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Hanoi (dpa) - A raid on a printing company in Vietnam has uncovered 100,000 counterfeit books, in the largest-ever crackdown on copyright infringement, a police official said Saturday.
The police in the northern province of Thai Nguyen stormed the company Friday night after they had stopped a car carrying 10,000 pirated books that was traveling to Hanoi.
"During a raid last night on the Thai Nguyen Printing Joint Stock Company we found 100,000 illegally copied books," said a police official at the Social Crime Investigation Department, who would only identify himself as Hung. He said he was not authorized to give any details about the arrests.
The discovery of the pirated books, including popular Vietnamese titles such as "Feng Shui" and "Let's Go," is believed to be the largest seizure of its kind. Previous arrests have only netted several hundred books at a time.
Counterfeiters have traditionally operated in Vietnam without fear of arrest. Bootleg DVDs and photocopied books are openly sold.
Vietnam has signed several international intellectual property treaties yet it is criticized for its lax enforcement. As the newest member of the World Trade Organization, the government is now under greater pressure to crack down on copyright violators.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
