$200 Million LA Piracy Bust

In the largest counterfeit movie and music bust in U.S. history, pirated DVDs, CDs and video games representing potential losses of $200 million to companies were confiscated Wednesday in raids in Los Angeles and Orange counties, officials said.

"This action was enormous, a spectacular collaboration of efforts," said James Spertus, the Motion Picture Association of America's vice president and director of U.S. anti-piracy operations.

"But there are other replicaters and manufacturers of illegal product out there and we're hopeful that they will get the message from the raid."

Investigators from the Southern California High-Tech Task Force, which consists of the U.S. Secret Service, California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles and Orange County sheriff's departments, served five simultaneous search warrants Wednesday morning against legitimate companies engaging in piracy as a sideline.

Confiscated were 79 "stampers", devices containing the data to manufacture CDs and DVDs, at five undisclosed businesses that manufacture CDs, DVDs and video games, including ones in North Hollywood, Baldwin Park, Pomona, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana, sheriff's Deputy Carlos Lopez said.

"Each stamper has the capability of producing more than 50,000 CDs and DVDs," Lopez said. "We're talking about every kind of music and video you can think of. The quality of this merchandise was very high."

Detective Agustine Del Valle of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Commercial Crimes Bureau said illegal sales of those discs could have cost the film and music industries $200 million.

Spertus said the investigation, culminating a lengthy undercover operation, was particularly difficult because the probe focused on companies with stampers capable of producing a disc every three seconds. All of the businesses do legitimate copying, which investigators say fronted the illegal activity.

"These types of replication facilities are much more damaging than a guy selling out of the back of his van because they produce product virtually indistinguishable from legitimate product," Spertus said. "They run these machines sometimes 24 hours a day so the volume of output is enormous."

The MPAA estimates that piracy costs the film industry about $3.5 billion annually in revenues and it has stepped up anti-piracy efforts dramatically in the past year. The music industry estimates annual loses to pirates of about $4 billion.

In Wednesday's raids, law enforcement officials seized approximately 120,000 music CDs and 79 unauthorized CD stampers valued at approximately $50 million, according to the RIAA's preliminary estimates.

"That's an impressive number. And while it won't make everyone stop pirating, the raids will certainly scare a few people," said Joel Leach, professor of music industry studies at California State University, Northridge.

The Recording Industry Association of America's West Coast anti-piracy office has undertaken several enforcement operations in Southern California during the holiday season. Since Thanksgiving, approximately 250,000 illegal CDs and DVDs offered for sale have been confiscated.

"(Wednesday's) anti-piracy operation delivered a significant blow to piracy during a critical sales period for the recording industry," Brad Buckles, executive vice president of the RIAA, said in a statement. The RIAA did not return telephone calls Wednesday for further comment.

No arrests were made immediately but the investigation continues, authorities said.

Story source: dailynews.com.