Oddly, it pays to give the guilty parties plenty of warning that their illegal actions are under scrutiny. The advance notice allows them the chance to either stop production or apply to manufacture under license. In Koller's case, the court award spurred other pirate operations. Within a week of the ruling, three offenders applied to the company for licenses. Especially since collecting the spoils of a court victory could prove as difficult as winning the case.
Some offenders just move to a new location and continue under a new name.
But these perceptions are wrong, says Stephanie Mitchell. The lawyer is a former vice-president of the Business Software Alliance, an industry group set up to fight piracy. Prosecutions are still rare in some provinces, but not in southern China. And in some industrial centers such as Tianjin, Chengdu and Shenyang, officials are actively cracking down on bootleggers. In any case, it is in the country's interest to improve copyright protection.