Large scale piracy operation closed in Edinburgh
A pirated DVD factory in an Edinburgh house in the Oxgangs area has been raided by police who, after receiving intelligence that the home was being used as the centre for a large-scale piracy operation. They seized £750,000 worth of counterfeit goods which included a laptop computer along with a number of hard drives, two multi-burners, and 1000 blank discs. The police haul also included 5975 movie DVDs, 2300 MP3 discs, 300 video games, 868 computer software discs, and 885 pornographic DVDs.
Titles seized include releases such as American Gangster, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt, Sleuth, The Bucket List and St Trinian's
Sergeant Scott Robertson, whose officers were on the raid, is reported saying: "We believe this was a significant operation and hopefully we've made a big dent in the local market. This is a nationwide problem, not distinct to Edinburgh, and Lothian and Borders Police remain committed to tackling this problem."
Three officers took part in the raid on Wednesday, along with personnel from the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). FACT will produce a report after reviewing the seized material and recommend to the force whether an arrest should be made.
Sgt Robertson said: "One of our officers received information suggesting this address was being used to produce pirated DVDs. After contacting FACT and obtaining a warrant, we moved on the home and discovered what could only be called a factory for counterfeit materials. This raid was an excellent example of joint co-operation and intelligence sharing between ourselves and FACT, and we are delighted with the results."
FACT estimates film piracy costs the UK industry more than £450m a year, while the Motion Picture Association of America claims bootleg DVDs cost the industry £1.7bn a year worldwide. The number of pirated DVDs flooding Edinburgh has been blamed as a factor in the decline of Capital cinema audience figures.
Source:http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com