BEIJING, March 8 -- A shop in Shanghai selling pirated DVDs has been sued for 3.43 million yuan (439,740 U.S. dollars) by seven U.S. movie companies.

    The companies, including Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and Disney, took the shop named "Leying" to the city's No. 1 Intermediate Court, to seek compensation.

    Three of the lawsuits were settled on Tuesday, and the other four will come before the courts by the end of this month.

    Leying is the same shop which previously traded under the name of Kadi, well-known to many expatriates in Shanghai for selling pirated products, Shanghai Youth Daily quoted Yang Jun, a legal representative for the seven companies, as saying yesterday.

    Kadi which used to enjoy brisk businesswas exposed by the same newspaper last year for selling pirated DVDs.

    The shop was later redecorated and changed its name to Leying, but the proprietor remained the same, according to Yang.

    The shop changed its name after being sued by the seven movie companies. Although the court had sent two summons to the shop, no representative from Leying showed up in court on Tuesday.

    The court gave verdicts in three of the cases, demanding Leying to stop selling pirated DVDs of Lord of the Rings and some other movies, and compensate New Line Cinema 7,000 yuan (895 U.S. dollars), Disney 12,000 yuan (1,535 U.S. dollars) and Warner Bros 6,000 yuan (770 U.S. dollars).

    According to Shanghai Youth Daily, Leying has been trading in pirated DVDs for years and its reputation spread among foreign visitors. It soon attracted the attention of the Motion Picture Association of America.

    The association brought a similar lawsuit against another company selling pirated DVDs in Shanghai last year. It was ordered to pay compensation of 158,000 yuan (20,256 U.S. dollars) and fined 50,000 yuan (6,410 U.S. dollars).

    (Source: China Daily)