A popular Chinese Web site has filed papers with the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court claiming the Shanghai court was not the appropriate place to deal with a lawsuit filed against it by the Hollywood-based Motion Picture Association.

Shenzhen-based Xunlei Networking Technology, one of the biggest video information and download software providers in China, said that it had no server in Pudong that offered Internet users the download services for movies that the United States film group said was illegal piracy.

In papers filed before the court, Xunlei said the firm's server was in Shenzhen's Nanshan District and the lawsuit should be at a court there.

Xunlei claims to be the biggest download platform provider in the world and covers about 100 million Internet users.

The MPA sued Xunlei last month at the Pudong court, accusing the Web site of allowing users of its file-sharing service to download hundreds of movies from other Web sites despite 78 warnings.

It demanded seven million yuan (US$1 million) compensation along with a public admittance that it had acted illegally.

(Shanghai Daily March 12, 2008)