Fanling Magistracy today fined a Tai Po restaurant $20,000 and its 60-year-old director $10,000 for possessing unlicensed karaoke videos, which breached the Copyright Ordinance.

Last November Customs & Excise officers raided the restaurant and seized three servers installed with unlicensed karaoke videos, 18 computers and equipment totalling $300,000.

The Customs & Excise Department reminded operators of karaokes, bars and restaurants not to use infringing copyright works.

The department noted it had cracked 37 corporate piracy cases relating to the use of pirated audio-visual copyright works since the amended ordinance came into effect in 2001.

This case was the first of its kind in which a Chinese restaurant was involved in corporate piracy while all the previous offenders were karaokes and bars.

The department urged the public to report any suspected corporate piracy on 2545 6182.