Beijing: China's anti-piracy efforts are beginning to yield results as there has been a sharp rise in the number of firms using copyrighted software in the recent months.

The number of firms using copyrighted software rose to 2,300 by February seven from 1,500 in December last year. A 53 per cent jump has been reported in the number of companies using copyrighted software since the new stricter anti-piracy laws came effect in April 2006, the National Copyright Administration (NCA) said.

Under attack over prevalence of piracy, China had launched a crackdown and ordered authorities to buy computers with pre-installed legitimate software. It had also stipulated that all domestic and imported computers be sold with pre-installed legitimate software to prevent piracy at source. Some 3,600 enterprises had come under the scanner of central and provincial governments, with over 1,100 companies being slapped with penalties for using pirated software, Liu Binjie, Director of the General Administration, had said in December last year.

Also, pirated books and DVDs were destroyed and factories producing fakes were raided. Quoting the Supreme Peoples Court data, official Xinhua news agency said 769 Intellectual Property Right cases were handled by Chinese courts in 2006 and 1,212 offenders were prosecuted, a rise of 52.2 per cent and 62.21 per cent, respectively, from 2005.

The court also lowered the threshold to prosecute people making or selling counterfeit intellectual property products and ordered stricter penalties for IPR violators.

Source : PTI