Talking Tough on Piracy.(illegal video games)(Brief Article)

Few passersby would guess that the clean-cut, rucksack-toting students who ply the Jiaodaokou section of Beijing are trying to score their next fix. Here in the shadow of the Forbidden City, the nerve center of China's Communist Party, dealers exhibit their wares in small shops housed in old, gray buildings. You like to drive a car? Try Ridge Racer. "Star Wars" buff? Go for Gradius. Itching for a fight? Consider Quake III.

The contraband in question is, of course, nothing less than the latest videogames from Japan and the United States. After years of turning a blind eye to the burgeoning illicit trade in pirated videogames, Beijing is suddenly talking tough. The games are "like opium," says the government-run China Daily, and teens are turning into "addicts." Videogames "create a bizarre and motley world with no teachers, homework and textbooks," the paper says. "The craving for diversion can only grow." The government has banned game playing at video parlors, the popular cybercafes where teens congregate during school hours, and the police have raided some establishments.

While Beijing cracks down on truants, however, the videogame pirates who are fueling the craze are getting off virtually scot-free. Now that China may soon join the World Trade Organization, Western and Japanese entertainment firms, infuriated over the loss of revenues, are watching closely to see how Beijing handles the piracy problem. So far it has conducted spot raids on shops that sell illicit videogames. Judging from the dozens of stores in the Jiaodaokou section of the city that appear to be doing a healthy business, the policy hasn't been very effective.

Discouraging pirating is not going to be easy. About 95 percent of videogames sold in China are pirate copies, by ...