Right before the World Intellectual Property Rights Day on April 26, 2008, the Shenzhen Procuratorial Department published details of a software piracy case jointly uncovered by police from China and the United States.
In early 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States sent an advisory to China's Ministry of Public Security in which it said that a group was dealing with the production and sale of high quality pirated software. The FBI said that the group mainly was producing pirated versions of Windows XP and Office 2007, with 70% of sales going to the U.S. and the rest to Australia, Canada, Britain, Germany and New Zealand, involving a total of US$750 million. FBI also provided the name and address of some of the suspects.
Later in July 2007, under the direction of MPS and FBI, Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Department sent 68 policemen and began a campaign called the Summer Solstice in which they captured more than 10 suspects and confiscated a large number of pirated software. The Summer Solstice was the first joint action taken by Chinese police and FBI on cracking down on intellectual property right crimes and it is also one of the largest law enforcement activities on anti-piracy. The successful uncovering of the case has been regarded as a sample of the joint efforts made against transnational crimes between China and the United States.
The World Intellectual Property Organization's Director General Kamil Idris said in a statement on the occasion of this year's World Intellectual Property Rights Day, "And so, on World Intellectual Property Day, we pay tribute to the inventors and artists, great and small, who enrich our existence with the fruits of their innovative thoughts and creative vision. And we remember why it is that their intellectual property rights, the rights that they have earned through their individual and collective talents, deserve our admiration, our protection, and our respect."
