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 | Friday, April 21, 2000, updated at 09:55(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Hong Kong Detects First Internet PiracyThe Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department Wednesday detected the first-ever internet piracy case since the establishment of its anti-internet piracy team last December.During the anti-piracy operation, officers from the Customs Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau smashed an internet piracy syndicate and seized 20,000 HK dollars (2560 U.S. dollars) worth of computer equipment. Officers arrested two men, aged between 28 and 31, including the mastermind of the syndicate, and seized a computer server, a desktop and other related equipment. The suspected pirates in this case make use of the computer server to save the pirated software onto the homepage of the internet for the public to download the software free of charge. In return, they could make money by attracting advertisements. To tackle the online piracy problem, the department has sent members of the Anti-internet Piracy Team to the Cyber smuggling Center in Virginia, United states to undergo a week-long training on ways to curb internet piracy activities. Locally, the Department, with the assistance of the U.S. Customs Service, has just run a four-day Cyber Investigation Seminar. "Internet piracy is a new challenge to the Hong Kong Customs," the Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Excise (Control and Intellectual Property) Vincent Poon Yeung-kwong Thursday addressed the closing ceremony of the Seminar. "Cyber investigation is a deep and enormous subject," he noted. He pointed out that the seminar, concluded today, was to lay a foundation for the participants to further their study into cyber investigation and computer forensics in future. "Taking on the success of this seminar, we look forward to arranging similar training in the future with the US Customs Service and other enforcement agencies with a view to fully equipping our officers for the new challenges ahead," Poon said. Also speaking at the event, James Dozier, a senior customs representative of the American Consulate General, paid tribute to the Hong Kong Customs for its support, cooperation and coordination to make the seminar possible. Dozier noted that cyber smuggling was the wave of the present and future regarding criminal activity. He said in order to combat that global issue, it was imperative to have international cooperation between law enforcement agencies in this arena. At the closing ceremony, 58 course members were presented a graduation certificate in recognition of their achievements made when attending the seminar. Last year, Customs officers seized 16.5 million pirated optical discs, worth $290 million, and arrested 2,701 people. In the first two months of this year, the officers seized 1.69 million pirated optical discs with a market value of 32 million HK dollars (over 4 million U.S. dollars), and arrested 544 suspects.
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