Chinese government departments have launched another publicity campaign to demonstrate their efforts to fight online piracy, the National Copyright Administration (NCA) announced on Monday.

 

From August to October, the NCA, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of the Information Industry will combine to crack down on online piracy.

 

The three ministries will work to close illegal websites and punish violators that infringe upon intellectual property rights by distributing pirated movies, music, software, computer games and books through the internet, the NCA statement said.

 

During the campaign, the ministries will investigate internet cafes to punish those who illegally download films and games, and spread them among the public, the statement said. The ministries will also try to establish a long-term supervision mechanism for professional portals engaging in business related to film, music, software and books, the NCA said.

 

Upon the conclusion of the campaign, the top ten online piracy cases will be chosen from the cases they handle during the three-month campaign, according to the NCA.

 

Chinese law enforcement agencies confiscated 49 million illegal books, periodicals and audio-visual products in the first four months of this year during a crackdown on pornographic and illegal publications.

 

China's top court even stepped up the fight against intellectual piracy by lowering the threshold to prosecute people manufacturing or selling counterfeit intellectual property products.

 

The interpretation issued by the Supreme People's Court in April states that anyone who manufactures 500 or more counterfeit copies (discs) of computer software, music, movies, TV series and other audio-video products can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to seven years.

 

Fines for convicted counterfeiters were also raised, to range from one to 15 times the illegal earnings, or from 50 to 200 percent of the business turnover.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2007)