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Italian police raid pirate disc factory

26 November 2009 19:16 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 4 comments

Italian police targeted a factory manufacturing counterfeit discs intended for export around Europe last week. The Italian Fiscal Police (GdF) raided the Bologna-based plant, which was producing unlicensed box sets that included music, films and TV programming. The raid followed an investigation into an unlicensed box set "Masterbox", which contained music by international artists such as Bob Dylan, Depeche Mode, Eminem, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Tiziano Ferro.

Masterbox box sets had previously been manufactured in Poland, but the operation moved to Italy following raids by Polish police in February 2009. At that point, nine million copyright infringing albums in total were estimated to have been distributed around Europe, with an estimated trade value of around �19 million being put on the previous 15 editions of the box set series produced in the plant.

FPM worked with the Italian Fiscal Police to investigate the manufacturing plant that was producing new editions of the Masterbox series, while IFPI coordinated industry enquiries across Europe in support of the official investigation.

"This investigation highlights the international reach and resources available to the criminals responsible for this pirate release. The Masterbox series distributed in Europe is a classic example of a criminal enterprise involved in the lucrative business of copyright infringement," Jeremy Banks, director, anti-piracy at IFPI, said.

"The music industry will continue to be vigilant and work internationally and locally in partnership with law enforcement to protect its rights. The Italian Fiscal Police have done a magnificent job taking decisive action and sending a strong message that they will actively investigate these types of offences."

Permalink to this article

IFPI singles out Spain in calls for global anti-piracy legislation (22 January 2010)

Congress allocates $30 million for anti-piracy (16 December 2009)

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Legal music sales in Sweden jump following piracy crackdown (24 November 2009)

Three million Swedes download 'illegally,' says IFPI (13 October 2009)

Record industry starts 'educational' progam to teach five year olds about piracy (4 October 2009)

The Pirate Bay is back, after Swedish take down (25 August 2009)

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Discuss this article!
vontratt (Newbie) 26 November 2009 21:16
Now THAT is piracy folks. Clearly not nonprofit file sharing at all. [ + quote]
attar (AfterDawn Addict) 27 November 2009 11:28
Awww...wassamatter wit dem guys? [ + quote]
thargor (Member) 27 November 2009 11:52
One hell of a lot of estimating, me thinks. [ + quote]
KillerBug (AfterDawn Addict) 30 November 2009 0:44
Yeah...that is wrong. It is one thing to share a movie or software and say "They were not going to buy it anyway, so no sales are lost by giving it to them" It is a whole other thing to sell these things; that is taking money from the producers. [ + quote]