AfterDawn: News

China promises tougher action on piracy

China has said it will do more to combat "rampant" violation of intellectual property rights throughout the country.

Since the government announced a crackdown on the activity in November, it has arrested over 4,000 individuals. It now says it will seek to impose tougher punishments to send a message. Ministry of Public Security's Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau director, Gao Feng, said his agency had uncovered over 2,000 cases, with a financial value of 2.3 billion yuan, or $384 million.



"On one hand they demonstrate the achievements we've made in cracking down on the violation of IPR, on the other hand it also indicates that IPR violation is still quite rampant and frequent," Gao said. "So we want to introduce heavier punishments."

The topic of intellectual property is likely to come up in a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao next week.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance estimates U.S. trade losses in China due to piracy hit $3.5 billion in 2009.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 11 Jan 2011 3:09

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• 6 comments

• KillerBug

  ...I wonder if they ever thought of sending a message by removing all the pirated software from all the government computers. I probably own more legal windows licenses than the whole Chinese government.
  

  11.1.2011 03:24 #1

• xboxdvl2

  there goes all of china's cd/dvd sales.
  

  PS2 with 12 games.
  pc-windows 7,intel core quad Q8400,4 Gb ddr2,WD 500 GB hdd,ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics,AOC 22inch LCD moniter.

  11.1.2011 06:23 #2

• dEwMe

  Once they completely take over it won't make any sense to pirate their own stuff...
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe

  11.1.2011 11:58 #3

• SomeBozo

  I wonder if China might need to help but giving people the right to own stuff first? It seems strange to enforce laws on people when they live in a communist country where the state ultimately owns everything anyway. Hard for me to see where people have no sense of ownership you can charge them with piracy. I'd consider most common Chinese people consider they are not stealing anything as no one owns it but the state itself. Or what about the confused person that gets charged for piracy, "Mr. ???? you need to understand only the state has the right to steal, shame on you."
  

  11.1.2011 12:03 #4

• stuntman_

  Hopefully they don't decapitate anyone they catch for breaking this law, the Chinese are a joke (when it comes to stuff like this)
  

  
  
  
  

  11.1.2011 12:14 #5

• lissenup2

  This just in..........."China promises to reduce their population"
  
  
  Yeah........ummm..............not gonna happen just like what this article is about won't happen.

  11.1.2011 13:09 #6