A proprietor and a staff of a company were arrested by officers of the Anti-Internet Piracy Team (AIPT) for setting up a website selling infringing Japanese cartoon movies and animation discs.
The proprietor was convicted in Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts today (May 24) of one charge of "possession for the purpose of or in the course of, any trade or business of infringing copies of copyright works with a view to committing any act infringing the copyright without the licences of the copyright owners" and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The staff was convicted for the same offence on two charges and sentenced to three months' and four months' imprisonment, both sentences to run concurrently.
This was the heaviest sentence passed so far for Internet piracy cases in relation to the sale of infringing discs through websites. Since year 2000, there have been 45 Internet piracy cases convictions.
On November 1, 2004, Customs officers arrested a 24-year-old man who was sending a batch of parcels containing infringing discs in a post office in Mong Kok. Officers subsequently searched the office of a company in Mong Kok and seized about 3,000 infringing discs. A 31-year-old man who was the proprietor of the company was also arrested.
A spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department warned today (May 24) that under the Copyright Ordinance, anyone who was found in possession of any infringing article for commercial purpose was liable to prosecution. The maximum penalty is a fine of $50,000 per infringing article and four years' imprisonment.
Since the set up of the first AIPT in 2000, Customs officers have cracked 59 cases, including cases relating to the distribution of copyright work through websites, sale of pirated or counterfeit goods through websites or auction sites, and distribution of copyright work by peer-to-peer file sharing software, resulting in the seizure of more than 94,000 pirated discs and 3,700 pieces of counterfeit goods, worth more than $4 million, and the arrest of 69 men and 25 women.
Ends/Wednesday, May 24, 2006