Last weekend in Shanghai, China hosted a conference on protecting intellectual property officials and signed the Shanghai Initiative on intellectual property protection.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers, as well as representatives from WIPO and Interpol were in town for two dull days of lectures and possibly a couple of nights of video karaoke (using non-pirated discs, we hope).

By pure coincidence, Shanghai authorities cracked down on two pirated DVD outlets that cater largely to foreigners.:

We’re not sure if the cops just really wanted a cup of coffee or if there is some new law that prohibits fake DVDs being sold at ridiculously expensive prices. We are a little late in getting to this — we were enjoying the nice weekend weather — but it was reported over the weekend that authorities in Changning District fined two “coffee clubs” on Wednesday for selling pirated DVDs:

AsiaPundit has visited the Ka De Club for research purposes (hoping to do some research on the complete second season of Battlestar Galactica, if you must know). AP will note that the coffee shop did carry a better selection of DVDs than the average street-stall vendors.

Also by pure coincidence, the authorities shut down the on-line version of the Xiangyang Market, which like its brick-and-mortar counterpart was selling fake products. Fons points to this item:

SHANGHAI, CHINA — Shanghai authorities have shut down an online store named for a downtown market notorious for selling counterfeit products.

The Chinese-language Web site, http://www.xymarket.cn, had advertised counterfeit products similar to those found in Xiangyang Road market, an open-air bazaar popular among tourists for its wide selection of bargain-priced, “name brand” t-shirts, shoes, coats and other items.

Visitors to the Web site on Friday received an error message saying it was “either nonexistent or closed down.”

By pure coincidence, Friday was also the start of the intellectual property conference.

Strangely, AsiaPundit hasn’t seen this large a crackdown on counterfeit products since hundreds of overseas guests from the entertainment industry were in town for the Shanghai Film Festival.

(photo stolen from China Daily)

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