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Motion Picture Association part of huge piracy crackdown

19 August 2008 22:54 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 17 comments

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) hailed the results of Operation Takedown on Monday. The effort against piracy over the summer brought in huge hauls of pirated materials and led to many arrests. In China, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan, 461 suspected pirates were arrested as part of the efforts. More than 7.5 million pirate CDs and DVDs were seized along with 1,000 burners.

The MPA conclusions show that 56 people were caught attempting to record movies in theaters, an activity known as camming or camcording, that is the main source of early pirate copies of movies. The MPA notes that "governments across the [Asia-Pacific] region began to tighten their laws on camcording," which involved public-outreach and award campaigns.

Police officers in plain clothes patrolled cinemas in Hong Kong, while staff used night vision goggles to monitor the crowds in theaters and look for recording equipment. Employees at movie theaters around the world are being trained to spot efforts at recording movies, and arrests carried out as a result have increased.

The MPAA claims that the industry lost $6 billion to piracy in 2005.

Permalink to this article

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Discuss this article!
ampex7 (Newbie) 19 August 2008 23:04
ARE ANY OF THOSE SEIZED BURNERS FOR SALE? [ + quote]
sgriesch (Newbie) 20 August 2008 0:26
Camming is crappy anyways. Who wants to watch a home video of someone in a movie theater? Or worse, cell phone video clips. Ruins the movie, and cheapens the whole experience. [ + quote]
tin23uk (Junior Member) 20 August 2008 0:39
errm why do the mpaa keep bringing up profit loss claims from years ago like 2005. did they get tired of pulling random numbers out of their asses for 06, 07 and 08. and how could they possibly know they lost $6 billion. they could maybe make a complete guess, and even if they are right on $6b there are so many other variables like maybe the movies in 05 were just crap. [ + quote]
OneMember (Senior Member) 20 August 2008 0:49
*Quote:* Employees at movie theaters around the world are being trained to spot efforts at recording movies, and arrests carried out as a result have increased. Well, good luck that I don't like cam or ts releases. [ + quote]
defgod (Newbie) 20 August 2008 1:05
*Quote:* Employees at movie theaters around the world are being trained to spot efforts at recording movies, and arrests carried out as a result have increased. The funny thing about this statement is the fact that most of the good cams out there are done by theater employees themselves. [ + quote]
susieqbbb (Member) 20 August 2008 1:15
Ok you are saying that piracy is caused by these so called camcorder version and that in china and other asian countrys you are cracking down. So please explain why 90% of pirated movies and dvd's begin in russia and the u.k over china and japan. And even if you crackdown on this they will just start downloading again and producing more fake merchandise so it really is only a band aid approach to a problem that extends to all countrys. [ + quote]
cousinkix (Newbie) 20 August 2008 5:36
*Quote:* ARE ANY OF THOSE SEIZED BURNERS FOR SALE? And how many of them were manufactured by a company called SONY? The MPAA/RIAA entertainment mafia is also providing thieves with the means to steal their copyrighted products. You can buy SONy's blank DVD+Rs buy the 100s at warehouse stores and pirate heir movies in bulk. Let them clean their own house. Nothing could be more ridiculous than a record company and movie studio peddling CD/DVD burners and blank disks; when they make a career of 8i+tching about bootleggers.... [ + quote]
cousinkix (Newbie) 20 August 2008 5:39
*Quote:* Camming is crappy anyways. Who wants to watch a home video of someone in a movie theater? You can say it again! I saw a pirated copy of the new BATMAN flick on a popular torrent site last week. Downloading this poor quality stuff is a waste of my time... [ + quote]
SProdigy (Member) 20 August 2008 10:33
*Quote:* *Quote:* Camming is crappy anyways. Who wants to watch a home video of someone in a movie theater? You can say it again! I saw a pirated copy of the new BATMAN flick on a popular torrent site last week. Downloading this poor quality stuff is a waste of my time... AMEN! The only people that watch this crap are people too cheap to pay for it, or people that weren't going to pay for it in the first place. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 20 August 2008 11:29
I like cams I can skim through a flick to see if its worth watching or not, so what if they get some they will never get us all matey! [ + quote]
windsong (Junior Member) 20 August 2008 13:09
*Quote:* *Quote:* ARE ANY OF THOSE SEIZED BURNERS FOR SALE? And how many of them were manufactured by a company called SONY? The MPAA/RIAA entertainment mafia is also providing thieves with the means to steal their copyrighted products. You can buy SONy's blank DVD+Rs buy the 100s at warehouse stores and pirate heir movies in bulk. Let them clean their own house. Nothing could be more ridiculous than a record company and movie studio peddling CD/DVD burners and blank disks; when they make a career of 8i+tching about bootleggers.... Not to mention Blu-Ray blank media is made for one purpose: pirating. Whether its mp3s, isos, illegal vids, what have you..no one is going to stuff 50 GIG worth of family photos on a disc. Sony can't have their cake and eat it too. Hypocrites...all of them. [ + quote]
drach (Newbie) 20 August 2008 14:08
*Quote:* Let them clean their own house. Nothing could be more ridiculous than a record company and movie studio peddling CD/DVD burners and blank disks; when they make a career of 8i+tching about bootleggers.... That is a very good point. Talk about irony... [ + quote]
david89 (Newbie) 20 August 2008 16:16
i beileve this is what they should do and not vocus so much on p2p because this is where there really lossing the money from and their the true pirates. [ + quote]
defgod (Newbie) 20 August 2008 17:53
*Originally posted by ZippyDSM:* I like cams I can skim through a flick to see if its worth watching or not, so what if they get some they will never get us all matey! Same here Zippy. I've also seen a few half way decent quality cams. I just watch em to see if I like the movie. Then I'll wait for a DVD rip of it. If I really like it then I'll eventually buy it. *Originally posted by cousinkix:* And how many of them were manufactured by a company called SONY? The MPAA/RIAA entertainment mafia is also providing thieves with the means to steal their copyrighted products. You can buy SONy's blank DVD+Rs buy the 100s at warehouse stores and pirate heir movies in bulk. Let them clean their own house. Nothing could be more ridiculous than a record company and movie studio peddling CD/DVD burners and blank disks; when they make a career of 8i+tching about bootleggers.... SONY= large corporation They will do whatever they can to make as much money as possible. And they don't care what hardware is used for what. They'll just deny it. I mean hell what did they get out of their rootkit CD's a couple years ago. If that was I or any other private citizen. I would be in prison right now. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20 August 2008 18:00
CF01 (Junior Member) 20 August 2008 18:14
why would you download a cam anyway i would rather pay the 9 dollars and go see the movie in theatres [ + quote]
defgod (Newbie) 20 August 2008 18:37
*Originally posted by CF01:* why would you download a cam anyway i would rather pay the 9 dollars and go see the movie in theatres As Zippy and myself stated. To see if it is worthwhile. I myself would rather not go to the theater. Just for the fact that I have to drive 25 miles+ to get to a good theater. I can also watch when I want and pause if I have to. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 20 August 2008 18:59
*Quote:* *Originally posted by CF01:* why would you download a cam anyway i would rather pay the 9 dollars and go see the movie in theatres As Zippy and myself stated. To see if it is worthwhile. I myself would rather not go to the theater. Just for the fact that I have to drive 25 miles+ to get to a good theater. I can also watch when I want and pause if I have to. I don;t have a choice there are no theaters out here in ze boonies also a cab would be 30-40$ and another 30 for the flick LOL [ + quote]