A Beijing court has sentenced four men to 15 months to 18 months in prison for running pornographic websites.
It is the first online pornographic case in China since the country kicked off a national fight against pornographic websites in mid-2004, the China Daily reported on Friday.
Liang Hongbin, Li Yufei, Yu Jianhong, and Chen Dong's pornographic operation was brought to an end in August 2004. Their sites received a total of 16,000 hits up to July 12, 2004 and the four men aged 20 to 25, all from central China's Henan Province, made a profit of 16,000 yuan ($1,927).
Some 445 people have been arrested and 1,125 websites shut down with the help of public tips since July, the ministry of public security said.
The ministry recently handed out rewards of up to $240 to people who reported illegal Internet activity, in a campaign to stamp out online pornography.