Chinese court jails Renren Yingshi video site founder in crackdown on film and TV piracy

Liang Yongping given 3½ years in prison over piracy of 30,000 TV shows and films, with 14 other people yet to be sentenced. Public demand for the likes of ‘House Of Cards’ and ‘Squid Game’ fuelled partly by China’s restrictions on foreign content. — SCMP

The founder of video download and streaming website Renren Yingshi was on Nov 22 sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and fined 1.5mil yuan (RM986,081) for pirating more than 30,000 Chinese and foreign television programmes and films.

Liang Yongping’s sentence was announced by a Shanghai court via social media. One of China’s biggest and longest-running subtitling sites and sources of pirated foreign content, Renren Yingshi – founded in 2003 – has been closed since February as part of a sweeping crackdown on piracy by Shanghai police.