Hong Kong man loses appeal in internet piracy case
Last Updated: Saturday, May 19, 2007 | 11:05 PM ET
CBC News
A Hong Kong man convicted of sharing pirated movies lost his final appeal on Friday in the territory's highest court and will now have to finish serving a three-month prison sentence.
Chan Nai-ming, 38, who used the screen name "Big Crook," is believed to be the first person to receive jail time for distributing movie files using BitTorrent file-sharing technology.
He was originally charged in April 2005 for copyright infringement after uploading and distributing three Hollywood movies — Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality.
He was sentenced in November 2005 and had served several weeks in prison before filing a series of appeals.
Chan's lawyer argued before the Court of Final Appeal that he only uploaded the movies and did not distribute them, but the court dismissed the distinction.
"He plainly succeeded in distributing copies of the films in question," the court said in its judgment. "The appeal must accordingly be dismissed."
Tam Yiu-keung, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Excise, told the Xinhua news agency the ruling "will generate a strong deterrent effect on internet piracy activities."
The Hong Kong government said Chan's conviction was a milestone in the fight against illegal online sharing of intellectual property and that since his arrest illegal file-sharing had fallen by 80 per cent.
BitTorrent software is a "peer-to-peer" program that works by allowing high-speed downloads from multiple sources, each supplying a small part of the whole.
When anyone uploads a file, it becomes a source for others on the internet. Thus, locating those who upload or download material can be a difficult and complicated process, industry observers said.
Earlier this year the makers of the technology — San Francisco-based BitTorrent Inc. — announced they were launching a website that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios.
The move came two years after another file-sharing website, Grokster, was shut down as part of a court settlement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Hollywood studios could pursue companies who allow customers to download illegally.
