Clandestine trade in pirated items are still thriving in Hong Kong. Customs chiefs have admitted that laws alone are not enough to stop the criminals, as they keep discovering new ways to counter gamemakers' anti-piracy efforts.
Video-game pirates once foiled by Sony PlayStation's attempts to stop the use of fake games on illegally altered consoles have come up with a new encoder which allows the use of both genuine and pirated versions.
A shopkeeper at a Mongkok shopping centre said the new plug-in device could 'cheat the game' by sending new codes.
The game consoles cost $1,000 each, the pirated game discs $20 and the plug-in devices $100.
The Customs and Excise Department's Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau superintendent Chau Win-keung said the department did not focus on equipment that helped buyers use copyright-infringing products.
'Unless the attachment is infringing others' copyright, we cannot prosecute [the shopkeepers] even though they are helping the counterfeiters,' he said.