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Record haul as China raids pirates
BEIJING, China -- In a logistical feat worthy of any Hollywood blockbuster, a record 42 million smuggled and pirated DVDs and video and audio CDs have been destroyed across China. All of the discs destroyed had been confiscated during crackdowns on smuggling cases, starting in 2001. "It is the biggest of its kind in terms of the quantity destroyed in one place and the overall quantity destroyed across China," Gui Xiaofeng, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, was reported as saying Wednesday by the China Daily. Monday's mission was the latest in a series of public demonstrations of success in the fight against copyright breaches. It is part of a continuing anti-counterfeiting effort aimed at silencing critics overseas. China is a hotbed of intellectual-property theft, and officials have long promised to crack down on the problem. When China was admitted into the World Trade Organization in 2001, it was obliged to stop such practices. "We're trying to carry out the spirit of our smuggling crackdown and to show our determination to the international and domestic communities," The Associated Press reported Gui as saying. "We have attached great importance to protecting intellectual property rights," Gui said. China's national television station, CCTV, showed noisy wood-chippers -- what the official Xinhua News Agency called "pulverizers" -- swallowing discs by the hundreds and spewing the remains of movies and music onto sidewalks and parking lots, reported AP. More than 600 people, including U.S. and Australian officials, were invited to a ceremony in southern Guangdong province's Shanwei city, where 26 million discs were shattered, Xinhua said. Olympic hurdlesThe proficiency of the local copyright pirates has been highlighted by the prompt emulation of Olympics merchandise. Hong Kong newspapers on Wednesday reported that counterfeiters were turning out fake T-shirts for Beijing's 2008 Olympics just a week after the supposedly fake-proof logo was first unveiled. Gui said the smugglers not only breached China's copyright laws but also evaded tax. Severe punishment of lawbreakers should be combined with a policy of rewarding those who give useful information to the authorities, Gui added Wednesday. Shen Rengan, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, said piracy is an international issue. Pirated software alone accounts for 24 percent of all software in North America, 35 percent in Western Europe, and 55 percent in the Asia-Pacific area, he told China Daily. Counterfeiting from China costs Western businesses an estimated $16 billion in sales each year, trade groups say. The problem has so annoyed U.S. manufacturers that it almost led to trade sanctions against China in the 1990s. So far, more than 140 illegal disc-production operations have been raided by Chinese authorities, Xinhua said Tuesday. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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