China steps up crackdown on online copyright infringements and counterfeiting

China steps up crackdown on online copyright infringements andcounterfeiting

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities shut down 410websites involved in copyright infringements and counterfeiting inthe first three months of 2010 in an intensified effort to clampdown on online cheating, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) saidThursday.

China had investigated 496 cases of copyright infringements andproduction and sales of counterfeits by the end of March, whichinvolved more than 700 million yuan (107.7 million U.S. dollars),the ministry said in a statement on its website.

A total of 355 suspects were arrested in the crackdown, it said.

China's online shopping has been booming with increasing Internetusers. Official data shows that China had some 457 million Internetusers, the world's largest, by the end of last year.

The country's online shopping transaction volume jumped 89.4percent year on year to 498 billion yuan last year, according tostatistics from iResearch, a consulting company in China. About 148million customers purchased goods or services online, it said.

Local authorities should place more emphasis on monitoring onlineshops, the statement said, citing a circular jointly issued at theend of last year by nine authorities including the MOC, People'sBank of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,Ministry of Public Security, among others.

Relevant departments of Zhejiang, Shanghai and Shenzhen shouldrequest taobao.com, eachnet.com and paipai.com to conduct self-checks to eliminate pirated and counterfeit goods, it said.

Further, local authorities should expose cases of intellectualproperty rights violations and sales of faked products.