BEIJING, June 21 -- The Chinese Government is offering as much as 300,000 yuan (US$36,000) to people who report illegal CD and DVD copy production lines, according to the China Daily.
The National Anti-Pornography-and-Piracy Office said it had opened a hotline (010-65233456) for people to report pirate factories on the mainland, Liu Binjie, vice minister of the office, said Sunday.
The announcement came at the launch of a new round of nationwide crackdowns on pirated audio and video products Sunday.
The campaign will run until the end of August.
The crackdown was co-launched by eight government departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, the General Administration of Press and Publications, the General Administration of Customs, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
Tippers will receive a reward of 150,000 to 300,000 yuan for each illegal production line reported.
“The Chinese Government's commitment to protecting intellectual property right is very serious because we not only need to improve China’s economic environment, but more importantly, we are eager to protect our nation’s ability to innovate,” Liu said.
He also stressed the importance of anti-piracy education in primary and middle schools to raise awareness of the crime amongst society as a whole.
The country confiscated 800 million pirated audio and video products from 1994 to 2004, while 200 illegal CD and DVD production lines were shut down and informants got more than 40 million yuan for leads, according to incomplete statistics from the office.
“We have noticed the efforts made by the Chinese Government to combat piracy and we can sense the fruit of their efforts,” said Ho Wai Hung, director of China regional operations of the Motion Picture Association, which was set up to promote U.S. films.
“Thanks to the Chinese Government’s efforts in fighting piracy, the Hong Kong film Kung Fu Hustle has enjoyed a sales volume of 2 million VCD/DVDs on the Chinese mainland this year while normal sales volume for a Hong Kong film on the mainland was less than 20,000 previously,” Ho said.
“We have a history of only 20 years in IPR protection, so many people are still not acquainted with the concept of IPR,” said Zhang Qin, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office. “Enabling them to understand IPR in a very short period of time is a hard task.”Enditem
(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
Leave a comment