Man appeals Internet piracy verdict

HONG KONG: The first person worldwide to be convicted of distributing movies over the popular online BitTorrent network appeared in Hong Kong's highest court on Wednesday to appeal his jail sentence.

Chan Nai-ming, sentenced to three months in prison here in 2005, sought to overturn a guilty verdict for distributing three Hollywood movies onto the Web via the peer-to-peer file-sharing technology.

A lawyer for the unemployed 38-year-old, who used the screen name 'Big Crook', said Chan only uploaded the movies without distributing them, local radio RTHK reported.

Even if there was any act of distribution, it was done on the part of the downloaders who initiated the process, the lawyer was cited as saying by RTHK.

BitTorrent allows downloads from multiple sources, each supplying a small part of the file, making it much easier and faster to share large files like films and software.

Chan was charged in April 2005 for uploading the movies 'Daredevil', 'Miss Congeniality' and 'Red Planet' without a licence. He has already had an earlier appeal rejected.