China`s press watchdog has ordered 15 websites to remove videos which were unauthorised or had copyright issues. The deadline for the removal of videos is Sep 21.

The 15 sites, including youku.com, ku6.com and video.baidu.com, took up more than 80 percent of the country`s video market share, Wang Ziqiang, a senior official with the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

"If these websites can abide by the laws and regulations with an honest attitude, the entire copyright infringement situation on the internet will be greatly relieved," Wang said Wednesday.

Official statistics have shown that since 2005, the National Copyright Administration, the ministry of public security and the ministry of industry and information technology have found 2,621 cases of online copyright infringement, while a total of 1,198 illegal websites have been shut down.

BDST: 0415 HRS, 17 September 2010