Economic Observer reporter Ren Xiaoning

Zhao Cong is embroiled in a copyright lawsuit. He is the legal representative and person in charge of Guangdong Huizhou Redwood Travel Company (with a business license named Guangdong Da Umbrella Culture Media Co., Ltd.), which operates a car rental service company.

On August 18th, he received a subpoena from the Intermediate People's Court of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, accusing iQiyi of infringing on the copyright of the audiovisual work "Burning Crime". He thought it was fraudulent information at the time, 'What does iQiyi's copyright have to do with me?'

On August 28th, Zhao Leng received a court hearing notice, informing him that the case would be heard on September 22nd and stamped with the court's official seal.

A notarized certificate provided by Zhao Leng to the Economic Observer shows that on May 8th, in the presence of a notary at the Shanghai Lingang Notary Office, a man surnamed Liang used Thunder browser to play a video related to "Burning Crimes" in a car of Redwood Tree Travel Company. IQiyi will use this as evidence to prove that Redwood Travel Company and Thunder Company are suspected of infringement.

IQiyi demands Thunder to compensate 15 million yuan, and Redwood Travel Company shall bear joint and several liability within the range of 50000 yuan in damages.

IQiyi responded to the Economic Observer report that its key targets for rights protection are software operators suspected of infringement, and for other related parties, it will make partial joint liability claims based on specific case evidence and legal provisions. Specifically regarding the case of 'Burning Crime', iQiyi mainly filed a lawsuit against Thunder, hoping that it would stop infringing and act as the main responsible party to compensate iQiyi for its losses. It is not claimed that the car rental company directly provided infringing content, but rather expanded the dissemination of infringing content through in car channels. It is hoped that the car rental company will bear joint and several liability within a certain scope and stop disseminating infringing content.

IQiyi also stated that it is willing to communicate with relevant parties. Based on the specific circumstances of different cases, some cases have been withdrawn and others are still under trial.

The reporter learned that Thunder has raised a jurisdictional objection to this case. The jurisdiction determines which court will hear the case, and the general principle of civil cases is "the plaintiff is the defendant", which means filing a lawsuit in the court where the defendant is located. Xunlei Company is located in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. If iQiyi only sues Xunlei, the case should be tried by the Shenzhen court.

The focus of the dispute between the two companies is the jurisdiction of the case. Article 22 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2023) stipulates that if several defendants in the same lawsuit have their domicile or habitual residence within the jurisdiction of two or more people's courts, each court shall have jurisdiction.

Zhao Hu, partner of Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm and chief lawyer of the Intellectual Property Department, believes that video platforms using car rental companies as "jurisdictional connection points" are likely to avoid the courts in the location of the software operators suspected of infringement and avoid being passive in litigation.

The reporter found through Tianyancha search that multiple car rental companies have become joint defendants in infringement lawsuits filed by video platform companies this year. Among them, iQiyi has 21 court announcements related to this content, Tencent has 1, Youku has 2, and Mango TV has 1.

Pre Installation Dispute

Before being involved in the lawsuit, Zhao Long had little memory of the two people who rented a car on May 8th, and he did not remember any abnormal behavior from the other party at that time. After receiving the court notice, he checked the order and found that the other party had also given him a positive review.

Zhao Cong said that on May 8th at 11 o'clock, a man surnamed Liang and a woman surnamed Cao rented a car from Redwood Tree Company for 9 hours. The man surnamed Liang was the passenger and the woman surnamed Cao was the driver. At 6:46 pm that evening, two users requested to return the car, which was more than an hour earlier than the agreed return time.

The screenshot of the conversation provided by Zhao Cong shows that the other party explained to him that the two suddenly had an argument and did not want to continue renting the car, so they asked the rental company to pick up the car in advance.

Afterwards, Zhao Leng learned from the information provided by the court that the two of them were playing the popular iQiyi drama "Burning Crime" on the Thunder browser in the car. This behavior became evidence for iQiyi's lawsuit.

After being involved in the lawsuit, Zhao Cong repeatedly called the two people who rented the car, but no one answered. He sent a message asking about the situation and hoped that the other party would reply to WeChat. The other party did not respond.

IQiyi mentioned in the indictment that as a car rental operator, Redwood Travel Company pre installed Thunder browser in the vehicle infotainment system provided by Redwood Travel Company, which disseminated unauthorized audiovisual videos of "Burning Crime".

Zhao Long claimed that he never pre installed Thunder browser in his car from start to finish. The video he provided shows that the Thunder browser was downloaded on May 8th.

In the video, he opens the file browser on the car screen, and the download folder shows that the Thunder browser download date is May 8th.

Zhao Long also provided a photo showing that the first download date of the Thunder browser in the car he was involved in the lawsuit was 11:28 on May 8th. He said that at 11:20 am that day, both parties had already signed the contract and the other party had picked up the car.

Whether Thunder Browser is pre installed by Redwood Travel Company is a key point in determining whether the company is suspected of infringement.

Zhao Cong said that the original car infotainment system is like this. If there is indeed pre installation, he believes that it is also a problem with the car company or the car system, and has nothing to do with the rental company.

Zhao Long also said that his company has cars of the same brand and model for rent, and other cars do not have Thunder browser installed. Only the car involved in the case was later found to have it installed.

Regarding the lawsuit against the car rental company, iQiyi stated that as the actual operator of the vehicles, the car rental company has the most direct daily management of the vehicles. After any user downloads an app containing infringing content through the in car app market, they can access or play the infringing content on the vehicles operated by the car rental company. This creates a connection between the car rental company and the infringing facts, expanding the scope of infringement dissemination. Whether it constitutes infringement ultimately depends on the court's determination.

Not an isolated case

Zhao Cong is very worried that the court will rule against him. According to the indictment, iQiyi demands that Zhao Long's car rental company bear joint and several liability within the range of 50000 yuan in damages, and cease renting the car to the public until the infringement behavior is stopped.

This car was purchased by him in 2025 for 80000 yuan.

At present, this case has not been heard in court, and due to jurisdictional objections, the case has been postponed.

Zhao Cong is more concerned that similar cases may spread. "If they really win the lawsuit, Tencent Video will come to look for them tomorrow, and Youku will come to look for them the day after tomorrow. We will be in a lot of trouble," he said

The case encountered by Zhao Cong is not an isolated case. In the court announcement of Tianyancha's legal litigation category, the reporter searched for the keyword "leasing" and found that there were 21 case records involving car rental companies this year, with the causes of the cases being "disputes over infringement of work information network dissemination rights" or "disputes over infringement of work information network dissemination rights and unfair competition", "intellectual property and competition disputes". In the court announcements of Youku, Tencent, and Mango TV this year, there are also cases involving car rental companies, among which Youku has 2 cases, Tencent has 1 case, and Mango has 1 case.

A car rental company in Ningbo has been sued by iQiyi, Mango TV, and Tencent Video this year.

The location of the involved car rental company is in Shanghai, Ningbo, Wuxi and other places. The company that became a joint defendant with the car rental company is the main company of Bilibili and Xiaohongshu.

A person in charge of a car rental company that was sued this year told the Economic Observer that in court, the plaintiff's lawyer's statement mainly focused on how another platform infringed, and there was no mention of the car rental company from beginning to end. The judge also did not inquire about the car rental company's infringement. He felt inexplicably dragged into this lawsuit.

The person in charge consulted a lawyer for legal fees, which amounted to tens of thousands of yuan. He felt it was too expensive, so he appeared in court and wrote his own defense.

IQiyi has also been sued. In 2023, Tencent sued iQiyi and a car rental company in Chongqing for infringing on the right to disseminate works through the internet. Last March, Tencent sued Quark for infringement and listed a car rental company in Jinjiang City as a co defendant. Tencent claims 100 million yuan from Quark and 100000 yuan from the car rental company.

The reporter sent interview outlines to Tencent Video, Mango TV, and Youku, asking why they sued the car rental company. As of press time, no response has been received.

Jurisdiction Connection Point

In some previously tried copyright cases involving car rental companies, jurisdiction has also been a focal point of dispute between the plaintiff and defendant in video companies' copyright lawsuits.

Last year in the first half of the year, the owner of a car rental company in Ningde, Fujian was sued by iQiyi. According to the ruling of the Intermediate People's Court of Ningde City, Fujian Province, iQiyi sued that there were a large number of unauthorized infringing videos such as the TV series "Man Cheng", "Man Ying Pursuit", "Trident 2", "Flower Room Sweeps the City", and "Sendai Has Trees" in the car Kwai software installed in the car leased by the car rental company, and asked the car rental company to compensate a total of 300000 yuan.

Kwai raised a jurisdictional objection to the case, believing that the car rental company did not implement or participate in the implementation of the alleged information network infringement, and that it has no substantive or formal relevance to the sued facts of the case, and its domicile should not be used as the jurisdictional connection point.

The Intermediate People's Court of Ningde City, Fujian Province recognized the reasons for the objection to jurisdiction raised by Kwai, and believed that iQiyi listed Ningde Car Rental Company as the defendant, which was suspected of falsely listing the defendant and artificially creating a jurisdictional connection point. Ruling to transfer the case to the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing for processing.

Last year, a car rental company in Nantong, Jiangsu also encountered the same case. In this case, the court in Jiangsu did not recognize the defendant's objection to jurisdiction.

For car rental companies, getting involved in a lawsuit means a lot of trouble. The head of a car rental company involved in a copyright case last year said that he has won the lawsuit and has nothing to do with the case. But he also became more cautious and didn't want to talk too much about this past event.