HK busts website selling pirated Japanese cartoon DVD

The Hong Kong authorities have demolished an illegal website selling pirated animation DVD to Japanese customers through mail, local press reported on Sunday.

The website, registered by a Hong Kong native named Cheung, made up as a legitimate Japanese one by updating stockpile information and purchase details in Japanese, custom officials were quoted by Chinese daily Wen Wei Po as saying.

During its operation over half a year, the website has sold out some 12,000 pirated DVDs and made Cheung around one million HK dollars (129,198 U.S. dollars), estimated the officials.

According to the Japanese instruction on the page, interested customers were asked to make their choice on-line and transfer the purchase and mailing fee to a certain account in Japanese bank, one of three bought by Cheung through black market.

In a bid to avoid investigation, Cheung, a 22-year-old man, travel to Japan once a month to withdraw the money put into the accounts.

For all the transactions were conducted through internet, Cheung's illicit business went unnoticed until two months ago, when the Hong Kong custom received complaints from copyright holders.

Investigators then made up as Japanese customers ordering DVD at Cheung's website and arrested him on Thursday, when he tried to mail out three packages of DVDs at a post office in eastern Hong Kong.

In the following research of Cheungs' apartment, officials found 160,000 pirated DVDs, all of which were well packed and had high quality. Two other male suspects, a 67-year-old and a 22-year- old, were also arrested.

Described by the custom official as an "intellectual criminal," Cheung received only middle-school education.

Dressed according to the Japanese trend, Cheung is believed to be a big fan of Japanese pop culture and may understand Japanese, said the custom official.

Source: Xinhua