ENG-2006 — Page 151

Commerce and Industry 119

communication technology, the role of online service providers in relation to combating online piracy, how best to facilitate copyright owners in taking civil actions against online infringement, statutory damages, and copyright exemption for temporary reproduction of copyright works.

Enforcement

The Customs and Excise Department is responsible for enforcing criminal sanctions for the protection of intellectual property rights. It investigates reports of copyright infringement and trade mark counterfeiting, and takes action against the manufacture, distribution, sale, import and export of pirated and counterfeit goods and possession for business use of certain copyrighted works. The following is an account of the department's enforcement actions in the year:

Copyright cases

9 127

1 063

Trade descriptions cases

987

709

$126 million

Cases effected

Persons arrested

Seizure value

$127 million

The department maintains stringent control on all optical disc and stamper factories to prevent them from engaging in copyright piracy activities. Optical disc and stamper manufacturers are required to apply for a licence from the Commissioner of Customs and Excise.

The department also took enforcement action against business end-user piracy cases. The enforcement result since the introduction of the end-user liabilities in 2001 is as follows:

Corporate software piracy

Cases effected

92

Use of infringing music videos in karaoke

43

Persons arrested

Seizure value

201

$4.69 million

102

$2.36 million

The department's Special Task Force continued to carry out repeated and focused raids on retail outlet black spots and track down their storage and manufacturing facilities. As a result of the department's vigorous enforcement actions, large-scale illicit manufacturing activities of optical discs have been successfully stamped out.

The department also carried out repeated raids against known black spots for selling of counterfeit goods, which resulted in a significant reduction in such illegal activities. In order to evade customs detection, the counterfeiters have to operate for short periods at irregular hours. Some of them only display photographs/catalogues of counterfeit goods to potential customers who are then taken to hidden showrooms. In 2006, the department cracked down 61 such showrooms.

After the first-ever successful enforcement action against illegal peer-to-peer activities on the internet in 2005, such infringement activities have been substantially