BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) have separately sent letters to the China National Copyright Administration (NCA) to praise a special operation to crush Internet infringement and piracy as "hard but effective."

    They also expressed their hopes for enhanced cooperation with NCA, which closed 76 websites, confiscated 39 servers used for piracy and ordered 137 websites to delete contents that infringe upon regulations in an operation carried out between September and December last year.

    "This special operation has achieved its purpose and has been favorably looked upon by the public and overseas rights-holders' organizations," NCA deputy commissioner Yan Xiaohong told a press conference on Wednesday.

    The administration also fined 29 websites 789,000 yuan (98,625 U.S. dollars) and transferred 18 suspected criminal cases to judiciary courts during the operation, Yan said.

    According to Yan, the administration had received letters of complaint about piracy of literary works, music, TV series, films, software and computer games by Oct. 31, 2005, of which 172 have been resolved.

    Out of the 172 cases, 14 were reported by overseas right-holders or right-holders' organizations, including the IFPI and the MPA, he said.

    However, Yan also acknowledged one special operation was not enough to eliminate Internet infringement, because like many other countries, China has not found a right approach yet.

    "The Internet is boundless, with a huge memory and rapid transmission speed, so the evidence is hard to grasp," Yan said, adding, "The NCA is addressed to setting up a long-standing mechanism of copyright protection in the Internet context. We still have a lot of work to do."

    The State Council is expected to issue a statute on Internet information spread rights to regulate networks and fortify the defense of private and non-profit Internet websites, Yan said.

    "We will continue to cooperate with the right-holders, social agencies and international organizations - including the IFPI and the MPA," he said.

    China joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1980 and its two international treaties out of the total six - the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of their Phonograms.

    Yan told the conference that China is considering joining another two - the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, both enacted for copyright protection on the Internet.

    "China's government will keep up its seriousness about Internet infringement and piracy," he acknowledged, saying that. "Our goal is to create an environment favorable for both copyright protection and the product dissemination, and thus leave Internet information on hand for the public's study and entertainment." Enditem