Local government agencies are now running licensed operating systems and office software on nearly all of their computers, the Shanghai Copyright Administration said Tuesday.

Shanghai was among the first local governments to comply with the central government's order to install licensed software on every computer at each level of government.

Shanghai finished its effort before the end of October last year, ahead of the deadline at the end of the year, said Cai Jiwan, deputy director-general of the Shanghai Copyright Bureau.

However, because Shanghai was one of only four other provinces or municipalities to comply, the central government extended its deadline to June 2012, according to the 2012 working plan that the National Copyright Administration released in January 2012. It also extended the deadline for cities and counties to December 2012 and December 2013, respectively.

Shanghai has made legitimate software part of local government procurement. "Since 2004, Shanghai has budgeted 25 million yuan ($3.92 million) annually, composed of 22 million yuan for software licenses and 3 million yuan for after-sale services," said Xue Bin, chief of the Copyright Department at the Shanghai Copyright Administration.

Local government agencies bought 11,816 operating system licenses, 17,939 office software licenses and 2,050 licenses for anti-virus software, covering all municipal government agencies, according to a news release from the Shanghai Municipal Government.

"The software legalization of government agencies will set a good example for intellectual property protection at other institutions," the news release said.