Customs investigators at Hong Kong’s Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau arrested a 41-year-old man for distribution of suspected pirated TV programs using peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software on the Internet.
Customs earlier received a complaint regarding distribution of suspected pirated TV programs by offering P2P seed files on a discussion forum for others to download.
Investigators suspected that the seed files were distributed in other forums. Upon analysis of the seed files and tracing, they eventually found the source at a local address, and the seed files were distributed on another discussion forum located overseas.
Customs officers raided a household in Hong Kong's Sheung Shui district, arrested the man, and seized TV recording and computer equipment with a total value of about HK$18,000 ($2,300).
The man, who claimed to be unemployed, was released on bail pending further investigation.
Based on investigation, the suspect may have used the TV recording device to capture TV programs regularly and edited them with computer software. He then used P2P sharing software to create seed files and shared them on discussion forums.
The suspect posted the seed files irregularly and changed his IP address frequently to evade detection.