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-- $800,000 worth of Pirated DVDs seized at Pacific Mall
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$800,000 worth of Pirated DVDs seized at Pacific Mall
lol.. i know this was already posted on a few other boards.. so might as well go TOTA as well ..
quote:
May 5, 2005. 06:40 AM
Pirated DVDs seized at mall
$800,000 worth taken from Markham stores
Canada accused of being soft on counterfeiting
SHARDA PRASHAD
STAFF REPORTER
RCMP officers investigating Markham's Pacific Mall have seized more than $800,000 worth of goods, including more than 30,000 DVDs, 3,000 video games and 1,600 multi-game cartridges, suspected of being bootlegged.
The seizure comes days after the United States put Canada on a watch list of countries thought to be doing a poor job of enforcing intellectual-property rights.
"We had received a considerable amount of complaints from rights holders that the products in the mall are counterfeit," said RCMP Const. Judy Laurence. "We searched four stores that we had previous dealings with."
The search was carried out under warrant April 27. Charges are expected but haven't been laid so far. One difficulty with charging companies under copyright law, Laurence explained, is that ignorance about the law can protect them.
"In order to lay charges under the Copyright Act, companies have to know what they're doing is wrong," she said.
Laurence said the RCMP spent time at the mall educating managers and staff that it was illegal to sell counterfeit goods. Mall property manager Henry Fu declined requests for an interview.
A visit to the mall yesterday in search of cheap knock-offs found slim pickings. Video CDs of movies like Spider-Man 2 and The Incredibles were easily found for less than $15. John Sweeney, investigator with the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, explained that VCD players are still widely used in Asia, though they offer lower-quality viewing than DVDs. VCDs fall into a "grey area" in the law; they're legitimate copies of movies but licensed for sale only in Asia.
Before last week's raid, Sweeney said, illegal copies of movie DVDs, often made in Malaysia or China, were easily available in Pacific Mall after 4 p.m. and during the weekend.
"(Storeowners) were trying to escape the notice of the RCMP."
While video games were scarce, yesterday's shoppers could find some bargain music. Openly displayed DVDs by Sonic Youth, Justin Timberlake and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Cats soundtrack were on sale at $4 each, in flimsy plastic and cardboard packaging instead of the standard jewel case.
"I guarantee if they cost $4 they are fake," said Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association. He worries that any penalties to stores won't be enough of a deterrent.
"They'll be slapped with a $3,000, $5,000 or $10,000 fine, and they'll look at it as a cost of doing business and do it again."
Intellectual-property lawyer John Cotter said the maximum penalty is a $1 million fine and five years in prison.
Canada has had "a problem with enforcement of trade intellectual-property rights" and been criticized for it, Cotter said. Being put on the U.S. watch list next to many developing countries is a signal that Canada needs to step up its efforts.
source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...72154&t=TS_Home
fack! I want some cheap stuff! lol
Charging them 10,000 dollaz is nothing .. they make that in 1 day. From what I've known, all the stores are back at doing their business.
Pacific Mall is the shit! thats where I get all my JDM stuff and anime from 
i remembe the day swhen i used to go there to own at virtual on 
What they found is just the tip of the iceberg in that place...
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit i remembe the day swhen i used to go there to own at virtual on |
3 DVDs for $20... I'm gonna miss that place. 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Tordan 3 DVDs for $20... I'm gonna miss that place. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by MaxTO Don't worry, they'll be back in business. And Pacific's not the only place |
I'm sure this goes on ALL the time
So that's where the dvds went......
I was wondering where the hell did they go
It took them this long to realize what Pacific Mall was doing? What was it like a 3 year undercover operation into the heart of Pacific Mall? Our tax dollers at work.
heh .. here's an update... what has my Uncle Benny been upto now!!
quote:
20,000 pirated DVDs seized
Aug. 28, 2006. 11:50 AM
TAMARA CHERRY
STAFF REPORTER
Four people are in custody after about 20,000 DVDs were seized from an east-end plaza in what may be the largest counterfeit DVD manufacturing laboratory in Canada, police say.
Police carried out search warrants at three separate units at the Dynasty Plaza near Sheppard Ave. E. and Brimley Rd. after receiving complaints about the illegal sale and manufacturing of counterfeit DVDs. The DVDs seized represent a loss of about $400,000 to the motion picture industry, police said.
One of the units searched housed "a sophisticated manufacturing laboratory," police said.
Police were assisted by investigators from the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association's Anti-Piracy Unit, who believed this operation had the capacity to produce 560 DVD movies per hour and is the largest known manufacturing lab in Canada.
Yu Wang, 22, of Markham; SiYing Zhao, 22, of Toronto; Jing Zhou, 28, of Toronto; and You Jie Wu, 26, of Markham have each been charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. Wu also faces charges of fraud over $5,000 and fail to comply - recognizance.
source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...epath=News/News
well deserved.
Tiny fines tho, im supprised it took this long, i thought everyone and thier dog new about pacific mall
I'm sure they could seize worse stuff from that Mall!!!
I figured they started making them here. There's two kinds of cheap DVDs sold in the stores. One is a computer burned DVD with a colour photocopy label. The other, comes in a perfectly printed box label and box cover, nicely embossed, and the CD nicely printed itself, instead of a cheap sticker. The cheaps (cinema-cam) sold for 7 for $20, and the nicer ones for about $5-$8 each depending on quantity purchased. I preferred the nicer ones, as they look better in my library, and are supposed to have been genuine Chinese releases of the English movies (with eng. audio) and often released a month before they do here, and the picture and special scenes were just like here.
But I noticed this changed a few months ago, as the covers were still nice and such, the DVDs were nicely labelled, but the menus got borrowed from other movies, and started seeing screener messages at the bottom. That told me that even the nicer DVDs sold aren't legitimate either anymore.
Wow, that's insane!
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Abercrombie I figured they started making them here. There's two kinds of cheap DVDs sold in the stores. One is a computer burned DVD with a colour photocopy label. The other, comes in a perfectly printed box label and box cover, nicely embossed, and the CD nicely printed itself, instead of a cheap sticker. The cheaps (cinema-cam) sold for 7 for $20, and the nicer ones for about $5-$8 each depending on quantity purchased. I preferred the nicer ones, as they look better in my library, and are supposed to have been genuine Chinese releases of the English movies (with eng. audio) and often released a month before they do here, and the picture and special scenes were just like here. But I noticed this changed a few months ago, as the covers were still nice and such, the DVDs were nicely labelled, but the menus got borrowed from other movies, and started seeing screener messages at the bottom. That told me that even the nicer DVDs sold aren't legitimate either anymore. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Cal Man you can't just say that and leave! Where's the other place? |
LOL @ some of you guys shopping for this stuff... next time i'm around there i'm gonna ask if anyone in the store is a TA, we can all browse the warez together .. 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by dEsidEL LOL @ some of you guys shopping for this stuff... next time i'm around there i'm gonna ask if anyone in the store is a TA, we can all browse the warez together .. |
i miss the word warez
quote:
Yu Wang, 22, of Markham; SiYing Zhao, 22, of Toronto; Jing Zhou, 28, of Toronto; and You Jie Wu, 26, of Markham have each been charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. Wu also faces charges of fraud over $5,000 and fail to comply - recognizance.
ya know, i could hav sworn i saw some of these guys at Viva the other nite ..
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