Hong Kong became the first jurisdiction to jail a BitTorrent user when Chan Nai-ming’s conviction was upheld on appeal on 13th December. Mr. Chan, who used the alias “Big Crook” was convicted for attempting to distribute three Hollywood movies - Daredevil, Miss Congeniality and Red Planet - using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing technology.
Tuen Mun Court originally sentenced Mr. Chan to 3 months in November 2005 and the appeal was based on the claim that making a work available on the Internet did not constitute “distribution” because each downloading act was initiated by the downloaders, and “distribution” must mean a positive act. In delivering her judgement, Madam Justice Clare-Marie Beeson ruled that the magistrate had correctly used the ordinary meaning of “distribution” to convict Chan. She also rejected a claim that the section of the copyright ordinance used only applied to “tangible materials”, not digital copies.
Madam Justice Beeson also noted the aim of Hong Kong laws to protect copyright owners and to help the city maintain its position as a responsible member of the global trading community.