The move comes against the backdrop of the nation's fight against piracy of recreational products, a key condition of the country's World Trade Organization membership.

Ministry of Culture officials said yesterday they will co-operate with local government bodies and Internet game operators to keep the booming market on a legal footing.

Topping the hit list are dishonest Internet bar owners who set up Internet servers to steal Internet games from their rightful owner - the major source of online entertainment piracy.

These private-run servers are operating without any official licences from governmental agencies, taking advantage of legal loopholes to amass huge profits by wooing netizens to play the online games.

Many of them are also baiting net buffs by distributing obscene, abusive or subversive content via their Internet servers.

The biggest losers from these crimes are the licensed business operators, who fail to receive any royalties from the Internet bar owners.

"Piracy has become the software industry's major enemy, as it has damaged many licensed online game operators," said the top official in charge of the Internet with the Ministry of Culture.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying the government will try as hard as it can to clamp down on any piracy.

In the previous anti-piracy campaign conducted last December, the ministry closed 17 Internet bars in Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province and Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province.

To build up its anti-piracy campaign, the Ministry of Culture is expected to work out a regulatory framework for online game business later this year, tightening control of online game content and strengthening management of the sector.

A non-profit organization covering the major online game operators is expected to be established later this year in a sign of collaboration and solidarity in the anti-piracy battle.

Since last March, China has put into force a revised set of regulations governing copyright registration for computer software which was amended to keep it in line with WTO requirements.

The regulations also cover registration of patents for software and transfer of such patent rights.

The nation amended its copyright law two years ago, extending its scope to cover more subjects, including acrobatic performances, architectural designs and literary and artistic works published online.

In a move to embrace international property rights rules, China joined the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1984 and, in 1992, signed up to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

(China Daily January 25, 2003)