According to information on the website for the Shanghai court system, Shanghai-based P2P video service provider PPS (PPStream) will be the defendant in five lawsuits between March 26 and April 26, including two suits in which TV set maker TCL Corporation (000100.SZ) is named as a codefendant. The plaintiffs in all five cases are film and television content production companies.

In order, the five cases are as follows:

March 26: A copyright infringement case against PPStream and TCL from Mei Ah Film & TV Culture, a Beijing-based subsidiary of the Hong Kong Mei Ah Entertainment Group.

March 27: A copyright infringement case against PPStream and TCL from China Film Media Asia Audio Video Distribution.

March 28: A copyright infringement case from Hong Kong-based Television Broadcasts Co.

April 26: Two copyright infringement cases from China Film Media Asia Audio Video Distribution, this time with PPStream as sole defendant.

An industry insider noted that the plaintiffs in these cases had filed suit against both online video providers and hardware manufacturers, possibly indicating a lack of clarity as to rights divisions in the case of online video played over internet-connected televisions. The video sites have purchased content rights from the film and television production companies, meaning that videos played through their site are not subject to claims of infringing use. The same is true of television stations, which avoid copyright infringement claims by acquiring rights to content from production companies before broadcasting the content. In the case of internet televisions, however, the TV sets can connect directly to online content without rights holders being paid for a TV-based viewing of the content. The source said that the suits against TCL and PPStream marked a new development in the online video industry, and could set a precedent for future cases.