200,000 pirated DVDs seized from GTA malls
here's the latest on the whole pirated DVD situation in TO.. it seems that some stores continue to pop back up like weeds, albeit due to support from a larger entity.. I wonder how things are like in Vancouver
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200,000 pirated DVDs seized from GTA malls
Industry group behind 2-month operation suspects 'hard-core' retailers are linked to organized crime
January 04, 2009
Nicole Baute
STAFF REPORTER
A Canadian organization representing the motion picture industry seized more than 200,000 illegal DVDs in three GTA malls in a series of raids that began in October, and says any vendors resilient enough to keep selling the pirated films are likely linked to organized crime.
"The stores that remain really are the hard-core stores that we've hit over and over again," said Stephen Covey, director of anti-piracy operations for the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association yesterday.
Covey said Markham's notorious Pacific Mall, the First Markham Place and the Oriental Centre in Scarborough form one of the largest centres of illegal DVD sales in North America.
Pirated DVDs in flimsy plastic sleeves were openly displayed for sale yesterday in at least 10 stores at the Pacific Mall and a few stores at the Oriental Centre. Among the titles were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Seven Pounds, both currently showing in theatres.
Fluorescent signs advertising "one for $4," "three for $10" and "seven for $20" encouraged shoppers to buy in bulk.
The quality of the films ranged, vendors explained, from "DVD quality" to "95 per cent" or "a little bit blurry."
Covey said a fall intelligence probe in the area found 60 stores with "literally thousands" of pirated DVDs each. During the first weekend of raids in late October, the civil team confiscated over 100,000 DVDs and continued to seize them almost daily for eight weeks.
Covey said they were able to shut down a lot of the stores, but the work is not over.
"We've had a lot of success with the raids that we've done and now it's time to take criminal action," he said.
He said the organization has been in contact with local police and that the 15-20 Markham stores still selling pirated DVDs can expect more raids in the new year.
Vendors could face Copyright Act or fraud charges, he said.
The RCMP is in charge of enforcing intellectual property laws.
Covey urged the public to consider the impact of their purchases.
"When people see cheap DVDs, often they see it just as a good deal," he said. "The money that you're spending, that you're giving these people, is absolutely going to organized crime."
He said stores selling legitimate films in the area cannot compete with the counterfeit operations and see their sales negatively affected.
Illegal DVDs amount to an estimated $118 million annual loss for Canadian movie distributors.
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source:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/561408
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