Customs officers have arrested two members of an international piracy syndicate using high-speed Internet servers for distributing infringing items, and seized computer equipment worth about $34,000.

By setting up high-speed computer servers, the syndicate enabled its members to upload and download the infringing items. The so-called "top-site" was operated in a highly secret manner, and new members could join only through existing members.

Customs officers earlier received reports from the copyright industry representatives, who suspected such a top-site had been set up to distribute infringing items. The anti-Internet piracy team located the IP address of the servers concerned and the suspects, and raided two residential premises in Chai Wan and Kowloon Bay on June 9.

Top-site may have operated for 2 years+

A 23-year-old man was arrested at the Chai Wan premises and three computers loaded with a large quantity of movies, music and computer programmes files were seized.

At the Kowloon Bay premises, a 35-year-old man suspected to have downloaded infringing items from the top-site for distribution through the Internet was arrested.

A computer loaded with a large quantity of infringing computer programmes, music, animation and comics was seized.

It was believed that the top-site had been operating for more than two years with about 200 active members in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, the United States and Canada.