At least five major Chinese movie and television websites were shut down on World Intellectual Property Day on Friday, after police clamped down a major high-definition (HD) video website providing pirate films and television programs on Wednesday.

The websites were some of most popular movie websites in China. They claimed that their sites were shut down due to maintenance, however they did not disclose when the websites will be reopened.

One of the sites, yyets.com, claimed on its official Weibo account that they will gradually remove the films and television resources they had been offering for download, but continue providing subtitle translation services. The website suggested visitors turn to overseas websites which provide better resources.

But the site also provides at least seven sites for users to download television dramas from the US at their official Weibo account.

Web users complained about the closures on Friday, pointing out that some of the films had never been introduced into China's theaters and they would not be able to access them.

The shutdowns came after Bejing police detained the CEO of siluhd.com, which had claimed to be China's largest high-definition movie website, as well as eight core staff members from the website on Wednesday.

Another 30 employees of the company may also be detained because they released resources for download which violated copyright law on more than 50,000 instances, the Beijing Times newspaper reported. 

The report also said that siluhd.com is suspected of profiting from pirated audio-visual products after police found 190 hard disks of 1TB at the premises of siluhd.com, which were all full of pirated films and television programs.

Police said the website, which was established in 2003, now has 139 employees who are divided into different groups and responsible for different work functions including searching and buying legal HD copies, producing pirate copies, sales, developing membership, management and even advertising.  

Police disclosed that more than 40 well-known enterprises had put ads on the website because of its strong reputation among HD fans in China.

The website had more than 1.4 million members worldwide. Police said visitors who wanted to register had to get an invitation code from the website and pay 50 yuan ($8.10) in fees each month to be able to download the resources provided on the website.

If members found that downloading films was too slow, they could even directly purchase hard disks containing films from the online store, which had a contract with the website.

Tian Lipu, director of the State Intellectual Property Office told Xinhua Thursday that accusations made by foreign media that China has weak protection of intellectual property rights were groundless and they may change their views if they considered the facts.

 But Liu Feng, deputy director of the intellectual property rights committee at the Shanghai Bar Association, told the Global Times that people in China still lack respect for intellectual property rights.

"The situation is getting better now, on the one hand people have realized it is not right to buy pirated publications, and the awareness of rights-protection and obligations has also largely increased. But the process of forming an attitude of refusing pirated audiovisual products still has long way to go in China," Liu said.

"Campaign-style law enforcement like this can't fundamentally solve the problem, until the awareness and attitude of the country's citizens reach a certain level," Liu said.