POLICE RAID SHUTS DOWN ILLEGAL MOVIE DVD OPERATION
25-year-old woman assisting Police with enquiries
- 16Feb 2012
Sydney: On 16 February, officers from Victoria Police, supported by investigators from the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), conducted an operation on a residence in Corio in
south-west Melbourne, seizing sophisticated movie DVD manufacturing equipment and over 1,500 illegal movie DVDs.
At the time of the search warrant on the premises, it is alleged that two television series were being transferred via Bittorrent.
The operation followed an enquiry into the alleged sale of illegal movies and television show box sets advertised on a Facebook page. It is alleged that buyers were given the opportunity to order illegal copies from a large range of movie and television show titles, made their purchases via PayPal, and received the discs by post. Alternatively, buyers could visit a residential address in Corio and pick up their illegal copies in person.
Titles available on the Facebook page included a significant list of high-profile Hollywood movies, and a range of locally-produced and financed films and television shows including Underbelly Razor, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, McLeod’s Daughters, Happy Feet 2, Little Fish, Charlie & Boots and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Commenting on the police operation, Neil Gane, Managing Director AFACT said: “We welcome the actions taken by Victoria Police today to close down this alleged illegal movie DVD manufacturing operation. We’d like people to be aware that the operators of these movie DVD rackets do not hold any rights to sell or distribute film and television content, yet they are making significant commercial returns off the hard work of others. Movie theft seriously affects not only the creators of content, but those involved in legitimate duplication, manufacture, distribution, exhibition, marketing, publicity and associated Australian businesses. Supporting the large range of legal movie and television show offerings not only benefits those employed in our creative sector, but allows for increased investment into new local shows for everyone’s enjoyment.”
A 25-year-old woman is assisting Victoria Police with their enquiries, and charges in relation to copyright offences are expected to be laid.
Contact AFACT
About AFACT
AFACT works closely with the film and television community, government and enforcement agencies to address copyright theft and protect the interests of its members.
In February 2011, IPSOS and Oxford Economics released a study on behalf of AFACT entitled “Economic Consequences of Movie Piracy in Australia”. The key findings, outlined below, indicated the scale of harm caused by movie piracy to the Australian economy in the 12 months up to July 2010.
- $1.37 billion in revenue was lost across the entire Australian economy.
- 6,100 jobs were forgone across the entire economy.
- Tax losses to movie piracy amounted to $193 million.
- Direct consumer spending losses to the movie industry, ie. cinema owners, local distributors, producers and retailers amounted to $575 million.
