Piracy activities in Hong Kong are under control thanks to the anti-piracy efforts by the government, a Hong Kong official said in Beijing on Thursday.
Hong Kong's Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Excise Vincent Poon Yeung-kwong made the remark when addressing a signing ceremony to renew an anti-piracy reward scheme jointly operated by the Hong Kong Customs and the copyright industry.
Last year, the Customs effected 3,400 copyright piracy cases and arrested 2,701 people, and seized a total of 16.5 million pirated optical discs worth over HK$297 million (US$38 million), Poon said.
Up to November this year, the Customs seized 7.66 million pirated optical discs valued at HK$143.3 million (US$18.37 million) and arrested 2,597 suspects.
Poon pointed out that the number of shops selling pirated discs has dropped from the peak of about 1,000 to about 100 at present, and the number of pirated optical discs in circulation has reduced from five million to around 100,000 due to vigorous enforcement actions by the government.
Speaking on the anti-piracy reward scheme, Poon said the renewal of the reward scheme for another year indicated the staunch co-operation between the government and the copyright industry in the fight against piracy.
(Xinhua 12/14/2000)
