14 DAY TRIAL // Several Hollywood studios including Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox International started a legal battle with Jeebo.com and a Shanghai Internet cafe after it was reported that they are involved in pirated content distribution. According to Xinhua, the studios are claiming that Jeebo.com provided access to illegal copies of several movies such as X-Men 2 or Pirates of the Caribbean 2 while the Internet cafes enhanced this access through their computers. Jeebo.com is a web-based technology which allows consumers to download movies straight from an online interface. However, a copyright notification published on its main page sustains that the entire amount of content is provided by legal partners so there is no copyright infringement on the page.
At this time, Jeebo sustains it offers approximately 30,000 licensed movies, a database created in no less than three years since the launch of the service back in 2004.
"All the audio and video products on Jeboo.com are provided by our partners. Jeboo.com has the right to provide download service through the Internet for them according to contracts signed between Jeboo.com and our partners," the notification reads according to Xinhua.
Besides the two studios mentioned above,Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia Pictures Industries, and Universal City Studios are also involved in the lawsuit, all of them requiring $432,000 in damages.
"The Internet cafe provided movie download service through the software developed by Jeboo.com. Among others, 13 movies, including Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Charlie's Angles 2, X-Men 2,and Night at the Museum, were distributed without authorization," it is mentioned in the complaint, the same source added.
The Hollywood studios have always been involved into copyright disputes because their content is pretty popular all over the world and pirates prefer to copy and publish it on the web. However, providing downloads and earning money from this activity sounds pretty unfair (if it really happened).