Piracy—it’s not just for the high seas anymore. In fact, according to the MPAA, 44 percent of their piracy losses in the US come from college students. This claim can only be made with a straight face, of course, if you believe that college students would otherwise be purchasing retail copies of every film that they download (we’ve discussed the problems with these numbers before).
Fortunately, the MPAA and its sibling, the RIAA, also pursue real pirates, and their actions are increasingly international. The motion picture industry, for instance, has just filed civil suits against two pirate outlets in Beijing’s central business district. Though it can be more difficult to enforce intellectual property rights in China than in the US or Europe, the movie industry has a fairly good track record. In 2002-2003 (the last year for which they provide numbers), the industry filed 10 civil cases against commercial piracy operations in China, and it won all 10.
Two weeks ago in Fiji, police there raided a shop in Suva that was allegedly selling pirated DVDs and have stepped up enforcement efforts against suspected copyright violators.
And here in the US, police in Brooklyn just announced a raid on a large-scale CD and DVD copying business that will, apparently, be “a significant blow to the nation’s piracy market.” This claim needs to be taken with a grain of salt—this was a business operated from a garage, after all, and the only person arrested was a 19-year-old named Abdouraitamance Diallo. If owning 23 duplicator towers and a garage is all that it takes to become a major piracy operation, then the bar isn’t set real high.
Related Posts
- RIAA requests help from colleges to end network piracy
- U.S. takes piracy issues with China to WTO
- Recording and motion picture industries take aim at LAN piracy
- Piracy Who? MPAA Says Foreign, Domestic Box Office at ‘All-Time Highs’
- MPAAs third round of anti-piracy campaign begins
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