China's press and publication watchdog yesterday announced a
campaign to shut down pornography websites nationwide.
As of last week, about 348 domestic websites were found to be
posting and distributing porn novels and pictures, Song Jianxin,
director of the Internet supervision sector under the National
Office of Anti-porn and Illegal Publications, said.
Eight websites including 517z.com, xs4.xggirl.com and
book.maobob.com were ordered to permanently shut down for the
"extremely negative impact" they caused by posting 40 online porn
novels.
"The contents were full of exaggerated and explicit description
of sex. It harms and misleads the young who are still growing and
lack reasonable judgment," Song said.
Li Baozhong, director of the market supervision department of
the national press watchdog said distributing porn novels violated
laws, publication regulations and Internet information service
regulations.
All blacklisted websites are being put under close watch by
press regulators and public security authorities at all levels.
"The violators will be heavily fined and punished," Li said.
The watchdog also revealed a recent crackdown on pirated
publications.
The market enforcement team in Central China's Hunan province
smashed a gang producing pirated books.
About 627,000 pirated books worth of 20.3 million yuan ($2.67
millon) were seized.
It included teaching materials of New Concept English and
reference books for student tests, whose copyrights belong to about
21 domestic publishing houses.
Four were arrested and one official from the Hunan press
watchdog, accused of taking bribes and helping to facilitate the
illegal practice, was removed from his post.
"We're facing unprecedented complexity in fighting for
intellectual property rights protection," Li said.
"IPR infringement is becoming more complex as violators turn to
more sophisticated ways to carry out their trade."
(China Daily August 15, 2007)