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Three men given jail sentences for piracy
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-01-14 15:50 Three men have been sentenced
to prison for contracting companies to make fake copies of Microsoft software,
as a crackdown on widespread piracy continues.
Wu jun, Han Ming and Wu
Xiaojun were sentenced to between six months and one year in prison for "illegal
business operations," the National Copyright Administration of China said
yesterday.
The three had commissioned two companies to make 59,000
illegal copies of a Microsoft program that restores operating systems, it
said.
The companies - Beijing Zhongxinlian Co and Tianjin Minzu Disc Co -
were fined a total of 90,000 yuan (US$11,000), the administration said. Their
profits from the project, totaling 11,000 yuan, were also
confiscated.
"This case does not involve a great deal of money but it is
quite influential since pirated Microsoft products are very common in some
areas," said Duan Yuping, an administration spokeswoman.
Yesterday's
cases were announced during US Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans' Beijing
visit. He urged the central government to do more to stop product
piracy.
Vice premier Wu Yi, who spoke at an intellectual property
round-table conference, attended by Evans, yesterday said China had improved
intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for American
businesses.
"So far, positive results have been achieved," Wu said. "Much
progress has already been made."
But she also said it will take a long
time to fundamentally change IPR protection.
"The establishment and
improvement of IPR protection cannot be completed overnight, especially in a
country of 1.3 billion people with a low economic and technological level," she
said. "The government needs to work with the business community and consumers
for a long period of time."
Wu said she hopes that the US government and
companies would understand this and have confidence in China's long-term
commitment to IPR protection.
Lax IPR enforcement continues to be a
contentious issue between the United States and China. The two countries set up
an IPR work group last year and reached a consensus on IPR
protection.
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