Hong Kong customs officers arrest two over alleged local pirate TV site

Customs officers on Monday cracked down on a locally based online forum involved in distributing pirated programmes from TVB and other local television channels.

Two men were arrested in the operation on suspicion of distributing copyrighted works without the authorisation of the copyright owners. A 25-year-old living in Southern District was alleged to be the founder of the website while a 46-year-old living in Tuen Mun was suspected of being a core member of the group, said Guy Fong Wing-kai, divisional commander of the Customs and Excise Department.

Officers seized four computers worth about HK$20,000 during the operation and found in the computers thousands of pirated programmes.

Another core member was based in Macau, where local customs officers took action yesterday, Fong said. He declined to reveal details about the action.

The website was still running on Tuesday because its server was in the United States, Fong said. He said officers would need more time to close the site, and he refused to name it.

“This is virtually our first case that we discovered such large quantity of local television programmes being uploaded on the internet for downloading,” he said. “This is without the authorisation of the copyright owners and this may constitute criminal offence.”