‘Large scale’ MPAA ‘anti-pirate’ bust
p2pnet news view MPAA | Crime:- Hollywood’s representative in Brazil, APCM, used local police to stage what it describes as a large scale anti-piracy bust in Presidente Prudente in Sao Paulo.
Some 100,000 CDs and DVDs were seized from Camelodromo Central street stalls, as were 100 CD and DVD burners and a “printing facility”.
Two people were arrested ” in the commission of the crime” and, “several were charged with copyright violation under article 184 of the Brazilian penal code,” says the statement.
However, what the APCM calls “large-scale” is in fact minor.
In other parts of the world, hard-core duplicators and counterfeiters continue to use physical ‘product’ turned out by the music and movie cartels in the billions as templates.
The results are sold on black markets around the world.
As p2pnet opined here »»»
… organized criminals – the ‘pirates’ – depend largely on physical product to ply their illicit trades. They’ll find it a hell of a lot harder to operate when music and movie lovers are buying fairly priced music and movies from adequately stocked download sites.
Here »»»
… anything that can be digitized WILL be digitized and sold online, not as physical product. Quite a few of the existing overheads, such as the money tied up in storage, print costs, enforcement, PR campaigns, etc, will consequently be drastically lowered or cut altogether.
And here »»»
… they’re [the entertainment cartels] making little headway against the organized criminals – and nor will they as long as they deal with physical product in a digital world. The ‘pirates’ are far more advanced than both the entertainment industry and the national police and enforcement units that cynically act for them.
The Pirates of Osan
In January, 2007, p2pnet ran a feature on the activities of criminals operating openly in the immediate vicinity of a major United States Air Force base.
We stated »»»
The cartels try to equate files shared with sales lost and routinely and regularly lump file sharers together with ‘pirates,’ or counterfeiters, as they used to be known.
There is, of course, absolutely no relationship between the two. Counterfeiting is a crime, and no doubt about it. Sharing is, though, merely sharing. No money changes hands. No one is deprived of something he or she used to own. And it’s never been demonstrated that a file shared equals a sale lost.
Nonetheless, that’s the assertion as the corporate entertainment industries relentlessly sue their own customers in a desperate attempt to control how, and by whom, movies and music are distributed online.
They say file sharing represents a Number One problem for economies around the world.
However, HavocScope puts marijuana at the top of its ‘illicits’ list, with an estimated value of $141.80 billion. Next are counterfeit technology products, then drugs (cocaine, #3, opium/heroin, #4), ‘pirated’ web videos, counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs, ‘pirated’ software, human trafficking, amphetamines/meth, and animal and wildlife smuggling.
‘Pirated’ movies are way down the list at #11, and worth an estimated $18.2 billion, and finally, at an estimated $4.5 billion, music is number 21.
‘EVERYBODY knows about this’
In our feature, “”The United States Air Force at Osan Air Base in Songtan, South Korea, is openly allowing American service members to purchase counterfeit goods, DVDs and pirated computer/console software from carts and shops located outside the main gate,” p2pnet was told.
Our source, Charles, went on»»»
The shocking part is that EVERYBODY knows about this. It’s not hidden. Counterfeit goods are sold openly. There are at least three carts and a couple of stores selling copied DVDs with a TV and a DVD player so you can test them.
Some are original promo copies of newly released movies and some are recorded in a theater with a camcorder.
That was close to two years ago and one would imagine military authorities, working with cartel “investigators” and local police, would’ve had ample time to deal with the blatant sale of counterfeit corporate product.
“This is pretty interesting,” says a p2pnet Readers Write, continuing »»»
Right on the money.
I’m at Osan now. Nothing seems to have changed much. You have to ask to see the fake Rolex watches. Lots of pirate Xbox games now though. I guess MPAA and Microsoft don’t care. The Air Force doesn’t care. I don’t care.
The Chickenhead bar is legend around here in a good way. They weren’t illegal bars. They didn’t do illegal stuff. They just didn’t pay a bribe to a dirty Air Force cop and the base tried to cover it up.
But there is lots of dirty stuff here. We just had a black marketing crackdown. Mostly they pestered GIs not to buy an extra case of beer and ignored the Koreans with cartloads of beef and rice. Good luck getting anyone to care about what goes on in Songtan unless the MPAA or somebody makes a stink and they think their career will get a boost by having a big crackdown.
The comment went up not when the story was published. It was posted on October 17 this year.
Meanwhile, back in Brazil, APCM reveals the true purpose of the bust.
It wasn’t to apprehend copyright infringers. It was, rather, to generate headlines and give the impression this Mickey Mouse operation represented a major triumph of the Hollywood studios over hard-core criminals, instead of low-level street peddlers and mom-and-pop duplicators.
“The raid was reported by the main regional TV and radio stations,” it boasts: “among them which [sic]: Rede Globo, Record, SBT, Oeste Noticias, O Imparcial, Comercial and Jovem Pan.”
No need to stay tuned.
APCM – APCM Brazil News, October 20, 2008
p2pnet – Through the mirror backwards: p2pnet interview, October 4, 2008
p2pnet – The Pirates of Osan, January 2, 2007
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
October 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
There is good stuff here. No wonder they do not like you