "cannot provide program signals without authorization" was not mentioned, let alone truthfully stated to the regulatory authorities that the sub-platform of IPTV does not connect with the overall platform. However, the position paper gave a positive conclusion that "the company's business conforms to the national industrial policy".
In addition, the complaint also questioned that Love Media sued Tianjin Radio and Television, the controlling shareholder and actual controller of North Media holding more than 80%, and the lawsuit involved the main business accounting for more than half of the revenue of North Media, and the claim amount was more than 10% of the net assets of North Media. The lawsuit was filed in Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing on March 11. But so far, the new media in the north has not disclosed anything.
Hou Chengxun, a partner of Beijing Zhongyong Law Firm who has been engaged in securities and finance business for a long time, said in an interview that as a company listed in the national SME share transfer system, Its information disclosure shall comply with the Securities Law of the People's Republic of China, Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Non-listed Public Companies, Business Rules of the National Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Share Transfer System (Trial), Detailed Rules for Information Disclosure of Listed Companies in the National Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Share Transfer System (Trial) and other laws, regulations and normative documents. No matter what the final result of the lawsuit is, as long as there is a major lawsuit, North New Media is obliged to timely and fully disclose relevant information in accordance with the law.
According to the company, failure to disclose information in a timely and sufficient manner may have two legal consequences.
One is for the company itself. According to Article 193 of the Securities Law of the People's Republic of China, issuers, listed companies or other information disclosure obligors who fail to disclose information as required, or whose disclosed information contains false records, misleading statements or major omissions, shall be ordered to make rectification, given a warning and fined between 300,000 yuan and 600,000 yuan. According to Article 60 of the Measures for Supervision and Administration of Non-Listed Public Companies, where the company or other information disclosure obligor fails to disclose information in accordance with relevant regulations, or the information disclosed contains false records, misleading statements or major omissions, the company shall be punished in accordance with Article 193 of the Securities Law.
The other is for company directors, supervisors, senior management personnel. According to Article 193 of the Securities Law of the People's Republic of China, if an issuer, listed company or other information disclosure obligor fails to disclose information as required, or if the information disclosed contains false records, misleading statements or major omissions, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons shall be given a warning, and a fine of between 30,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan shall be imposed. Article 233 of the Securities Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that if a person violates laws, administrative regulations or relevant regulations of the securities regulatory body under The State Council and the circumstances are serious, the securities regulatory body under The State Council may ban the responsible person from entering the securities market.
Regarding the specific issues mentioned above, the reporter contacted and interviewed the North New Media Company for many times. As of press release, there was no reply.
