Record companies sue unemployed Hong Kong father for Internet piracy.

Seven record companies are suing an unemployed single father of four in Hong Kong for illegally uploading music to the Internet, even though he claims he doesn’t know how to switch on a computer, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The accused, Yeung Chun-choi, 54, suspects that his two teenage daughters were the ones who allegedly downloaded, uploaded and stored illegal copies of copyrighted music from Hong Kong POP stars, the South China Morning Post reported.

The record companies filed a writ against Yeung on Friday in the High Court, the paper said. Along with unspecified damages, the companies want an injunction to stop Yeung from infringing their copyrights, it said. The firms also want him to delete all illegal files, and they want the court to find out how much music he allegedly pirated, the paper said.

Company and court officials couldn’t be reached by The Associated Press for comment on Sunday.

Yeung, a former construction worker, said he hasn’t worked for the past three years because he’s been focusing on caring for his four children, the paper reported. He said he relies on a HK$8,000 (US$1,025) monthly welfare payment to raise his family, the paper said.

The father, whose wife died in an industrial accident in 2001, said the family’s computer was supplied by a social worker.

“I don’t know anything about computers. I don’t even know how to switch it on,” he was quoted as saying.

He said his daughters use the computer to do homework and sometimes he heard music coming from the machine, the paper reported.

The record companies in the lawsuit include Cineploy, Emperor Entertainment, Go East Entertainment, Gold Label Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Hong Kong), Universal Music and Warner Music Hong Kong, the paper said.

I want to know how they found him.

Ah, more here.

I wrote something about this the other week. I’ll dig it out.

Just pisses me off. Go for the big fish or the original uploader, don’t target unemployed guys who just happen to let their kids use a computer however they like.

Time for I2P then:

I2P is an anonymizing network, offering a simple layer that identity-sensitive applications can use to securely communicate. All data is wrapped with several layers of encryption, and the network is both distributed and dynamic, with no trusted parties.