The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Hong Kong man jailed for movie sharing

BitTorrent user gets three months in chokey

Join our expert panel in discussing application security

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months for the unauthorised sharing of movie files using BitTorrent. Chan Nai-ming, 38, was sentenced on Monday after being found guilty of copyright infringement at an earlier hearing last month. He was found culpable for uploading three films - Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality - onto the net using the popular file sharing program.

Hong Kong police claim Chan is the first person in the world prosecuted over copyright offences as a result of using BitTorrent. The program enables large files to be distributed more easily by breaking them up into smaller component files and using peer-to-peer delivery. It holds no central database of files. Local authorities and the movie industry hope Chan's imprisonment will act as a deterrent to others, the BBC reports. ®

Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines

Don’t Miss

Win a Samsung C6625!

Reg Lucky Draw Windows Mobile handsets up for grabs

Palm_Pre_001_SMIs your cameraphone an oxymoron?

Pic Review iPhone 3G v iPhone 3GS v Palm Pre

Reg black vulture logoReg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!

Site news Email-tasm

Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter

Narrowcasting for the email classes