A 22-year-old university student in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, was sentenced to four years' in jail Tuesday for operating a pornographic Internet service, local court confirmed Wednesday.

The Zhejiang University of Technology junior majoring in computer science was arrested by local police in July for selling pornographic movies.

Police interrogation showed that the student surnamed Xie made more than 160,000 yuan (US$19,200) since he launched the website in March 2003.

More than 1,500 people, who paid membership fee, registered on the website, police investigation showed.

All Xie's income was confiscated and he was also fined 20,000 yuan (US$2,400).

China waged a campaign against online pornography this summer aiming to purify its social environment; numerous violators have since been brought into court.

Another young man, Dong Haibin, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment earlier in Ningbo, a city in the same province, for spreading pornography on the web. He started the online porn service last year when he was a college student.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2004)