Increasing numbers of shops and restaurants in China are agreeing to pay for one of the most common commodities of all -- background music.

Government campaigns to raise public awareness of intellectual property rights are paying off with more businesses signing up to pay royalties on the almost ubiquitous melodies that keep customers happy.

"The music here gives me a better appetite," said Liu Lu, a sophomore student in law with Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, while dining out at an Origus Pizza Works restaurant.

She and her classmates have enjoyed the occasional hearty meal at Origus without realizing they are getting a free side order of background music.

However, from Tuesday, Origus will legitimately play music under a contract with China Music Copyright Protection Association (CMCPA).

"Before, we played music without copyright holders' permission, " the manager with Origus said, adding that most Chinese restaurants had no idea they were infringing musicians' intellectual property rights (IPR).

Standard international practice requires public venues to obtain permission and pay royalties for background music, said Qu Jingming, secretary-general of the CMCPA.

"It is also clearly defined in our national law."

Qu said the government's efforts in combating piracy and protecting IPR had resulted in more enterprises and companies signing up to IPR protection.

"Restaurant companies like Origus have actively applied for contracts with us to pay for the music," Qu said. More than 5,000 companies in China have signed up, including McDonald's, KFC, Wal-Mart, and Carrefour. Internet portal Sohu.com signed with the CMCPA for the use of music online.

"This has all happened within the last 10 years, demonstrating the progress we have made in China."

The Chinese police recorded more than 6,700 cases of IPR infringement in the past five years, seizing goods valued at 350 million yuan (43 million U.S. dollars).

In a special campaign from September to December last year, the National Copyright Administration received 1,042 letters of complaint involving the piracy of literary works, music, television shows, films, software and computer games.

Last September, baidu.com, a leading Chinese search engine, was successfully sued by a Chinese music firm for 68,000 yuan (8,400 U.S. dollars) because baidu's search function violated the Shanghai-based company's rights. Last month, a technology company developing MP3 download software, Kuro, was sued in the first case involving P2P (peer to peer) downloading in China.

Also in April, Chinese musician Chen Tong took out a lawsuit against download website www.mop.com for allegedly "stealing" his works, a theme song he exclusively published on DoFala.com.

Mop.com is the largest interactive entertainment website in China.

The case is expected to open both the operations of commercial mainstream websites and behavior of Chinese Internet users to scrutiny.

Qu said copyright societies have been established in more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and major cities across China. A review of China's collective copyright management organizations of written works and audio-video products has also begun.

Source: Xinhua