Public tip off closes down illegal music and movie retailer
29 May, 2009
download as PDF Victorian Police yesterday raided a music and movie retail store in Noble Park outside of
Melbourne, seizing sophisticated disc burning equipment and more than 2,000 CDs and DVDs.
Acting on a tip off from the public, investigators from Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI)
and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) worked with Victorian Police to
close down the illegal operation.
The store was operating as an apparently legitimate DVD rental store and music retailer whilst
burning illegal copies of discs to sell to customers on the premises. Fifteen disc burners and three
computer hard drives were seized from the store by Victorian Police during the raid. Music titles
seized included popular albums from Robbie Williams, Christina Aguilera and Coldplay. Amongst
popular movie titles seized were “Australia” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”.
Angry customers contacted the music and movie industries after purchasing faulty discs from the
retail store. Subsequent investigations revealed the store was not only selling illegal copies of
music and movies from its shelves, but also copies of titles not yet available in Australia.
“Today’s decisive action by Victorian Police was a result of a tip off from the public”, explained
Dean Mitchell, Investigations Manager, MIPI. “Pirate CDs are of very poor quality and ultimately
it’s the consumer who suffers.”
Neil Gane, AFACT Director of Operations said, ”We commend the Victorian Police for their
prompt and professional response in this case. These DVD pirates seriously threaten local
cinema and DVD stores run by hard-working, law abiding members of our community. We hope
that this police action and the eventual court sentence will send a strong deterrent message that
the full weight of the law can and will be brought against DVD pirates.”
An 18 year old female is currently assisting police with their inquiries.
Yesterday’s raid was the second enforcement action undertaken this week against piracy in Victoria. On Tuesday 26th May, Victorian Police seized an estimated 8,000 pirated movies and TV shows, 56 DVDR burners and three printers from a residence in Burnside, Melbourne. Movie titles seized in the raid included “Bolt”, “Gran Torino” and “Monsters versus Aliens”. A 48 year old female is currently assisting police with their inquiries.
How to spot a pirated disc:
- Low quality packaging;
- Substantially lower price than expected;
- Absence of printing or low quality printing on the front of the disc;
- The disc is a recordable CD-R or DVD-R;
- Spelling errors on the packaging; and/or
- The music title is not available in mainstream stores or in the case of a movie, it has only
recently been screened in theatres;
MIPI Contacts:
For interviews with Dean Mitchell, MIPI, contact:
Samantha Hales: (02) 8569 1177
After hours: 0412 969 653
mipi@mipi.com.au
www.mipi.com.au
AFACT Contacts:
For interviews with Neil Gane, AFACT, contact:
Stephen Jenner: (02) 9997 8011
After hours: 0409 776 196
info@afact.com.au
www.afact.com.au
About MIPI
Music Industry Piracy Investigations Pty Ltd is the anti-piracy organisation for the Australian music industry. MIPI represents close to 125 music labels through their association, ARIA and over 1,700 music publishers and songwriters through their association, AMCOS.
MIPI operates a free-call anti-piracy hotline at 1800 06 16 16.
mipi@mipi.com.au
www.mipi.com.au
About AFACT
AFACT works closely with industry, government, police and educational institutions to address copyright theft and protect the interests of the film and television industry as well as the interests of Australian movie fans.
In 2008, state and federal police conducted 51 raids involving movie piracy and seized 544,697 pirated DVDs. They also seized 488 burners capable of producing 12 million pirated DVDs a year with a potential street value of over $61million.
AFACT acts on behalf of the 50,000 Australians and small businesses under threat from copyright theft, including independent cinemas, video rental stores and film and television producers across the country.
AFACT operates an anti-piracy hotline: 1800 251 996.
info@afact.com.au
www.afact.com.au
