James Delahunty
17 Apr 2009 20:35
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has been involved in two anti-piracy operations in the UK. The trade group cooperated with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency to raid the private address of an individual who sold hundreds of hard drives preloaded with music using the Internet. Each hard drive sold for £100 and contained up to 5000 albums, 200 of which the purchaser could request to be included.
In the property, police seized a large quantity of hard drives and other storage devices, including hard drives containing a master library of more than 500,000 albums. They also seized eight burners and more than 5,000 discs. Meanwhile, in a joint operation with Leicestershire Police and Trading Standards Departments, BPI anti-piracy investigators raided two private addresses that were being used as counterfeiting factories.
The addresses supplied the north of England with counterfeit Bollywood movie and music repertoire. Two gang leaders were arrested and 84 burners, 21 printers and in excess of 100,000 counterfeit discs were seized. The police are seeking to not only prosecute the gang leaders but also strip them of their assets, which to date, have funded a luxurious lifestyle.