In a recent operation codenamed "Intruder", officers from the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau raided five shops in Tsuen Wan and Sham Shui Po and, for the first time, seized eight portable electronic game consoles with circumvention devices and 16 memory cards loaded with pirated games, with a total value of HKD13,500.
The game consoles had been illegally modified to enable customers to play pirated electronic games. Six men were arrested, three of whom were shop owners while the others were shop assistants.
According to the section on criminal liability for circumvention of effective technological measures under Hong Kong's Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2007, a person commits an offence if he or she makes, imports or exports circumvention devices for sale or hire; sells such devices; or provides a circumvention service for business purposes. The maximum penalty is four years' imprisonment and a fine of HKD500,000.
