Customs arrest teenager over internet uploads
Updated at 5.24pm: Hong Kong customs have arrested a 16-year-old student for allegedly putting copyrighted songs and films on to the internet for others to download, an official said on Thursday.
The teenager had provided more than 600 copyrighted songs and films for internet users to download free, said senior superintendent Tam Yiu-keung, head of the Intellectual Property and Investigation Bureau.
The student used a programme to configure a computer as a server for distributing files. How many people had obtained copies of them was not yet certain, Mr Tam said.
This was the first time a person had been arrested for distributing copyrighted materials through a website, he added.
Customs officers arrested the student on Wednesday at a flat in Sau Mau Ping in Kowloon. They also impounded a computer and some devices for access to the internet, worth $7,700.
The teenager was later granted bail.
Customs officers launched the operation after receiving complaints from copyright owners of the songs.
On Tuesday, the High Court ordered internet service providers to identify alleged illegal film downloaders to help record companies sue them. The internet service providers are required to disclose the names, addresses and identity card numbers of alleged downloaders.
Hong Kong is the first country to jail a person uploading copyrighted films onto the internet. In November, Tuen Mun Court sentenced Chan Nai-ming, 38, to three months jail for illegally uploading to the internet three Hollywood films using the BitTorrent file-sharing programme.
