Video conference between China and Russia to combat piracy

Officials from Intellectual property (IP) administrations in China and Russia discussed on potential cooperation to combat pirated products at a June 25 video conference.

China has a comparatively sound copyright legislation and has issued a series of regulations to safeguard authors' rights, introduced by Zhang Youli, deputy director of Copyright Administration Division under the National Copyright Administration (NCAC), citing three recent special actions of the Chinese authorities to combat piracy and also the ongoing software legitimization progress in governments and business entities.

Several measures he mentioned particularly aroused the interest of the Russian delegation. According to laws in China, severe infringement upon copyright can be imposed a term of imprisonment for three to seven years, and people who report a site producing unauthorized optical discs can be awarded 300 thousand yuan.

By far, enforcement authorities have cracked down upon 233 such illegal production lines, and have shut down or punished another eight enterprises bearing lawful business certificates but involved in piracy production. 

Fighting against piracy is a global issue, said Faleev, director of International Cooperation Division of Russian Federal Service on Intellectual Property, Patents & Trademarks, in response to Zhang's presentation. Russia needs to cooperate with China and other countries, just as an agreement it signed with Chinese counterpart to target piracy and enhance capacity building this month.

The Russian delegation also called on enforcement authorities bearing similar responsibilities, such as China's Ministry of Public Security and Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, to reinforce partnership and beef up the crackdown upon piracy.

Last year, with efforts of Chinese copyright administrations at all levels, 107 million items of pirated products were seized nationwide, including over 19.08 million illegal copies of books, 1.14 copies of million periodicals, 65.87 million items of audiovisual products, 13.01 million electrical publication discs, 7.74 million pirated software discs and 90 thousand items in other forms, revealed by data from the NCAC. [Chinese version is available on pconline.com.cn]