MUMBAI: District Court Judge Stanley Chan convicted two movie pirates of breaching Hong Kong’s copyright law and sentenced them both to 24 months imprisonment, the longest jail term to be meted out this year for producing pirated optical discs.

The two women, Hua Guihong and Gan Airong, were arrested on earlier this year when Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department’s Special Task Force raided an illegal burner in Tai Po. 110 DVD-R burners and 27,000 pirated optical discs were seized during the raid, including pirated copies of MPA member company titles 10,000 B.C., Spider-Man 3 and Transformers as well as TV series of Lost and Prison Break.

"The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department and the Courts are doing a superb job of protecting rights holders’ interests against hard goods piracy in Hong Kong. A strong deterrent sentence is just what is needed to cement Hong Kong’s reputation as a tough place for movie pirates to do business, and we hope that the government’s ongoing review of measures to combat online piracy also provides the means to adequately protect creative content in the digital environment," said IFACT-GC executive director and general manager Sam Ho.