A man who sold pirated DVDs in Beijing was sentenced to one year in jail and fined 10,000 yuan (1,431 U.S. dollars) on Friday, according to local court.

Zhou Cheng, 40, was the first counterfeiter to be jailed for the crime of intellectual piracy in the city, the court said.

Before, people selling pirated DVDs were charged with the crime of illegal management.

Zhou was arrested on Dec 15 when he was selling DVDs at the price of 15 yuan each at a store in a supermarket in Chaoyang District. Police found 10,934 DVDs in the store, of which 849 were counterfeit copies and the remaining were illegal publications, a Chaoyang District People's Court ruling said.

China's top court has stepped up the fight against intellectual piracy by lowering the threshold to prosecute people manufacturing or selling counterfeit intellectual property products.

The new interpretation issued by the Supreme People's Court last April states that anyone who manufactures 500 or more counterfeit copies (discs) of computer software, music, movies, TV series and other audio-video products can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to seven years.

Fines for convicted counterfeiters were also raised, to range from one to 15 times the illegal earnings, or from 50 to 200 percent of the business turnover.

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2008)