5
At the retail level, Customs raided 1,045 shops and hawker stalls, arrested 1,028 persons and seized 495,019 CDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs worth HK$26 million in the first ten months of 1996. Where appropriate, the Customs join hands with the Police and other Government departments in their enforcement actions.
In blackspots such as Golden Shopping Arcade, Customs officers monitor the shops almost on a daily basis and carry out raids whenever appropriate.
At the distribution and importation levels, Customs have conducted many successful raids on storage premises and stepped up enforcement actions at the various border control points. Customs have been liaising and coordinating closely with the Police on surveillance and intelligence gathering. The two forces are also maintaining close contacts with other enforcement authorities such as the US FBI on this front.
In the first ten months of 1996, Customs have already arrested 117 persons in connection with piracy cases at the importation, storage and distribution levels. A total of 249,329 CDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs with an estimated value of HK$11.8 million were seized.
As a result of such vigorous enforcement actions at the retail, distribution and importation levels, the quantity and value of seizure in the first ten months of 1996 are already 148 per cent and 132 per cent respectively of that for the whole of 1995.
Enforcement against copyright piracy activities is very manpower- intensive. For the three-year period form 1994 to 1996, manpower in the Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau (IPIB) of the Hong Kong Customs has been increased by 40%. We will further increase the manpower of the IPIB by a further 15% to enhance its capabilities in
border interceptions intelligence gathering, surveillance,
and prosecutions in 1997. This will make the IPIB one of the most powerful IP enforcement agencies in the region.
Legislative measures to strengthen enforcement capabilities
We amended legislation in May 1995 and May 1996 respectively to increase substantially the level of penalties on copyright pirates and to provide Customs with additional legal power to tackle organised syndicates masterminding cross-border copyright piracy activities.