Italy cracks down on CD piracy, larger fines

Italy is now fighting its high piracy level. The BBC reports that the country has now new laws in place and is trying to educate its police force about the sales of pirated CD and DVD discs. According to the article however, the main reason why people are pirating CDs and DVDs is because of the huge tax on them. Still the tougher laws should decrease the amount of pirated discs sold on the street, if the police is up to it, that is.

The success of the new laws will depend on the attitude of the Italian police, according to Luca Vespignani of the Italian federation against music piracy.  "Up to now it was policed in a very lax way, and a tougher law introduced in 2000 was never really applied," he said. "Everything will depend on the will of the police. If they start applying the law, people will stop buying," he added.Italy's customs force, which will be in charge of enforcing the new measures, said the public should be made to understand the background to CD piracy.

Source: BBC