China's Ministry of Culture has worked out a long-term supervision mechanism for the audio and video products markets to carry on the success of the country's 100-day crackdown on piracy.

The mechanism, based on the principle of "stringent management and tough punishment", orders both routine checks and occasional raids of CD and DVD stores, with those fined or punished put on record, according to an official with the ministry.

It asks local cultural departments to cooperate with industry and commerce, police and transport departments to clamp down on street peddlers and other illegal distributors without licenses and to break the transportation and sales network of pirated goods, said the official.

Local cultural departments are also required to assess the performance of companies and stores engaged in the trading of audio and video products every six months, he said.

The names of those people who have their licenses revoked for selling pirated publications shall be publicised in the media and special files will be set up to record those hiding more than 1,000 illegal copies, he said.

Chinese police reported on Sunday that they had confiscated more than six million pirated publications by the end of August as part of the 100-day crackdown.

Local police had raided more than 32,000 publication markets and distribution companies, and closed down 355 companies engaged in bulk business of illegal copies, according to a report by the Ministry of Public Security.

The campaign started on July 25 and is said to be unprecedented in terms of its duration and number of government departments involved.

Source: Xinhua