Two Chinese companies were punished by the National Copyright Administration (NCA) for producing software violating Microsoft's copyright, said a NCA official Friday.

The two companies, Beijing Zhongxinlian and Tianjin Minzu, produced recovery disks of Window XP Home Edition for Lenovo computers without authorization from Microsoft, said Wang Ziqiang,the NCA spokesman, at a press conference Friday.

The administration started investigation into the two companies after receiving a request from Microsoft in June this year, he said.

Beijing Zhongxinlian had produced 55,000 disks of the Microsoft software from November 2001 to July 2003 for a Beijing-based TV and movie entertainment company, Beijing Yanjing Tianbao. Tianjin Minzu made 4,000 disks of the same kind in 2002 for a technology company named Fangxiaojun Technology, according to the NCA.

The administration confiscated the income of 10,405 yuan (1,258US dollars) of the Beijing Zhongxinlian and fined the company 80,000 yuan (9,673 US dollars), which was the ceiling amount for sucha violation according to the Regulations on Protection of ComputerSoftware, Wang said.

Tianjin Minzu was fined 10,000 yuan and confiscated its illegal earning of 600 yuan from this deal.

"The two companies were the executors in the violation. As for Beijing Yanjing Tianbao and Fangxiaojun Technology who asked them to do so, as far as I know, Microsoft is going to take them to the court," Wang said.

The two companies will have to compensate Microsoft for the violation and the amount of the compensation depends on the three companies themselves, he added.

"We hope more copyright owners, especially domestic ones, would work more actively with the government to fight piracy," he said. "In this case, without the cooperation from Microsoft, we can't settle the case in such a short time."

He reiterated that the administration would work hard to protect the rights and benefits of anyone, Chinese or foreign, according to law.

The NCA also publicized the result of investigation and crackdown on pirated "Shrek 2" DVDs in response to its producer DreamWorks' request in September.