Leading websites promise to fend off piracy

A total of 101 websites signed a declaration yesterday promising to facilitate the protection of Internet-related intellectual property rights amid the country's stepped-up efforts to curb widespread piracy.

In the declaration, these websites vowed to "insist on the principle of acquiring copyrights before release, not spreading non-licensed works and "adopting necessary techniques to prevent users from uploading films and TV programs that are being publicly screened or broadcast.

These websites "should actively communicate with copyrights owners and related associations to establish a new system of authorization suitable to the Internet environment," according to the declaration.