People, stop fantasizing over digitally-enhanced photos. It’s just distasteful and doesn’t serve justice to the profession of the involved artists. If they were adult movie stars, people won’t be interested but since they project a generally good public image and serve as models of today’s youth, their private lives have become very interesting.

Thanks or no thanks to modern technology, Hong Kong artists are getting publicity (or unwanted publicity) using such technologies. Hong Kong paparazzi becomes an old method to capture these celebrities’ private lives. Now these actors and actresses are made to wear a mask of their own faces on someone else’s body. That’s the power of a gifted graphic artist with a twisted mind.

But what about if the photos are for real? I stopped by a magazine stall last night and looked at the front cover of a local gossip magazine. What I saw was realistic but maybe because the fuzzy factor deceives the eye and portrays the photo to be done on a mobile phone camera which produces low quality images and is therefore more difficult to doctor.

On the case of the artists, they have sought the help of authorities to curb this activity.

In a statement to the press, EEG said: “Our company has found some criminal activity on the internet. Someone has used digital alteration to create distasteful photographs of our company’s artist, Gillian Chung. As this is a serious matter, our company is currently investigating the source of these photographs and the identity of the person who released them.

Edison’s lawyers released a statement saying: “Our law firm has been instructed by Mr Edison Chen, in light of the publication of some distasteful photographs on the internet, to make this announcement on behalf of him to condemn strongly this irresponsible behavior. We reserve all legal rights and will pursue these against anyone who distributes or publishes this material.”

At the time of writing, the photos were still available on the Internet through a simple search using a search engine. There are rumors on internet discussion boards that the person who released the photos will soon release a full video. But with the recent arrests, I doubt this is going to happen.

But what can the police do to prevent the spread of these photos? There may be people who can be arrested:

A jobless man has been charged over the online publication of obscene photos depicting what appear to be local entertainers Gillian Chung, Edison Chen, Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung.

Aged about 30, he was arrested in the New Territories yesterday and 12 obscene photos were found on his computer, some of which had been published online.

But everyone who has a PC and connected to the web can easily share these materials. Look at the music industry, there is no way to prevent people from sharing music or videos that the recording industry has to adjust to this fact of life.

But let’s also look at another angle to this saga. What if we allow the photos spread and let the public judge? I know it’s less popular because the public includes the kids and youth who look highly at these artists but do we also think that the more we suppress the society of the truth, the more it tries to seek such truth? I haven’t looked at the photos yet and I have no plan to do so.

I noticed that most of the curious ones who are interested in the topic are from Singapore, Malaysia and Canada where Chinese fans are in touch with these popular celebrities. That is based on the web logs recorded for my blog. But I am sure the Hong Kong crowd is also very interested and are being referred to the Traditional Chinese web pages instead of this blog.

Local media and internet discussion boards have been debating whether or not the images are fakes, with some using old photographs of the stars in question to highlight body features and old images of Edison’s home to highlight furniture features, to argue their case in a game of “spot the difference” or “spot the similarity”.

Publishing obscene articles on the Internet is an offense under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance. This includes the act of reposting the obscene articles or Internet hyperlinking of obscene articles, whether for profit or otherwise. Anyone convicted of this offense is liable to a fine of $1 million and three years in prison.

Anyone who received the nude photos should delete the images immediately, and report their publication to the Police.

Does this news reveal that we have a sick and immature society in Hong Kong, paying attention to the unimportant things while on the other hand whining about stress and inability to cope with other things to do in daily life? It’s not for me to answer.

But I have one stand on this case. Leave those people on their own. Just because you watched their movies or bought their CDs doesn’t mean you have to get into their private lives.