Police shred 780,000 pirated DVDs
Source:news.smh.com.au Date:Tuesday, 24 November 2009. Article Type:General
Several hundred thousand pirated DVDs seized in police raids across NSW have been destroyed, in a move the state government says will put a dent in associated criminal activity.
Following years of work by NSW Police and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, some 780,000 pirated DVDs were "shredded" in Sydney on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Police Minister Michael Daley told AAP.
"People don't seem to realise the seriousness of copyright crime and that criminals use movie piracy to fund a range of criminal activity in our communities," Mr Daley said in a statement.
"During film piracy enforcement, police have uncovered links between film piracy and a range of other serious criminal activity including drugs, weapons, fraud and the supply of child pornography."
Raids in which the DVDs were seized also saw a number of people criminally charged.
Also seized were 315 DVD burners set up to mass produce pirated discs, with the potential to create 7.9 million illegal DVDs each year.
At the time of seizure, pirated DVDs of new release films were being sold for about $10 at suburban Sydney retail outlets.