Customs raids HMV, seizes suspect DVDs
HMV was assisting a customs investigation into its alleged illegal sale of parallel-imported movie DVDs, a spokeswoman for the retail chain confirmed yesterday.
The spokeswoman confirmed officers had searched some Hong Kong outlets on Thursday and taken away DVDs of two films - W., scheduled to premiere in Hong Kong next month, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, shown here in October last year.
HMV Hong Kong and Singapore managing director Emily Butt had also been invited to customs' intellectual property investigation bureau to assist in the investigation. 'Ms Butt was invited to give some information,' the spokeswoman said. 'As it is a pending case, we consider it inappropriate to comment further.'
The customs operation followed complaints by the local distributors of the two films. HMV was suspected of selling the parallel imports inside 15 months of their release.
Parallel imports are copies of copyright works destined for markets outside Hong Kong and imported without the consent of the copyright owners here. Anyone who trades them within 15 months of the work's publication anywhere in the world could face criminal or civil action.
Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories Motion Picture Industry Association chief executive Bryan Chung said he was pleased with customs' prompt action. 'Parallel imports have been a big concern in the local film industry. If people watch parallel-imported copies before the film is shown, fewer people will go to see the film in the cinema,' he said.
A spokeswoman for Emperor Motion Pictures, the local distributor of W., said: 'We were a bit surprised to hear a chain store is involved.'
