According to “The Hollywood Reporter” today, the film and music industries in Hong Kong have joined forces to file the biggest civil suit in the history of the country against optical disc bootleggers. Bootlegging has caused serious dmagae to video and music publishers worldwide, and has literally brought Hong Kong’s film industry to the verge of collapse.

The Hong Kong branches of the Motion Picture Association and the International Federation of Phonographic Industry have just filed 15 writs on behalf of 22 separate plaintiffs. The plaintiffs include Hollywood studios like Columbia Pictures Industries, Disney Enterprises Inc., Universal Pictures, New Line Productions Ltd., 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Warner Music (HK), Universal Music and Sony Music, as well as a number of smaller publishers. The suit named six individuals and five companies as defendants and sought unspecified damages and costs, as well as an injunction to restrain the defendants from further copyright infringement.