From the New York Times:
Starting this summer the Hong Kong government plans to have 200,000 youths search Internet discussion sites for illegal copies of copyrighted songs and movies, and report them to the authorities. The campaign has delighted the entertainment industry, but prompted misgivings among some civil liberties advocates.
Christine Loh, the chief executive of Civic Exchange, a policy research group, said the government program would have to be managed with particular care because of its faint echoes of the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, when children were encouraged to inform on their parents and other relatives.
Youths who participated in a pilot program this spring found another problem: some of their friends thought it was uncool. “They joke with me and ask, ‘Oooh, will you arrest me?’ ” said Hung Ming-Wai, 16. [Full Text]
See also BBC’s BitTorrent user guilty of piracy:
A Hong Kong man has been convicted of movie internet piracy in what is believed to be the first case involving BitTorrent file-sharing software.
The Hong Kong customs department said that since the arrest illegal file-sharing had fallen by 80%. [Full Text]
Also Online Piracy Gets Back at China by EchoList.com; Chinese Stiffens Penalties for Online Piracy by Digital Media in Asia blog; and China Daily’s Music sector urges buyers to help in piracy battle
