Updated at 4.59pm: Two people were arrested during a customs operation on Thursday that brought authorities their biggest-ever haul of pirated disks destined for sale online, a government spokesman said on Friday.
Customs officers seized more than 12,000 pirated disks and a computer, worth about $310,000, the spokesman said. The operation followed a tip-off several months ago that pirated animation film disks were being sold online, he explained.
Customs officers from Anti-Internet Piracy Team launched an investigation and suspect these disks were sold through a local internet auction site. They later found the computer used for uploading material to the alleged auction site.
The officers launched the operation on Thursday afternoon in North Point and arrested a 28-year-old man, who had allegedly handed over pirated disks to a customs officer disguised as a customer near an MTR station. Officers later seized 12,000 pirated disks of movies and animation films, including a cartoon film currently being shown on TV.
A 22-year-old woman was also arrested, the spokesman said.
Hong Kong has strict controls over copyright infringements, among the toughest in the world. Despite this, there were more than 2,400 cases of illegal peer-to-peer online file-swapping in Hong Kong last year ? a sharp rise from 107 cases in 2003.