Chinese government departments concerned have cracked down on copyright infringement, confiscating more than 3.16 million pirated video compact discs ( VCDs) in their latest sting operation.

As a result, they have effectively curbed rampant piracy of overseas publications, an official with the Ministry of Culture said here today.

In the past six months, criminals have coordinated their activities for illegally copying and publishing audio-video products, which were well-packaged and appeared to be copyrighted VCDs. Fake brands such as Golden Wanner, Jinlong Movies, Global Movies and 30 others have been prohibited by the government, said Chen Tong, a ministry official who oversees the publication markets.

According to Chen, 70 percent of the recently-captured VCDs were from underground warehouses and specialized markets.

Police raided the pirated VCD markets in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing, Yunnan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, seizing more than 100,000 discs in each of the provinces and municipalities.

Before the coordinated operation, police had already seized 240, 000 and 460,000 discs in Beijing and Guangdong, respectively.

During the campaign, the task force uncovered two workshops for making counterfeit labels in Cangnan County of Zhejiang Province, east China, and found two underground warehouses storing 1.6 million illegal discs in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong.

Various localities have strengthened the management of their audio-video product markets after the campaign. Yiwu City, also in Zhejiang, is encouraging people to report piracy to local administrations. A reward of 0.5 yuan (six US cents) will be offered for each confiscated disc.

The crackdown campaign followed that launched by the Chinese customs, which resulted in a reduction in the influx of pirated discs from the overseas market.

Statistics show that Chinese customs seized roughly one million discs and 170,000 video assettes between January and June this year.