More than 3.23 million web links related to copyright infringement and a total of 2,884 pirate applications have been taken off or closed during a joint campaign to beef up copyright protection in China, the National Copyright Administration said on Friday.

The campaign, called Sword Net 2020, was initiated by the administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China in June last year, focusing on areas with frequent and serious copyright infringements, such as those on films, literature and music, and aiming to purify the environment for online copyright development.

Besides mediating 925 copyright-related disputes during the four-month campaign, the authorities also solved 724 copyright infringements, including 177 criminal cases, according to the National Copyright Administration.

The administration and its three other partners selected 10 prominent cases and made them public on Friday, showing their determination to fight piracy and protect intellectual property rights.

In one disclosed case, for example, a court in Jiangxi province sentenced a defendant surnamed Gong to three years in prison with a fine of 60,000 yuan ($9,275) in November, because Gong downloaded many music files online without permission from the copyright owners and then benefited from selling the music to others.

The campaign was the 16th special action targeting copyright infringement and piracy on the internet since 2005.

(Source: China Daily)