CD pirates use 'new tricks'
2007-04-04 07:10
Beijing - Chinese police seized nearly two
million fake CDs and DVDs when they raided a factory in the
country's largest crackdown on entertainment industry pirates,
the official Xinhua agency said on Tuesday.
The high-tech operation could use 30 machines spread over
11 warehouses to churn out over 300 000 fake discs in one night, Xinhua quoted a top anti-piracy official as saying.
The factory was situated in Guangzhou, capital of
southeastern Guangdong province, near Hong Kong.
Li Baozhong, deputy head of the national office tackling
pornography and illegal publications, said the factory was
located along the Guangzhou airport expressway for easy
transportation.
"This case revealed new tricks by the pirates. The criminals
erase the production ID code on the discs in order to destroy
evidence showing who provided the original discs," Li added.
Police arrested 13 people, Xinhua added.
The US undersecretary of commerce for intellectual
property, Jon Dudas, last week said China appeared to be losing
the battle against an army of increasingly sophisticated
counterfeiters despite an increased drive to combat piracy.
A coalition of US movie, software, music and book industry
groups recently estimated its companies had lost $2.2bn in
potential business in China in 2006 due to piracy.
Many members of Congress have called for the US Trade
Representative's Office to file a complaint against China for
piracy at the World Trade Organisation.
But China last week urged patience from the developed world
as it seeks to stop infringements of patents, copyright and
other intellectual property.