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Dutch police raid pirate disc plant

Written by James Delahunty @ 13 Sep 2007 9:44 User comments (12)

Dutch police raid pirate disc plant Acting on a complaint made by Dutch anti-piracy foundation BREIN, Dutch police officers have raided and dismantled a plant used for the production of pirated discs. BREIN was informed of the activity at the premises by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which has been monitoring activity at the clandestine plant for a while now. The plant had the capacity to output 900 discs per hour.
Among the movies being produced were Die Hard 4.0, Ocean's Thirteen, Evan Almighty and Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer. The IFPI has determined that the equipment in use came from a manufacturing plant that had previously been declared bankrupt. Officers also discovered discs which formed part of an order for thousands of pirate CDs featuring a compilation of chart music.



The pirate discs did not make their way into legitimate distribution channels, which often does occur. Instead they were sold by individuals in schools, workplaces, bars or on the street. BREIN estimates that such organized piracy accounts for an estimated 10 per cent of the Netherlands' physical piracy problem. The investigation is ongoing.

"This action shows that piracy of physical CDs and DVDs is still an illegal and profitable business in the Netherlands and a big problem for film and music producers even if internet piracy gets more headlines. We remain very vigilant against disc pirate operators and we will make sure they are prosecuted and punished for their illegal activities. We compliment the officers of FIOD-ECD who investigated this case," said Tim Kuik, the Director of BREIN.

"This raid shows that in 2007 physical piracy continues to damage the entertainment industries. Here we have a clandestine factory operating in a major western economy, producing huge volumes of product. This is not a petty crime, this is serious organized crime and it is important that the public understands that when they buy pirate product they are sending cash to organized criminals who are almost certainly involved in other areas of serious criminal activity," said John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of IFPI.

Source:
Press Release

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12 user comments

113.9.2007 10:05

so lower the prices of cd's and dvds. make it cheap enough to afford so people arent tempted to pirate. seriusly though, when somone asks you to buy something for $5 or for $5 or $20, what will most people choose? I understand gthey are upset about the loss in revenue but most people buying the pirated stuff wont spend the 20 on the real product. i think if dvds were cheaper liek 10 bucks , most people will buy the real product.

213.9.2007 10:40
POPEYE171
Inactive

Seriously if you cant afford to buy a DVD or a CD you have other problems to worry about. save your money, you act like people need to buy every DVD that comes out in a week i probably get maybe 1-2 DVD or CD's a month and it dosn't put a hole in my pocket

313.9.2007 16:28
jusrhymz
Inactive

It is not about can we afford to buy the real thing over pirated goods. In my case I just like buying all the latest stuff and saving money. No way the music and movies companies can lower their price to what the bootleg people charge. They just need to start making it a felony to buy pirated goods. Which they wont so who cares. I buy 5 cd's or dvds for $15. How can hollywood beat that? You guys be dumb and buy retail? Its all going to 10 white guys anyway who own the music and movie industry.

413.9.2007 16:34

Hate to say it guys, but this sounds bigger than it is. To say "plant" implies some big production. In fact, 900 discs per hour means they only have 1 machine. Hardly a plant... Just more propaganda....

513.9.2007 16:45

Ohhhhh Boo,

Now these people who star in these films and produce them can't by 25 million dollar house and 10 cars worth just as much anymore. Interesting how these people who are fighting against the piracy spend so much money to stop it and it will never happen, instead of trying to prevent much better things in the world such as world hunger and the end of nuclear arms.

No, instead lets set up these agencies to help the rich get richer and keep the poor shoveling the money into their pockets. All while they contribute none of the money to anything relevant other than to themselves and their own well begin.

Screw the Movie and Music Industry!!!!!!!!!

613.9.2007 16:49

Warezed Bioshock.

Not going to support Securom.

If Mafia 2 comes out and has SecuRom on it..I'll warez it too.

Not buying anything.

If companies can't resist installing malware/spyware/bloatware on my PC then I'll just "acquire" it via torrents. Torrents often carry titles weeks before release anyway..so its better that way.

714.9.2007 01:34

Originally posted by windsong:
Warezed Bioshock.

Not going to support Securom.

If Mafia 2 comes out and has SecuRom on it..I'll warez it too.

Not buying anything.

If companies can't resist installing malware/spyware/bloatware on my PC then I'll just "acquire" it via torrents. Torrents often carry titles weeks before release anyway..so its better that way.
The online activation of it has not been cracked yet the 5 installs ONLY are worrisome I bought the game 2nd hand new off ebay for 30$, not only dose the DRM hurt but the game barely runs because they could not finish it for the PC...


Oh and ya the movie/music industry could sale at half current price they don't because they do not have to because sheeple are happy with what they got.

the best way to protect yourself from the suits buy used :P

814.9.2007 08:59

Quote:
Originally posted by windsong:
Warezed Bioshock.

The best way to protect yourself from the suits buy used :P

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who said you had to by used to be safe.

Look at all the money that NetFlix and Block Buster make off one single DVD.

!Rent!
!Burn!
!Return!

914.9.2007 09:59

Quote:
The online activation of it has not been cracked yet
Obviously you havent been to the nforce (Google it) site. Lolcats cracked the activation AND serial over a week ago. Darkcoder was the one however who did all the grunt work for the executable.

Even at 2K forums the mods admitted it was cracked by Lolcats and released ontgo USenet & torrents.

SecuROM is a joke.

1014.9.2007 11:44

Originally posted by POPEYE171:
Seriously if you cant afford to buy a DVD or a CD you have other problems to worry about. save your money, you act like people need to buy every DVD that comes out in a week i probably get maybe 1-2 DVD or CD's a month and it dosn't put a hole in my pocket
Okay, so you spend roughly $100 on discs? Do you also blow $30-$50 to take your girlfriend/wife, and/or kids, plus buy snacks, etc. at the movie theatre? Are you also ordering on PPV or from iTunes? I'm not sure everyone has that type of cash to blow every month!

The relevant point is that piracy exists because there is a demand for it! People are also tired of paying over and over for the same content. How many times can a studio charge for you to watch the same thing!

It can statistically be proven that a box office film will makes much higher returns than almost any other type of investment. It's downright criminal!

Assuming they only made an 8% return (rather good for an investment) on films like Spider-Man 3, we could've paid $3 a ticket in the theatres and bought it for $7 on DVD, and piracy would be wiped out, because the barrier of cost to pirate would not net the pirates a large enough profit. Plus, us "sheeple" would spend MORE money to watch/buy other films, music, etc.

This is same exact problem with professional sports teams, but on a different scale.

1114.9.2007 16:52

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by windsong:
Warezed Bioshock.

The best way to protect yourself from the suits buy used :P

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who said you had to by used to be safe.

Look at all the money that NetFlix and Block Buster make off one single DVD.

!Rent!
!Burn!
!Return!
AnyDVD and DVD Shrink....the best thing sence sliced bread.

1214.9.2007 21:05

Quote:
The plant had the capacity to output 900 discs per hour.
Thats some impressive numbers. These are the kinda pirates you should go for not the average home sharer.

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