China's National Copyright Administration (NCA) on Wednesday launched a system to reward information on piracy.

 

An organization or individual who provides information that leads to a prosecution would receive a reward of up to 100,000 yuan (US$13,000), the NCA said in a press release.

 

But the reward could exceed 100,000 yuan for informants who made critical contributions to a case with national significance or involving an unusually large sum of money, the statement said.

 

"If there are two or more tipsters on one case, they will decide how to share the reward or just divide it evenly," it said.

 

The administration has established a tip-off processing center with a hot line -- 12390 -- and email address: "jubao@ncac.gov.cn."

 

The center would keep the identities of informants confidential unless they agreed to publicity, the NCA said.

 

Those who contributed to the investigation of a piracy case would also be rewarded with up to 100,000 yuan for an organization and up to 10,000 (US$1,300) to an individual.

 

Chinese authorities have carried out successive campaigns against piracy. The NCA, the police and Ministry of Information Industry are conducting a campaign against on-line piracy from August to October.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2007)