Speech by Yan Xiaohong, Vice Minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning! We are glad to meet friends from the press circles. In order to implement the Proposals on Developing and Administrating Internet Culture issued jointly by the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, protect legitimate interest of copyright owners, purify online environment, and promote industry development, in 2007, the relevant departments under the State Council increased cooperation, combined daily supervision and special actions, and intensified efforts to combat against Internet piracy. From August to October 2007, on the basis of the two special actions against Internet piracy carried out in 2005 and 2006, the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC), the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) jointly launched the third special action throughout the country and the action has exerted significant effect. The relevant information is now presented as follows.

In recent years, China has witnessed a rapid development of Internet industry. According to China Internet Network Information Center , at present the number of computers with Internet access in China has reached 70 million and the amount of China 's Internet users has exceeded 172 million, which is only behind the USA and ranks the second in the world. China has over 1.31 million websites now and 12.3% of its population has Internet access. The total number of domain names in the mainland has reached 9.18 million with a high annual average increasing rate as 211%. Among all the access methods, broad band access netizens has reached 122 million. According to the “Eleventh Five” planning of MII, it is expected that China 's Internet users may reach 200 million in 2010, occupying 15% of the total population.

As a kind of mass media of information society, the Internet has gone deep into all respects of the society and has greatly influenced people's work, life, study and amusement. Although we approve the important role of its development and application in promoting economy, culture, technology and social advancement, we have to be aware that, owing to its non-boundary, mass storage, and fast and invisible spreading, the Internet has gradually become a hotbed of infringement and piracy by illegal persons and led to increasingly severe piracy which tends to flood.

Internet piracy severely prejudices legitimate interest of right owners, causes a large number of conflicts and disputes, disturbs the order of Internet communication and has become an unstable factor that hinders the development of harmonious Internet culture. Furthermore, owing to great extent and non-boundary of Internet communication, Internet piracy has produced extremely negative political, economic and social effects in the world and is highly detrimental to China 's international image. Therefore, it has become a serious problem facing us to restrain Internet piracy in the process of implementing the scientific outlook on development, building an innovative nation and constructing a harmonious socialist society. To further reinforce measures to crack down on Internet piracy and keep good conditions for Internet copyright protection, NCAC, MPS and MII jointly issued the Notice on 2007 Special Action against Internet Piracy on 1st August 2007 and launched the third special action against Internet piracy nationwide.

This special action had the following important points: (i) to effectively ban websites which committed Internet piracy and were not licensed to practise or put on file by communication administrative departments; (ii) to fully investigate infringement of communicating films, music, software or books through the Internet without authorization and to severely punish the infringers; (iii) to actively supervise larger websites which are registered at provincial level and have considerable influence; and (iv) to strictly supervise Internet bars to prevent their Internet piracy.

During the early stage of this special action, NCAC collected and straightened out relevant clues of 241 cases from informant hot-line, online reporting and right owner organizations and then turned them over for investigation, verification and handling to local copyright administrative departments of the areas in which the cases arose.

Because of thorough arrangement, conscientious organization and effective implementation, this special action accomplished its set objective of effective combating against Internet piracy and produced a marked effect. In this special action, local copyright administrative departments, with the support of public security departments and communication administrative departments, investigated and handled 1001 cases of Internet piracy in total, ordering infringers to stop infringement in 832 cases, imposing fine of 870,750 yuan, confiscating 51 computers and 123 servers, closing 339 illegal websites and transferring 31 cases to judicial departments. The amount of cases handled in 2007 special action is 1.6 times of the total amount of those handled in 2005 and 2006, and the amount of cases handled by confiscating servers, closing illegal websites or transferring cases to judicial departments also exceeds the total amount of those handled in 2005 and 2006.

Owing to the particularity of Internet piracy, it is difficult for copyright administrative departments to handle cases effectively and rapidly by themselves and only mutual support and active cooperation among copyright, public security and communication sectors can ensure accurate and effective strike on Internet pirates. During this special action, copyright administrative departments, public security departments and communication administrative departments closely coordinated and fully achieved collective superiority. For example, public security departments had their superiority in investigating cases, obtaining evidences and targeting suspects. In this special action, Chinese public security departments accepted 31 cases of Internet piracy transferred by administrative departments, exceeding the amount of accepted cases in any of the previous special actions, and solved some major cases. Particularly, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security solved “Jin Hudong” case through rapid action and effective measures. Communication administrative departments also took a steadfast position on deleting infringing content and closing illegal websites and exerted an apparent effect. From January to October 2007, Guangdong Provincial Communication Administrative Bureau notified websites to delete 94 pieces of infringing content and provided 58 pieces of information concerning pirating websites to copyright administrative departments of the province, which closed 40 pirating websites pursuant to law soon afterwards. It is just due to close cooperation and active efforts among copyright, public security and communication sectors that the major breakthrough can be achieved in the amount of handled cases in this special action.

Generally, this special action has fulfilled its set objective, purified the environment of Internet copyright protection, effectively struck on rampant Internet crimes, and demonstrated Chinese government's confidence and resolution to combat against Internet piracy and protect intellectual property rights.

In spite of the initial marked result of this special action, we have to be conscious that the environment of Internet copyright protection is subject to fundamental improvement. In particular, with the rapid development of Internet technology, Internet piracy will continuously emerge in various new forms. The fight against Internet piracy is far from ending; the task is arduous and the road ahead is long.

Secretary General Hu Jintao pointed out whether we can cope with the Internet is a matter that affects the development of socialist culture, the security of information, and the stability of the state. To protect intellectual property rights by combating against Internet piracy is an important measure to strengthen the administration of Internet culture and a guarantee for its healthy development. Copyright administrative departments will, just as usual, cooperate with public security departments and communication administrative departments to crack down on Internet piracy resolutely and severely, so as to make active contributions to maintaining the order of Internet communication, developing harmonious Internet culture and promoting the advancement of Internet industry.