Selling "naked" computers, or computers without operating system, would be banned in Beijing, a senior official with Beijing Copyright Bureau said in Beijing Thursday.

The ban will take place by the end of this year and is aimed to further protect intellectual property of software, said Wang Yefei, deputy director of the bureau, at a press conference.

Government departments shall not purchase computers without legitimate software, and all domestically-made and imported computers are required to be sold with legitimate software pre-installed, said Wang.

He said all the departments of the Beijing municipal government have been using genuine software.

Beijing will target governments of townships on protection of legitimate software this year, and in late April it will carry out pilot programs to fight pirate software in large-sized state-owned, private and foreign companies.

Some manufacturers have been selling "naked" computers, which are hundreds of yuan (tens of US$) cheaper than those equipped with legitimate software. Some customers would install pirate software and infringe legitimate rights and interests of software companies, according to the official.

China has made an effort to fight piracy. Since the year 2000, police have detained about 13,000 people suspected of breaking intellectual property rights (IPR) laws in cases involving 4.8 billion yuan (some US$600 million), and 3,370 people had been charged with violating IPR laws and regulations.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2006)