CRIA ‘biggest ever pirate bust’ debacle
p2pnet news | (C)RIAA News:- “Canadian music labels said Friday that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has raided the country’s biggest CD and DVD counterfeiter, Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Audiomaxxx, and made four arrests,” splashed America’s Hollywood Reporter.
“The Canadian Recording Industry Assn. said that the RCMP seized about 200,000 illicit CDs and pornographic DVDs and brought criminal charges against Audiomaxxx owner Raj Singh Ramgotra and three employees. The RCMP alleges that Audiomaxxx represented Canada’s largest source of pirated CD and DVD product that was routinely sold in North America, Europe and Jamaica.”
Trumpeted Canada’s Globe & Mail, “In the largest raid of its kind ever seen in Canada, the RCMP has shut down an alleged music-counterfeiting operation based in Winnipeg, seized tens of thousands of pirated CDs and DVDs and laid multiple fraud charges under the Criminal Code and the Copyright Act.”
“The principal target was Winnipeg entrepreneur Raj Singh Ramgotra, whose Audiomaxxx company is accused of having manufactured illicit compact discs and pornographic movies for several years.”
Counterfeiting and piracy, “are growing problems, both in Canada and around the world,” spouted Canadian minister of public safety Stockwell Day (right) in a statement which could have come straight from the mouths of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’, the members of the Big 4 organised music cartel. He went on:
“As a result of this RCMP investigation, tens of thousands of allegedly counterfeit CDs, DVDs and illegal digital downloads will be kept off the streets. I commend the police officers across Canada who continue to work vigilantly to shut down criminal operations, which ignore and undermine our laws for their own gains. Arrests and seizure like this one represent significant progress in our efforts to combat this serious global problem.”
Ooops, whimpered the CRIA, “In the CRIA media release of March 6, it was erroneously reported [based on 'information' supplied by the CRIA] that [the] RCMP had filed criminal charges against four people in connection with the RCMP investigation into Audiomaxxx.com Ltd.
“It was also reported that Raj Singh Ramgotra was among those arrested. [The] CRIA cannot confirm the identities of any of those arrested and therefore retracts its statement to the effect that Mr. Ramgotra was arrested.”
Canadian RIAA clone the CRIA, “has been forced to confess to a massive screw-up involving audiomaxxx.com, taken down in an RCMP raid,” said p2pnet, adding:
“Will the RCMP sue the (C)RIAA for sending them on a wild-good chase?
“Don’t hold your breath.
“Will King Raj sue the (C)RIAA for defamation?
“Now that could be interesting.”
Definitely stay tuned.
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Also See:
Hollywood Reporter – Mounties bust Canadian CD, DVD counterfeiter, March 8, 2008
Globe & Mail – Raid nets thousands of pirated CDs, March 7, 2008
CRIA – Correction, March 7, 2008
Stockwell Day – Minister Day Comments on the Largest Ever Seizure of Alleged Counterfeit CDs and DVDs in Canada, March 7, 2008
p2pnet – Huge CRIA audiomaxxx.com screw up, March 9, 2008
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