Even more Live 8 news, and internet auction site eBay has confirmed it has begun removing illegal DVD copies of the Live 8 concerts off its website.
As reported yesterday, pirated recordings of the Make Poverty History concerts began appearing on the auction website within 24 hours of the events themselves. Although the main aim of the concerts was to put political pressure on the political leaders of the G8 nations, and not raise money, EMI will release an official DVD of the concerts later this year which will raise funds for the Live Aid Foundation (and the major has reportedly paid a multi-million advance to Live Aid for the rights to do so).
As soon as the bootleg DVDs appeared on eBay, the UK's music industry association, the BPI, put pressure on eBay to act. BPI anti-piracy boss David Martin added: "There are too many people out there who believe music is for stealing, regardless of the wishes of artists and the people who invest in them. Sadly we are not at all surprised by this incident."
eBay bosses responded last night by saying: "The unauthorised copies of Live 8 DVDs we have been told about have been taken down, because the sale of fake items is not permitted on eBay.co.uk".
Of course it is not the first time the Live Aid movement has suffered from piracy, or had a run in with eBay. A primary motivation for the release of the Live Aid DVD last year was that pirates were profiting from bootleg sales of recordings of the concert. Meanwhile Bob Geldof criticised eBay last month when it materialised that people were selling Live 8 tickets for profit via the auction website.