Vendors of illegally copied films, music or other copyright products online will face up to three years in jail, the Ministry of Public Security announced on January 11 in a pledge to crack down on "rampant" piracy.

The ministry said the police had arrested more than 4,000 people suspected of intellectual property rights violations since a crackdown began last November. The campaign will continue until March.

Gao Feng, Deputy Director of the ministry's Economic Crime Investigation Department, said more than 2,000 cases of piracy, involving more than 2.3 billion yuan ($348 million), had been dealt with during the crackdown.

"The astonishing results, on the one hand, reflect the achievements of the police during the campaign, but they also underline the fact that IPR infringements are still rampant," said Gao.