Officials pledge piracy crackdown
14/6/2008 11:12
China is to inflict harsher punishment on piracy, a senior copyright
official said yesterday, while admitting the phenomena remained "grave" in the
country.
Xu Chao, deputy director of the National Copyright
Administration's copyright management bureau, said the government had promised
"harsher punishment" in its newly issued outline of the national intellectual
property rights strategy.
The government was also working on providing
better "administrative protection" on copyright along with judicial penalties,
according to Xu.
The nation has launched an intensified crackdown on
piracy in past years.
China's Criminal Law stipulates a maximum penalty
of seven years' imprisonment on those involved in piracy activities. Those
involved in piracy activities that were not as serious would be given
administrative punishment, he said.
"However, the piracy phenomena remain
quite grave," he admitted.
Though the fundamentals were there, the
country planned to improve and revise its existing laws and regulations to live
up to the current demands of IPR protection, especially in the protection of
Internet copyright, according to Xu.
The National Copyright
Administration has opened an anti-piracy platform for the public to provide tips
about alleged copyright infringement cases and had established a system for
rewarding the whistle-blowers, he said.
The State Council, China's
Cabinet, promulgated an outline of the IPR strategy earlier this month. It
stated to dramatically increase its self-directed IPR levels and markedly
improve the IPR protection situation within five years.
By 2020, it said,
China would become a country with a fairly high level of IPR creation, use,
protection and management.
On Thursday, the country launched a four-month
campaign to crack down on Internet intellectual copyright infringement in an
attempt to ensure legal online communication services as the Olympic Games
approach.
According to the Beijing authorities, during the Games, anyone
can report infringement via a hotline, 12312. Those found committing
infringement will face punishment.
Xinhua
|
