Taiwan Shuts Site That Sold Movies

Taiwanese police seized the servers of a Web site that violated U.S. copyright laws and allowed customers worldwide to watch Hollywood movies on the Internet, officials said.

For about $1, Eternity Italy Ltd. allowed people to watch streamed movies from the company’s Web site, movie88.com. Films featured on the site included “Antitrust” as well as episodes of “The X-Files” and “Star Trek.”

The Web site’s owner, Tan Soo Leong, a 39-year-old Malaysian lawyer, could not be immediately reached for comment. But in an interview last week, Time magazine quoted Tan as saying that although his Web site broke U.S. copyright laws his company was operating legally in Taiwan.

On Wednesday, Taiwanese official Lu Wen-hsiang said Tan misinterpreted Taiwanese law. “No one has said it is legal. The only one who does is Mr. Tan,” Lu said.