The American government has formally put pressure on China to step up its efforts to combat piracy. With China an increasingly important market for the music and entertainment industries, record labels, studios and software firms are increasingly concerned at the continuing high levels of piracy that takes place in the country. And the problem actually affects a much wider base of companies - with fashion firms and companies like Gillette also suffering from the widespread sale of counterfeit goods in China.
US Trade Representative Rob Portman has issued a demand via the World Trade Organisation for the Chinese government to work harder to combat its piracy problem. Representatives from both Japan and Switzerland have lodged similar complaints. Chinese authorities have made some moves to combat piracy in the last year, with China based internet portal NetEase closing its music service in response to piracy concerns, and Chinese search engine Baidu facing prosecution for its role in assisting the illegal distribution of music online. However, many industry execs say that while Chinese officials may be adopting the right rhetoric towards piracy, their achievements in combating it have been minimal, especially in tackling the country's massive bootleg CD and DVD market.
It remains to be seen if, given this kind of international pressure, the Chinese government are willing or able to tackle the problem any further.