Customs officers have cracked Hong Kong's largest corporate piracy case and arrested two men, a government press release said in HK on Saturday.

Customs officers earlier raided an electronic watch company in Kwai Chung, New Territory and seized 16 computers installed with pirated software. The software was high-priced professional graphic design programs, such as PTC Pro/Engineer Wildfire, AutoDesk AutoCAD and Adobe Photoshop. The retail price of their genuine versions amounts to about 8 million HK dollars (one million US dollars).

Two men, aged 47 and 32, the company director and officer-in-charge of the computer section, were arrested. They have been released on 5,000 HK dollars bail.

Hong Kong customs have strengthened their anti-piracy efforts in recent years. And 105 operations have been mounted since April 2001, in which 74 companies were found to have breached the ordinance giving rise to the arrest of 141 people.

And 19 cases have been convicted in court, the heaviest penalty being a 50,000 HK dollars fine and six-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Hong Kong Customs and the Business Software Alliance also called on public awareness of using pirated software in conductingbusiness and to encourage the reporting of suspected cases.

Xinhua