MPA nabs largest burning operation in India
[news=http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/8939/mpaa0sp.gif]The MPA is continuing its push against international physical movie pirates. While much of their published raids have taken place in eastern Asia, the MPAA has announced the closure of India's largest DVD-R burning operation to date.
On June 29th, 2005, the MPA was able to provide the Mumbai Police with the necessary information to conduct a successful raid against a DVD copying plant. According to the MPA press release, officers caught two pirates "red handed" as they were in the act of pirating movies.
The raid seized a substantial amount of various pirating material. In all, 42 DVD-R burners were confiscated, along with 1,124 DVD-Rs of infringing MPAA and Bollywood movie titles.
While this may not seem like an impressive amount of material, especially compared to recent American raids, they yearly output of this piracy plant was substancial. According to the MPA, the 42 DVD-R burners, if worked 10 hours a day (not including the 1 hour break for tea and crumpets) were capable of producing 3,628,800 pirated movies a year. Considering the marginal overhead cost for producing such quantities, this would equate to a very profitable $4.22 million US dollars.
The cost of DVD-R burners and DVD media continues to bottom out. The average price for a DVD on Newegg.com averages around $45.00 (US), while a 100 pack of DVD-Rs struggles to reach 33 cents per DVD. Although prices vary globally, substantially lower prices have been inviting to prospective movie pirates. In fact according to the MPA, the growth of DVD-Rs has resulted in an astonishing 443% increase in seized DVD-Rs in the Asia-Pacific region from 2003 to 2004.
Mike Ellis, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific, MPA said, “The seizure of 42 DVD-R burners is the largest single seizure of DVD-R burners ever in India, and confirms the shift by pirates to ‘burn-on-demand’ technology that requires little capital investment and is difficult to detect.”
“The success of this raid underscores the effectiveness of the cooperation between the MPA and India’s law enforcement authorities, as well as the importance of help from members of the public who provide information leading to the arrest of copyright thieves,” Ellis added.
In order to get some kind of handle on the situation in Asia, the MPA has been utilizing its "DVDR/CDR Reward Scheme." This scheme is basically a whistle blower program, which financially rewards citizens who provide information on local movie pirates. The MPA has claimed success with this program, as it has resulted in the seizure of 281 burners and 16 arrests so far this year.
http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/image...ews_source.gif Source: Slyck
Side note: No, that is not a typo - The organisation involved is the MPA, not the MPAA. Five minute's research shows that the MPA & MPAA are two "seperate" organisations - Both run by the same people but the MPA handles the US movie industry's stuff outside the US.[/news]
Re: MPA nabs largest burning operation in India
Never liked those people who sell pirated stuff to make profit. its good that they got busted.
