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The work of the Special Task Force and officers of the Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau (IPIB) have always been recognised in tacking piracy activities and the rapid shrinking of the extent of CD piracy in Hong Kong.
We should not, however, forget the role played by a group of officers from the Intellectual Property Seizures Identification Division (IPSID) who are also busy bees working diligently behind the scene at the warehouse at the Government Logistics Centre in Chai Wan.
The Division comprises 54 officers from IPIB, designated for seizure identification and disposal of pirated and counterfeit goods. The Division is supported by 56 temporary contract staff in assisting the IPIB officers in handling the sorting and verification of pirated CDs and counterfeit goods.
When entering the IPSID office, people would probably think it is a large optical discs production plant or a garment factory rather than a Customs office as thousands of pirated goods, including music CDs, VCDs, CD-ROMs and counterfeit goods such as clothing, watches and leather-ware are assembled everywhere.
A spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department said: "The work of IPSID is very important to the Department in prosecuting offenders. Without their hard work in sorting, examination and verification, the Customs can never bring the criminals to court for trial.
"To enable successful prosecution, the copyright owners must appoint competent examiners to examine the seizures made by the Customs officers as only the copyright owners or their authorised representatives can confirm copyright infringement of the pirated discs seized by the Customs," the spokesman said.
The Customs seized 39 million pirated CDs in 1998 and 16.5 million in 1999. On counterfeit goods, about 1.7 million items were seized in 1998 and over 20 million in 1999.
Currently, about 20 representatives from the Motion Picture Association, the International Federation of the Phonogrpahic Industry, the Software Publishers Association, the Microsoft and the Hobankyo (representative of Japanese TV drama series) are now stationing at the Division in assisting Customs officers to confirm copyright infringement. Some of them actually work like full-time Customs staff at the verification office.
As for the local films and TV game discs, the respective copyright owners have been examining the seizures on a regular basis.
You may also be interested to know what is the fate of the pirated discs and counterfeit goods when they are pronounced forfeiture after all legal proceedings are completed.
Every time after the swift action by Customs officers in tackling piracy, the pirated or counterfeit goods are brought to the office of IPSID for temporary storage.
After series of procedures - sorting, marking records, seizure examination by respectively copyright owners and forfeiture by court - most of the goods are crushed to small particles before disposal by an industrial shredder under close watch and supervision of Customs officers.
However, the piracy problem does not just uprooted by the mere action by the Hong Kong Customs. We need support from the copyright owners and the public not to buy pirated and counterfeit goods, the Customs spokesman said.
"The industry has been very supportive in helping us verifying authenticity of the sized CDs and provide the necessary administrative of the sized CDs and provide the necessary administrative support in criminal prosecution. Some of them actually work like full time Customs staff at the verification office.
"The long-term solution to the problem, rested with education in changing the public's mentally and respect for intellectual property.
"The Customs and Excise, being the sole enforcement agency of copyright, is fully committed to intellectual property rights protection and will continue doing every possible means to maintain Hong Kong as a pirate-free zone," the spokesman said.
End/Friday, April 21, 2000
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