Alleged Wolverine pirate arrested
Wed, 04/29/2009 - 10:02
NSW police have arrested a 38-year-old woman for allegedly burning and selling pirated DVDs, including new film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, according to a music industry group, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI).
MIPI, who led this investigation & handed it over to the cops, was the same mob that were involved in the civil prosecution of Kazaa.
According to news reports, the "woman's arrest and the discovery of the discs led police to what was allegedly a disc burner lab in Sydney's Westmead. The lab allegedly had the potential to produce 378,000 pirated discs a year, worth $1.8 million on the street."
The film was made in Australia, employed over 1000 Australians, engaged over 100 Australian companies and contributed over $80 million to the local economy
Is this also a waste of police resources?
Wed, 04/29/2009 - 12:52
#2
The local plods just have to turn up? Really ?
I don't want to sound in any way flippant at the great work that MIPI do - Speccy & his mob at MIPI certainly do a great job (although I think Speccy might've moved onto greener pastures since Kazaa), methinks there might be just a tad more work involved here for the local plods than you've alluded to, Pat.
Handing over a bunch of statements, videos & exhibits is one thing. But thats really only the start.
Like, for instance, liaising with the DPP, obtaining any additional statements, additional DPP requisitions, exhibit handling, brief checking & q/a. Then there's their own (police) statements, final collation of the brief of evidence, making & delivering copies of the final brief to the various parties involved.
And then there's the time\resources involved in possible Court attendance.
While we should be careful not to talk about what might happen in this case specifically, suffice to say in general terms, if there's a plea of not guilty in any matters, there's the ongoing drama of police having to attend court, organise witnesses, their travel, accommodation, ferrying to & from airports, witness expenses, obtaining the exhibits out of the exhibit room etc.
All said, high profile cases of blatant copyright piracy warrant such police resources, imo, and the work of MIPI helping out is a good example of how police & other mobs can help to cut those costs on police resources.
:)
BG.
MIPI would have done the investigation and basically handed all the info over to the local plods. The local plods would just have to turn up, basically. I've had a few dealings with MIPI over the years:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=patrick+gray+kazaa+site%3Awired....