Hong Kong Plans To Thwart Pirated Discs

HONG KONG-The public here is being urged to "Get Real" about the importance of copyright and the fight against piracy.
That's the slogan with which the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department's Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau and Home Affairs Department launched a territorywide campaign Aug. 1. Bureau acting director Peter Cheung says that while past anti-piracy efforts targeted retailers, the "Get Real" campaign will try to educate consumers.
Ricky Fung, CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) Hong Kong group, says the campaign is essential because the territory's public is generally unaware of how piracy damages the local industry and economy. The campaign is being supported by Hong Kong's Anti-Piracy Alliance, which includes film industry bodies the Motion Picture Industry Assn. (MPIA), the Hong Kong Film Assn., the Hong Kong Directors' Guild, and the Hong Kong Screenwriters' Assn.
MPIA's CEO in Hong Kong, Woody Tsung, admits, however, that "Get Real" will not tackle immediate problems. "The campaign is a good initiative by the government," he says, "but we really need to tackle piracy now through [law] enforcement, legislation, and judiciary support."
With 7.7 million pirated optical discs worth $140 million Hong Kong ($18 million) seized so far this year, compared with a total of 39 million discs worth $960 million Hong Kong ($124 million) in 1998, the Customs and Excise Department has declared that the retail trade of pirated products in the territory is on the decline.
Yet while the MPIA and IFPI welcome that news and applaud the efforts of a recently set up, 185-strong anti-piracy task force, the alliance says the present availability of pirated discs on Hong Kong streets means the battle against copyright infringements is far from over.
"I don't think that numbers or quantities of seizures mean anything," says alliance spokesman Peter Lam. "If [Customs and Excise officers] are doing such a great job and if piracy is on the decline, why can I still purchase pirated goods so easily? What matters is the number of copies that are being circulated-and no one knows this figure."
The Anti-Piracy Alliance is still lobbying the government to empower police officers in the crackdown on piracy; at present, only Customs and Excise officers are responsible for enforcing copyright protection laws.