Chinese copyright administrations handled 172 online piracy cases from September to December in 2005, said sources with the National Copyright Administration Wednesday.

In a national campaign to curb online privacy, out of the 172 online piracy cases, 28 were major cases handled with much effort, and 14 of them were reported by overseas copyright holders or organizations.

Seventy-six Websites were also closed down in the sweep of online piracy across the country.

In the campaign, 39 servers used for online piracy were confiscated and 29 Websites committed piracy were fined a total of 789,000 yuan (US$97,000), according to the administration.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2006)