HK Customs clamps down on illicit photocopying
14/10/2008 17:19
Hong Kong Customs has said that they conducted a territory-wide operation
codenamed "Phoenix" from Sept. 29 to Oct. 10 to clamp down on illicit
reprographic activities.
Acting on information from copyright owners about
suspected illicit photocopying activities, customs officers from the
Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau mounted intensive investigations and
conducted the operation.
During the two-week-long operation, customs officers
raided six photocopying shops in Shau Kei Wan, Quarry Bay, To Kwa Wan, Sham Shui
Po, Tseung Kwan O and Tin Shui Wai.
The raid led to the seizure of 174
infringing photocopies of books, six photocopiers and six binding machines,
worth about 77, 000 HK dollars (about US$9,872) in total, the Customs said
yesterday.
The infringing photocopies included secondary school textbooks,
university textbooks and reference books.
Five men and three women, aged 20
to 53, were arrested. Among them, six were shop owners and two were shop
assistants. They are on bail pending further investigations.
Under the
Copyright Ordinance, it is an offence for a person to possess, for the purpose
of or in the course of a profit-making copying service business, an infringing
copy of a copyright work as published in a book, magazine or periodical.
The
maximum penalty is a fine of 50,000 HK dollars per infringing copy and
imprisonment for four years.
Xinhua
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