Pirated Disc Business Face New Penalty
( 2001-08-06 10:28 ) (8 )

Customers will receive ten times the price they paid for audio and video discs if they find their purchase are pirated, according to a new method adopted by the Ministry of Culture to further regulate the market.

Stores will be required to make good the sum of money paid out

by the ministry for the illegally-copied discs they have sold,

Monday's China Daily quoted Zhang Xinjian, vice-director of the

Ministry's market department, as saying.

Zhang expected that the high compensation will encourage

consumers to fight against piracy.

The consumer protection law read that consumers are entitled to

compensation double the price of fake and inferior goods they have

unknowingly purchased.

However, explained the official, disc buyers did not bother to

claim indemnity for the low price, ranging from 10 (1.2 U.S.

dollars) to 100 yuan.

The ministry will invite deputies of the National People's

Congress and People's Consultative Conference and other consumers

to act as watchdogs over the market to further regulate the market.

In response to a request from Vice-Premier Li Langqing last

month for the readjustment and regulation of the market, four

government organs including public security and industry and

commerce joined in a month-long campaign starting in late July to

strike pirated software.

Official statistics show that more than 100 department stores

selling pirated discs have been closed across the country.