A man was arrested in Hong Kong after recently distributing two copyright films on the internet using a BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing program, the local Customs and Excise Department said Tuesday.

The man, 38, allegedly uploaded BT seed files of two suspected infringing films onto a local forum last Friday and distributed the two films over two separate periods of time, the Customs and Excise Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR) government said.

Customs officers of the Anti-Internet Piracy team detected the case last week with the help of the Lineament Monitoring System, which was launched by the Customs and Excise Department in March 2007 to monitor illegal file sharing around the clock.

Officers then tracked down on the location of the man with support from providers of internet services, the department said.

Under the Copyright Ordinance of Hong Kong, offenders who distribute an infringing copy of a work without license of the copyright owner may face up to four years in prison and a fine of 50,000 HK dollars (6,410 U.S. dollars) per infringing copy.

The department said it was the second case involving uploading of BT files detected since the launch of the Lineament Monitoring System in March 2007.