China Seizes 1.8 Million Fake Discs in Piracy Raid
BEIJING,
April 07 – Chinese police seized nearly 2 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
U.S. 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 U.S. movie, software, music and book
industry groups recently estimated its companies had lost $2.2 billion
in potential business in China in 2006 due to piracy.Many members of
Congress have called for the U.S. 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.