James Delahunty
25 Feb 2005 15:29
China has expressed doubts it can win a battle against rampant piracy in the country. The infringement of Intellectual Property has been rampant in China for many years and the problem has grown much too big for the Chinese legal system alone. "China cannot win the anti-piracy battle if it relies only on government crackdowns and judicial punishment," Yan Xiaohong, vice director of the National Copyright Administration, told the official Xinhua news agency.
"Despite the government's pledge and enhanced efforts to stamp out piracy, intellectual property infringement is rampant." he added. The government is considering freeing up regulations that will allow copyright holders to organize and begin policing for violations of their property rights and file lawsuits. At present, only the Music Copyright Society, has been formally established under China's stringent non-governmental organization rules.
85 million pirated publications were confiscated by copyright administrations across China last year. By the end of 2004, police in China had busted more than 200 illegal production lines which were capable of making billions of pirated discs every year Chinese are also engaged in the widespread manufacture and sale of brand-name clothing, pharmaceuticals and other items. The US-based International Intellectual Property Alliance estimates that US companies alone lost $2.6 billion to Chinese piracy in 2003 alone.
Source:
Channel NewsAsia