A MAN and a woman accused of setting up a pornographic Website that showed real-time sex and nudity were arrested yesterday.
The two were detained after a Shanghai woman reported the Website to the police because her husband had allegedly spent thousands of yuan accessing it.
Changning District Prosecutors' Office yesterday said the accused, surnamed Xing and Hu, had recruited more than 300 people to appear in the Web casts, which were available for registered users to view live via the couple's central server in their Changning apartment.
Prosecutors said the two charged eight to 12 yuan (US$1 to US$1.5) for partially naked shows and 16 to 24 yuan for fully naked performances, which typically lasted several minutes.
Users could also send instant messages to the performers, who shot the live video from their own homes, prosecutors said.
Police detained Xing and Hu in September after receiving a report from a woman surnamed Zhang. Zhang told police her husband had spent more than 3,000 yuan watching the Web casts.
Prosecutors alleged an investigation showed Xing and Hu had set the operation up in July and spent 200,000 yuan renting the apartment and buying software and hardware.
Prosecutors said the Website, called IQ, was popular, with more than 200 users logged on when Xing and Hu were arrested.
Xing allegedly told police some of his registered users were foreigners.
Prosecutors said many of the people appearing in the Web casts had experience working for similar Websites.
"For them, it's safer to perform at home in front of a Web camera rather than working at an illegal night club," said prosecutor Huang Zheng.
Some of the performers were fined or taken into custody, police said, without giving further details.
