From online piracy to the real deal. Well, not eye-patch-wearing seafaring pirates. But those who trade in illegally produced CDs and DVDs, and police in County Durham have arrested two men after finding 30,000 bootlegged CDs, DVDs and computer games at their homes. Although the two men were reportedly already under suspicion by anti-piracy people at the BPI and FACT, they were arrested after being pulled over for driving an uninsured car. It was only when being interviewed about the vehicle and the lack of insurance that police became suspicious and instigated the raids that found all the bootlegged material. Formal charges will presumably follow.
Commenting on the arrests, BPI Anti-Piracy Manager David Wood told CMU: "Physical music piracy causes more than £165m in lost sales annually, which damages artists, local music stores and the record labels who invest in new music. More often than not counterfeiters are active in other areas of crime, and cross-agency cooperation is essential in bringing music thieves to justice. We thank the police for their work, and urge consumers not to fund crime - but to help fight it by avoiding the knock-offs".