September 23, 2008 10:24

Teenager facing prison for illegal filesharing

14-year-old accused of uploaded copyrighted music

A teenager in Hong Kong has been arrested on suspicion of uploading 2,000 songs to a website for free downloading.

The boy, who has not been named for legal reasons, is accused of uploading Chinese language pop songs illegally and then advertising them for download on various internet forums, reports The New Zealand Herald.

Michael Kwan, a divisional commander of Hong Kong's Copyright Investigation Division, told a news conference that the boy has been released on bail while the investigation continues.

The maximum penalty for copyright infringements in Hong Kong is a four-year jail sentence and a fine of HK$50,000 (£3,495) for every item violated.

This means that, theoretically, if this teenager is found guilty he could be fined a total of nearly £7 million along with jail time.

In 2005, a Hong Kong man was successfully prosecuted and sentenced to three months in jail for sharing movies on the internet using the software client BitTorrent.