Fighting talk from Jack Valenti, chairman of the US Motion Picture Association, who sends the strongest message yet to Hong Kong video pirates that their good times are ending.
Mr Valenti warns that the film and music industry will 'pursue you relentlessly and make Hong Kong an extremely unprofitable place to operate', taking the fight against piracy into another and perhaps more effective dimension. Those caught in the government crackdown last April now face the prospect of both financial ruin and prison sentences. That could prove a greater deterrent than increased prosecutions and confiscation of their manufacturing equipment.
However, no matter how many factories have been shut or counterfeit goods seized, the illicit trade has continued to flourish. It has done so because surveillance has been restricted by the limited manpower available to Customs and Excise.
There may be sound reasons for police reluctance to get involved in intellectual property cases. However, their prevalence runs counter to Hong Kong's image as a law-abiding city, and it is the large force of officers on street patrol who see most of what is going on.
Shops that are closed down one week simply re-open the next. Pirates flaunt the law with apparent impunity, even as people knowingly buy their fraudulent goods and thus aid and abet their crimes.
Last month Post reporters found business booming in pirate VCD shops in Aberdeen and Quarry Bay, just weeks after they had been closed by a police swoop. All were offering the latest Hollywood films at $20, days before their general cinema release.