Websites shut down for airing ceremony

The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was carried by more than 1,600 unauthorized Websites from August 9 to 11, of which 85 percent were found in developed countries, a Chinese official has revealed.

Yan Xiaohong, vice minister of the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC), said on Saturday the Chinese organizer and the International Olympic Committee had monitored the unauthorized broadcasts after the opening ceremony. On top of the overseas unauthorized Websites, a further 100 Websites in China were found carrying the ceremony.

"For those found in China, we ordered them to eliminate the unauthorized content immediately. Meanwhile, the telecom regulatory authorities kept a close watch on them," said Xu Chao, an NCAC official.

Xu said most Websites eliminated the unauthorized content on the NCAC alert. But there were illegal Websites which did not act according to the requirement.

These illegal Websites, which were not registered with Chinese authorities, were shut down in line with Chinese laws. But the number of Websites which had been shut down was "very small," he said.

The NCAC could not shut down the overseas Websites, but instead blocked unauthorized content.