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The Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, visited the Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau of the Hong Kong Customs this (December 30) afternoon to learn more about the department's latest enforcement work against Internet piracy.

This follows the current Customs exercise in monitoring any peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing of suspected infringement of copyright of a popular Hong Kong movie now being screened in local cinemas. Mr Tsang was joined by movie industry representatives and they exchanged views on ways of co-operation and explored workable measures in combating Internet piracy.

Mr Tsang and the representatives also toured the bureau's P2P Task Force investigation workshop. They were briefed by the Assistant Commissioner (Intelligence and Investigation), Mr William Chow, on how the Customs officers make use of their expertise and the latest computer technology to monitor round-the-clock and track down any copyright infringing activities over P2P networks in the local environment. They noted that the Customs officers were keeping a close watch on such illegal activities and would take immediate action to investigate any suspected cases detected.

The visiting party also agreed that promotion of civic education among the local community in the respect of intellectual property rights should be the long term solution to stem out Internet piracy.

Ends/Thursday, December 30, 2004

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News clip (Real Media/Windows Media)