[photopress:it_pirated_software.jpg,full,alignright]The National Copyright Administration (NCA) states that China saw a 53% increase in the number of firms using copyrighted software in the past few months. No comment was made as to why the figure has risen so sharply over such a short period.
In April 2006, NCA with eight other ministries jointly issued a circular promoting legal use of software among large companies.
The government ordered municipal and local authorities to buy computers with pre-installed legitimate software and required all domestic and imported computers to be sold with legitimate software pre-installed to prevent software piracy at source.
Liu Binjie, director of the General Administration of Press told a conference in Dec. 2007 that central and provincial governments had investigated 3,600 enterprises. And more than 1,100 companies faced penalties for using pirated software, .
Microsoft projected in April last year a 20% rise for the year’s sales in China due to a combination of government anti-piracy efforts and new products.
China’s software industry registered a 23.1% rise in sales from RMB390 billion ($52.77 billion in 2005 to RMB480 billion in 2006.
Statistics from the Supreme People’s Court indicate that Chinese courts handled 769 IPR cases in 2006 and prosecuted 1,212 offenders, up 52.2% and 62.21%, respectively, from 2005.
The top court last April stated that anyone who manufactures 500 or more counterfeit copies (discs) of computer software, music, movies, TV series and other audio-video products can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to seven years.
The new rules also widen the definition of a ‘serious IPR offender’ — anyone who produces more than 2,500 counterfeit copies — can now be jailed for up to seven years.
Source: China View