musicradio77
05-22-2005, 02:38 PM
From the Daily News:
Attack of the clones
Cops & studios crack down on pirated copies of flicks
By KERRY BURKE
and CARRIE MELAGO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
The dark side of the DVD counterfeiting industry felt the force of the NYPD yesterday when cops seized 1,000 pirated copies of "Star Wars: Episode III" - just 36 hours after its debut.
The illegal DVDs, selling for less than half the price of a movie ticket, were stacked nearly to the ceiling of a Harlem storage facility, alongside 40,000 other illegal disks.
Nine men were arrested during the raid, which came as bootlegged copies of the final "Star Wars" film were being sold on the streets - and online - at a remarkable pace.
"The street vendors knew to come here to pick up the DVDs," said NYPD Deputy Inspector Kevin Walsh, who oversaw the raid at American Self Storage at 9-11 W. 141st St., after nabbing several peddlers in the Bronx.
Billions of dollars in profits are bled out of the motion-picture industry by the counterfeit sales, authorities said.
"Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" raked in an estimated $16.5 million from 2,900 midnight screenings Thursday, shattering the midnight record held by "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
Mere hours after the film's premiere, counterfeit DVDs materialized in Chinatown, said Kori Bernards, spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America.
"It's stealing. It's plain and simple theft," Bernards said. "If people keep stealing our movies, we're not going to be able to make them."
A Daily News reporter had no trouble scoring several new releases, including "Episode III," for $5 a pop in a subway tunnel below Times Square. The cost of a movie ticket at most theaters in Manhattan is at least $10.
Tyrone Coleman, 37, of Harlem bought the newest "Star Wars" film without any guilt.
"I can't even afford to go to the movies nowadays. It's $35 after a ticket, soda and food," he said. "I buy whenever the new movies come out," he explained after six women and a young girl dumped hundreds of DVDs onto an American flag-printed sheet.
The titles included a slew of new releases such as "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Sin City" and "Robots" - the very same movies seized by cops in Harlem during the noon raid.
The MPAA estimates movie companies lose more than $3.5billion in revenue each year because of counterfeit DVDs.
ASmith Barney study put the figure even higher, saying Internet sites that allow fans to illegally download movies and pirated DVDs cost the industry $5.4 billion a year.
But the studios and cops are fighting back, seizing more than 76 million illegal disks last year.
Movie fans who purchase the illegal DVDs are giving their cash to criminals, some of whom run international human trafficking and prostitution rings, said Marc Raimondi of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
"We're not talking about a mom-and-pop organization making these in some basement. It's an organized criminal element," Raimondi said. "People who think counterfeit items are a victimless crime are sorely misinformed."
Attack of the clones
Cops & studios crack down on pirated copies of flicks
By KERRY BURKE
and CARRIE MELAGO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
The dark side of the DVD counterfeiting industry felt the force of the NYPD yesterday when cops seized 1,000 pirated copies of "Star Wars: Episode III" - just 36 hours after its debut.
The illegal DVDs, selling for less than half the price of a movie ticket, were stacked nearly to the ceiling of a Harlem storage facility, alongside 40,000 other illegal disks.
Nine men were arrested during the raid, which came as bootlegged copies of the final "Star Wars" film were being sold on the streets - and online - at a remarkable pace.
"The street vendors knew to come here to pick up the DVDs," said NYPD Deputy Inspector Kevin Walsh, who oversaw the raid at American Self Storage at 9-11 W. 141st St., after nabbing several peddlers in the Bronx.
Billions of dollars in profits are bled out of the motion-picture industry by the counterfeit sales, authorities said.
"Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" raked in an estimated $16.5 million from 2,900 midnight screenings Thursday, shattering the midnight record held by "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
Mere hours after the film's premiere, counterfeit DVDs materialized in Chinatown, said Kori Bernards, spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America.
"It's stealing. It's plain and simple theft," Bernards said. "If people keep stealing our movies, we're not going to be able to make them."
A Daily News reporter had no trouble scoring several new releases, including "Episode III," for $5 a pop in a subway tunnel below Times Square. The cost of a movie ticket at most theaters in Manhattan is at least $10.
Tyrone Coleman, 37, of Harlem bought the newest "Star Wars" film without any guilt.
"I can't even afford to go to the movies nowadays. It's $35 after a ticket, soda and food," he said. "I buy whenever the new movies come out," he explained after six women and a young girl dumped hundreds of DVDs onto an American flag-printed sheet.
The titles included a slew of new releases such as "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Sin City" and "Robots" - the very same movies seized by cops in Harlem during the noon raid.
The MPAA estimates movie companies lose more than $3.5billion in revenue each year because of counterfeit DVDs.
ASmith Barney study put the figure even higher, saying Internet sites that allow fans to illegally download movies and pirated DVDs cost the industry $5.4 billion a year.
But the studios and cops are fighting back, seizing more than 76 million illegal disks last year.
Movie fans who purchase the illegal DVDs are giving their cash to criminals, some of whom run international human trafficking and prostitution rings, said Marc Raimondi of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
"We're not talking about a mom-and-pop organization making these in some basement. It's an organized criminal element," Raimondi said. "People who think counterfeit items are a victimless crime are sorely misinformed."