China confiscates 46 mn illegal publications

China has confiscated more than 46.1 million illegal publications, including 1.6 million relating to porn and 50,000 smuggled compact discs, in its crackdown during the first half of this year, officials said.

Pirated books and audio and visual productions formed bulk of the confiscated publications, which also included 1.07 million copies of illegal newspapers and magazines, the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Piracy Office said.

Four copy infringement cases, three of them involving pirate CDs, had been detected recently, it said.

Nearly 3.24 million pirated CDs were seized from three illegal audio and visual production warehouses in south China's metropolis of Guangzhou in the biggest illegal publication case in the province this year, it said.

China had attached great importance to Intellectual Property Rights protection, the office was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

In the past 20 years, China has closed down 238 pirate disc production lines, solved more than 400,000 cases of IPR infringement and confiscated more than 1.3 billion illegal publications, it said.