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Man busted over sex pics of Hong Kong singer-actor

Taiwanese police yesterday warned against publicly circulating nude pictures of a Hong Kong actor and his actress girlfriends, saying that violators could be jailed for two years.

"Circulating obscene pictures and products are subject to punishment of up to two years in jail and a fine of up to NT$30,000," a police spokesman said.

He was referring to the publication of photos on the Internet of Hong Kong singer-actor Edison Chen (陳冠希) and his former actress girlfriends, including Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐). The spokesman said police had already arrested a man, 24-year-old Huang Wei-lun (黃煒倫), on Wednesday for allegedly creating a Web page complete with password that enabled Web users to gain access, view and download the photos.

The photos, apparently taken by Chen, show him and his girlfriends in various sexual positions. There was also video footage of Chen that was allegedly posted by the suspect, the officer said.

In related news, results of a survey released yesterday by the Business Software Alliance's Taiwan branch suggested that many are unaware of the legality or safety of downloaded items.

The survey conducted among 440 youths aged 13 to 24 revealed that 42 percent of respondents go online every day and 85.4 percent usually stay online for more than one hour each time.

It was found that 79.8 percent of respondents have had experience downloading Internet material.

Of these respondents, 74.9 percent have obtained music, 64.1 percent have gotten games, 58.4 percent have downloaded photos, 40.2 percent have downloaded computer software, 30.5 percent have downloaded movies and 16.8 percent have obtained online comic or fiction literature -- all free of charge.

The results showed that 40.2 percent of respondents have no idea if the material they have downloaded is legal or illegal, and 54.7 percent have seen their computers suffer a viral attack after a download.

Meanwhile, 64.7 percent of respondents will share the downloaded information with classmates or friends, and 68.8 percent have received less than four lessons on cyber safety or cyber ethics in one semester.

The survey was conducted from Feb. 1 to Feb. 5 by National Chengchi University's Marketing Survey Research Center for BSA-Taiwan. It has a margin of error of 3.9 percent.

For the latest on Edison Chen, see Pop Stop on page 14.
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