Chinese battle against piracy and counterfeited goods continues

The Chinese government announced that during their campaign to protect intellectual property rights, 13 million illegal works were seized. Not only illegal videos and CD’s were seized in 663 stores, but also fake books and software.

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Copyright Administration and publishers have worked together in this campaign. Between October 2010 and June 2011, 663 stores with illegal works were closed down and the illegal material was seized.

The campaign not only focused on illegal works, but also on online piracy.  During the campaign 18 major video websites were ordered to report the copyright status of every video on their website. The websites must now continue to report the statuses quarterly to a government agency.

For a while now, online piracy and counterfeited goods are a big issue to foreign businesses in China. According to trade groups, the copied works cost producers billions of dollars a year in lost revenues.

This August, the Chinese government announced to continue the campaign. From the first of September till the 31st of December, the government continues to seize cloned works.

Read more about online piracy and cloned works in China on FutureofCopyright.com:

• The Chinese have cloned an entire Ikea store
• Fake Apple Store uncovered in China
• China says their copyright enforcement mission is completed

References: Newsone.com, News Xinhuanet.com en The Washington Post

By: Karen Groen