China's local governments will avoid using pirated software to promote the use of copyright software nationwide, said Shi Zongyuan, director of the State Press and Publication Administration, at a copyright conference which concluded in Beijing Friday.
The software industry is pivotal for the information industry, and, since 2000, China has adopted several policies to propel the development of the software industry, Shi said.
The State Council and provincial governments had resolved the problem of pirated software by May 2002, but other levels of local government continue to lag behind in this task, and it is their responsibility to take the lead in cleaning up piracy, Shi said.
Meanwhile, China has spared no efforts in cracking down on piracy. From 1995 to 2002, national copyright administrations seized an estimated 197 million pirated items and dealt with 18,653 piracy cases, official statistics show.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2003)
