Beijing cracks down on online piracy

Beijing has enhanced its supervision over copyright infringement in digital publications, apps, cloud storage and social media platforms such as Sina Weibo and WeChat.

Last year, the capital handled more than 3,000 cases and confiscated 3.69 million illegal publications. It imposed 19.61 million yuan（$3 million）in fines.

In a high-profile case, a company was fined 400,000 yuan for selling pirated digital products without taking Elsevier, Cambridge University Press and Springer Group consent.

"It showed that the government was adhering to its commitment to the world - we will strengthen the protection of copyrights," said Wang Ningzhi, deputy director of the Integrated Law Enforcement on Cultural Market in Beijing. He added that the US and UK publishers associations appreciated their efforts.

Rapid technological developments are creating a more complex and diverse form of online copyright violation. Videos without the authorization of the copyright owner and with sexual content are widely spread through the combination of new technologies, such as VR, cloud servers, online outlets and traditional physical storage devices, the disks.

In 2017, a strategic cooperation agreement on eliminating pornography and illegal publications was signed by Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and 48 other cities. About 1,700 websites, containing 310,000 pieces of illegal and pornographic content, were shut down and removed.

Zhang Zhaoqing contributed to this story.