Chinese law enforcement agencies destroyed nearly 13 million pirated compact discs, DVDs and computer software Saturday in the government's latest campaign to curtail rampant theft of intellectual property, state media reported.
The destroyed items were confiscated in the first half of an ongoing 100-day nationwide campaign against piracy, the Xinhua News Agency said. Police seized the items in raids that took in the scope of pirated goods networks, from unlicensed factories to street vendors, Xinhua said.
Among the seized goods, according to the report, nearly half came from Guangdong, the economically dynamic southern province that abuts Hong Kong.
Over the past two years, China has ratcheted up efforts to stamp out the rampant theft of intellectual property, partly in response to pressure from the United States and European Union and partly to protect new Chinese companies that are starting to produce their own competitive goods. Still, illegally produced CDs, DVDs and computer software are widely available on city streets, and Chinese leaders acknowledge that it will take years to eliminate the practice.
In enforcing the latest crackdown, police and copyright officers closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal Web sites, Xinhua said. Police have uncovered ten illegal production lines for CDs and DVDs, four of them in Guangdong, the report said.