Customs has developed state-of-the-art software to monitor and track down copyright pirates on the internet. Jointly developed with University of Hong Kong software engineers, the program automatically tracks suspicious activities that may involve uploading and downloading.
Commissioner of Customs and Excise Timothy Tong Hin-ming yesterday revealed the new technology, called the Lineament program.
Customs now mainly depends on the human eye to monitor suspicious activities on the internet, and arrange operations in a short time if needed.
'But with the new software, it will be like installing a closed-circuit television on the internet to help us monitor and record any uploading and downloading activities of particular files,' Mr Tong said.
The software will spot the first 'seeder' who distributes a copyright movie or music file by BitTorrent file-sharing technology, the upload time and the location. 'I hope the news can be a deterrent and I believe it can help us prosecute practically,' he said.
Mr Tong expected that the software would help save as much as 80 per cent of the manpower needed to monitor the internet and enhance the effectiveness of an investigation by 10 to 20 times.