The copyright industry production value contributed more than 6 percent to China's gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report in the People's Daily.

The copyright industry is based on the manufacture, storage, usage and consumption of knowledge and information, involving such fields as literature, art, journalism, publishing, broadcasting, cinema, computer software and Internet.

China has had a batch of exemplary companies in the copyright industry, such as the Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, an interactive entertainment media company opened to run in Shanghai in 1999 that offers a portfolio of diversified entertainment content that users access via the Internet.

With more than 10 products developed by itself or operated as an agent, Shanda earned US$154 million through Internet games in 2004, with all its services each having a 100 percent increase.

The Chinese copyright industry, however, still faces challenges, said Shen Rengan, director-general of the Copyright Society of China.

"Copyright awareness of the public is still weak, and some local governments conceal and even connive in copyright infringement actions, and smuggled pirated productions into China are encumbering China's copyright industry," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2005)