Recently, a video clip from the BTV3 program <At A Time of Rule of Law> drew 200,000 viewings in less than a day and more than 1,000 comments. This television episode was about a case in the western district of Beijing about the uploading of certain obscene photographs. The chief defendant named Luo was the manager in charge of Internet business operations at a certain information technology company. Luo directed subordinates Yang, Ruan and Ding to distribute obscene photos via the mobile phone WAP technology.
According to an examination of the electronic data, a total of 28 photos had been uploaded resulting in more than 250,000 hits. The existing law metes out punishment based upon the circulation of such obscene articles, and 250,000 plus hits can result theoretically in a jail sentence of ten or more years.
Netizens wrote: "The chief judge should not adhere to the rigid law code. He needs to consider the environment of the Chinese Internet. A hit count of more 250,000 does not mean that 250,000 different persons saw it. That is to say, the number of people exposed should not be estimated from a simple technical method." A lawyer said, "There is no doubt that these people distributed obscene articles for reason of profit, but ten years in jail appear to be too draconian. Under the current Internet technology, a person can cause mulitple hits on a single photo because of failures due to network congestion. Therefore, the number of hits is not the same as the number of unique viewers. The 250,000 figure ought to be discounted, and that should be the basis by which the penalty is determined.
In the 2004 Greatest Sichuan Internet Pornography Case, the chief judge had declared that the prosecutor presented insufficient evidence when the "hit count" was taken as the audience size. Since the hit rate and the view rate are not equivalent, the hit rate cannot be used to determine the penalty. In that case, the defendant was sentenced to 18 months for distribution of obscene material on the Internet.
via NetEase
