File Sharing Debate Reaches Hong Kong

On 27 April 2005, the Hong Kong Government announced that it had brought criminal charges against a Hong Kong man for illegally sharing three files containing Hollywood movies on the Internet using BitTorrent technology. The man was arrested in January 2005 and subsequently released until the criminal charges were formally laid in April 2005.

Under the Copyright Ordinance, a person who distributes an infringing copy of a copyright work without authorisation commits an offence. If convicted, the maximum penalty carries a fine of HK$50,000 per infringing copy and four years' imprisonment. The man pleaded not guilty at the first court appearance on 28 April 2005.

Around the same time, on 27 April 2005, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Motion Picture Industry Association announced the launch of a campaign against Internet users engaging in illegal sharing of local movies over the Internet. This campaign was spurred by the discovery that a large number of files containing two Cantonese