In Hong Kong, a 32-year-old man was sentenced to ten months in prison, following his earlier conviction on three charges of making and selling pirated movie discs through his own Internet website. It was the first Internet copyright infringement conviction by the District Court.

Customs officers from the Anti-Internet Piracy Team carried out an investigation which revealed that pirated discs of some recent movie titles were being offered on a website run by the defendant for $8 to $8.5 each. The investigation also found that the man produced the pirated discs at his residence and delivered them to his customers in public places.

In the operation, a total of 169 pirated discs, a computer and a number of external hard drives were seized from the defendant's residence. More than 200 infringing movie files were kept in the seized computer and on hard drives.

On top of a criminal conviction record, the maximum punishment for selling pirated discs in Hong Kong is an imprisonment term of four years and a fine of $50,000 for each infringing copy. With regard to the possession of articles used to make infringing copies, offenders will face imprisonment of up to eight years and a fine of $500,000. (Source: 7th Space Interactive)

Story filed 26.10.11