Copyright registrations soar in China

China saw a rapid increase in copyright registrations last year, mainly covering art, photos and literature works, the country's top copyright regulator said on Wednesday.

Last year, 3.98 million works were copyrighted, up about 20 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released by the National Copyright Administration.

Of the total, a quarter of the works were registered in Beijing, and paintings made up the bulk of registered works nationwide, it said.

Last year, the country also witnessed a rise in software copyright registrations — 2.28 million — up about 32 percent year-on-year, the administration said. It added that many of them involved east China's provincial-level regions, including Shanghai and Jiangsu.