Youku Files Lawsuit Against Tudou, Shows It Has Been Keeping a Naughty List

Youku has "filed the first batch" of notarized lists of Tudou copyright infringements (Image source: Youku)

China’s largest video-streaming site, Youku.com (NYSE:YOKU) has just confirmed its lawsuit against its smaller rival, Tudou.com (NASDAQ:TUDO), in an ongoing battle over TV show piracy that was sparked by Tudou’s own claims last week. Youku has also given a sneak peak of the heft of its notarized paperwork (pictured above) which it says details the unlawful use of about 60 TV shows by its rival. A Youku representative told PO that “We have filed the first batch of infringement evidence.”

Tudou’s initial assertion, made last Friday, is that Youku used seven episodes of one TV show this month to which it didn’t have the full rights, and showed its own evidence, suggesting as much as 150 million RMB (US$23.7 million) in damages could be sought. Youku’s response was that Tudou violated copyrights on an even larger number of shows, and now it is showing that it has been documenting alleged illegal uploads on Tudou – specifically content to which Youku has a license – for over a year.

Four of the 60+ TV shows that Youku alleges Tudou uploaded and profited from, replete with adverts. (Image source: Youku)

In purely theoretical terms, Tudou could be hit with an even larger claim for compensation – perhaps exceeding one billion RMB – if this reaches the courts next year. It’s also interesting to note that rival sites in China are counting up each other’s copyright violations in secret and getting them notarized. But the stakes are high in terms of TV and movie content…

2011 has been the year in which Chinese video sites have been spending big on licensing TV shows, especially the popular ones from Taiwan and South Korea. It has gotten to the point where bidding between Youku, Tudou, Sohu (NASDAQ:SOHU), and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) – for its Qiyi site – can push the cost up to US$100,000 per episode for the hottest serials.