of the 302 cases involving 31 regions, 123 are about software ipr infringement, followed by films and music. most are in developed areas such as beijing, shanghai and zhejiang province.

copyright holders and ipr experts, however, said administrative punishment alone is not enough.

"the campaign will help reduce ipr violations to some extent. but instead of periodic clampdowns, we need a consistent effort from officials and the awareness and co-operation of both netizens and website operators," said xu li, deputy general manager of beijing-based huayi brothers film investment co, the country's biggest private film-maker and a victim of ipr infringement.

xu suggested that, considering the strong demand for online content, film-makers could consider authorizing downloads from legal websites.

currently, few film companies in the united states or china bother to offer online versions of their products due to low profit margins.

"but ipr infringement cases in the virtual world are hard to supervise. some of them involve foreign websites. netizens also have difficulty distinguishing legal websites from illegal ones," jiang zhipei, president of the ipr court at the supreme people's court, told china daily.

"so it is a long battle requiring co-operation from both netizens, website operators and sound legal and administrative back-up."

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