The Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court handed down the sentence to Chen Hui,
28, and ordered the confiscation of 100,000 yuan ($12,500), Xinhua news agency
said. The other eight were jailed for terms ranging from 13 months to 10 years.
Chen founded "Pornographic Summer" in 2004 and went on to start three more
pornography Web sites, making money by charging registration fees of $25 to $33
to some of the 600,000 members they attracted.
The report cited police as saying it was difficult to know how much money Chen
made from the sites, since most of it was spent or squirreled away in foreign
bank accounts.
Chen evaded closure by regularly changing the domain name and server, the
report said.
Pornography was among the vices nearly wiped out in China under the strict and
puritanical rule of Mao Zedong. But since economic reforms began and social
controls have loosened, it has become more readily available.
China also has an army of cyber police who patrol the Internet for unfavorable
content, but their targets are more often politically sensitive subjects than
pornography.
So it seems clear for now that in China that porn is for pandas, but not for
people.
Reuters and Xinhua contributed to this report
