The Hong Kong music industry may seek court orders to force internet service providers to help it track down and prosecute illegal file sharers, as it steps up its campaign against pirates.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (Hong Kong Group) was speaking yesterday as it conceded that an awareness campaign conducted during the past month had been largely ineffective.
It said it would now conduct an 'education by deterrence' campaign to scare pirates off by dragging offenders into court.
Chief executive Ricky Fung said the federation - which has been sending pop-up warning messages to computers illegally downloading - could only identify the computers, but needed service providers to help track down the users.
Mr Fung was optimistic the providers would co-operate. 'Experience has shown the ISPs will be willing to co-operate as long as our requests are legal,' he said.
In an extreme case, if a service provider refused to co-operate, the federation might seek a court order.
Internet companies yesterday supported moves to combat piracy, but stopped short of committing to the federation's cause.