CCTV.com, the official website for China Central Television, has sued Chinese Web portal Tom.com for illegal broadcasting of the 2009 Spring Festival Gala and asked the defendant for CNY1 million in compensation.

CCTV.com says CCTV has invested lots of material, labor, and financial power in producing both the 2009 Spring Festival Gala and the 2009 Lantern Festival Gala, which are the largest and most influential variety show parties for the TV station and which have great social influence and huge business value. Under the authorization of CCTV, CCTV.com enjoys the exclusive rights to spread the videos via the Internet.

However, CCTV.com states that Tom.com provided the broadcasting service of these videos on its website without authorization and placed a large number of commercial advertisements on the pages of the gala feature, which seriously violated the legal rights of the complaint and brought huge economic losses to it. Therefore, CCTV.com raised a lawsuit against Tom.com, asking the latter to immediately stop the infringing activity and compensate CNY1 million to recover its economic losses.

The case has been accepted by Beijing Dongcheng People's Court and a hearing is ongoing.