Pirated software products worth 140 billion yuan (around 17.5 billion U.S. dollars) were sold on domestic market in 2005, accounting for 26 percent of the total sales in the software industry.

Among the pirated software products, 47 percent are system software, 43 percent are application software and 10 percent are supportive software, said a report made by the leading group for intellectual property right management after a nationwide investigation on pirated software products.

Pirated software users include organizations, which make up 16 percent of the total, and individuals, who make up 41 percent.

The report attributed the high proportion of pirated software usage to poor after-sale service offered by software developers and lack of free or low-priced software for teaching.

The report suggests that the government should provide better after-sale service, increase the supply of free or low-priced software for teach and improve software quality and structure.

China has made great efforts to combat pirated software and encourage the use of legitimate ones, said Wang Ziqiang, spokesman for the State Copyright Bureau.

The Chinese central government is expected to allocate up to 150 million yuan (about 18.7 million dollars) for legitimate software purchases for government computers, he said.

China is also working hard to promote legitimate software use in enterprises, especially in the state-owned firms where the government has bigger control.

"China wants to give overseas companies confidence that piracy can be confined to a limited scale with consistent government efforts on striking pirated products, Wang said.

Source: Xinhua