BEIJING -- China has closed 3,014 shops around the country selling pirated audio-video products and computer software in one month, at the beginning of a 100-day intensive crackdown on piracy.

About 8.371 million illegal products, mainly pirated CDs, DVDs, and computer software, were confiscated, according to the State Press and Publication Administration (SPPA), which overseas the country's anti-piracy efforts.

Police and copyright officials have raided more than 89,000 shops and street vendors nationwide and 9,508 of them were punished for selling pirated products.

"We are giving shopkeepers a stern lesson to make it clear that selling pirated products will lead to strict penalties," said Liu Binjie, vice director of the SPPA.

According to SPPA officials, more than 60 percent of shops nationwide registered in the audio-video trade had handed in pirated discs they were storing.

In Chongqing city , Hubei province and Jiangsu province, about 150,000 pirated products were collected.

"We will not punish shops that have voluntarily handed in pirated products in the first month," said Liu, "but will strike hard on those who ignore our warning and continue to sell such products."

"We will close every shop which we find is guilty of violations in the next two months," he added.

For those still selling illegal copies after mid-August, stricter punishments will be meted out, with a minimum fine of 10,000 yuan (1,250 US dollars), according to previous reports.

The business licenses of sellers will be revoked if more than 100 illegal discs are found for sale.

On Wednesday, about 100 writers, singers and lyricists, along with people from the computer software industry, attended a signing ceremony in Beijing to show their support for the anti-piracy campaign.

"As a singer, I am one of the victims of piracy, which makes it harder to release profitable albums," said Zhang Shaohan, a teenage pop singer, who has risen to stardom over the last two years with her sweet voice and innocent features winning the hearts of young Chinese.

"I am young, and my efforts might be tiny, but I still want to call on the public to join the fight against piracy," Zhang said.

The 100-day campaign to crack down on piracy was initiated on July 25 and is expected to end in late October.

Although the SPPA on Wednesday said great progress had been made in the campaign, many pop artists were not impressed.

"It is too early to call that 'great progress'," said Gu Jianfen, the lyric writer who has achieved fame through writing many revolutionary songs that have inspired generations of Chinese.

"It should not be just 100 days. The campaign must go on for 1,000 days or 10,000 days," Gu said.

In the latest move, copyright authorities are preparing an Internet system to fight on-line piracy, which will be able to identify pirated software, films, music and other copyrighted works.

The government has issued the Protection of the Right of Communication through the Network, effective from July 1, which bans the uploading and downloading of Internet material without the copyright holder's permission.