Boulder County deputies find hundreds of bootlegged DVDs during traffic stop
Source:DailyCamera.com Date:Monday, 28 December 2009. Article Type:General
Boulder County sheriff's deputies performing a routine traffic stop the day after Christmas came across something the department has never seen before -- a crate filled with hundreds of bootlegged DVD's prepped for sale on the street.
Armando Flores-Rojas, 25, was pulled over by sheriff's deputies at about 5 p.m. on Saturday while driving along U.S. 287 at the Ute Highway just north of Longmont.
According to Division Chief Phil West, deputies stopped Flores-Rojas for having a taillight out. When they checked the man's name, they found that he was wanted as a habitual traffic offender and arrested him.
West said deputies searched the car, a normal procedure after a driver has been arrested, and found a crate containing more than 200 DVD movies.
West said the movies were obviously illegally pirated, because they contained titles that are still in theatres or have yet to be released on DVD. Some of the titles included "The Blind Side," released in theatres in November, and "Brothers," released in theatres earlier this month.
"(The deputies) had the names of the recently released movies and they said none of them should be out on DVD," West said. "It was clear that they weren't legally manufactured."
West said that Flores-Rojas admitted to deputies that he planned to sell the movies.
The sheriff's department has never before arrested someone for allegedly bootlegging movies, according to West.
"It is kind of unusual," he said.
In addition to traffic-related offenses, Flores-Rojas faces a possible charge of having unlicensed sound recordings, a felony. Under Colorado law, anyone who copies recorded sounds with the intent to sell it without the consent of the copyright owner commits a class-six felony. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and fines up to $100,000.
Flores-Rojas was booked into the Boulder County Jail. Officials at the jail said he has since posted a $1,500 bond, but he won't be released until officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department determine whether he is in the country legally.
West said there is evidence to suggest that Flores-Rojas is not in the U.S. legally, but immigration officials will have to make that determination. If it's found that Flores-Rojas is not a legal resident, he could be deported before or after facing the local charges, West said.
There is also the possibility of federal charges, but West said that's unlikely given the relatively small-scale of Flores-Rojas' alleged bootlegging.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, once recent study found that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year. Other estimates put the losses from piracy to the music, motion picture and software industries at a combined $20 billion annually.
In 2005, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act made using a video camera in a theater a federal felony and established new penalties for pirating works that have not yet been released commercially. First-time violators can be sentenced to up to five years for these crimes and fined up to $250,000, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
By Heath Urie.