Censors from the Chongqing cultural department warned karaoke bars that their businesses could be suspended if operators did not remove all the offending songs before Friday.

However, consumers soon complained that the so-called anti-pornography system was just a government ploy to make money.

The Guangzhou-based Nandu Daily reported yesterday that the system, developed by the Cultural Market Development Center (CMDC) of the Ministry of Culture and offered to Chongqing's karaoke bosses for free, actually had two additional functions - lottery games and advertising. The system would also track copyright violation. Karaoke bar owners would end up paying more to use the audio-video products as a result.

Hu Yueming, spokesman for the CMDC, revealed on Tuesday that the surveillance system, developed in 2006, was launched in Chongqing as a pilot program. The extra functions were added by the local bureau of culture.

Zhang Wei, an employee at the Chongqing Construction Office of the CMDC, told Chongqing Economic Times that the revenue from hotel advertisements and lottery will go to the karaoke owners and advertising companies, not to the government.