An anti-piracy operation across Asia run as Operation Red Card between early May and mid-July has been regarded as a success according to the MPAA after the operation resulted in the seizure of 6.75 million pirated discs in total.
The
operation also included the arrests of 915 people, the seizure of 1,483 CD & DVD writers within a total of 1,919 raids in 12 countries throughout Asia. The operation also gave priority to known piracy hotspots. China and Indonesia accounted for close to 2/3 the total according to a film industry group with 405 raids and 1.96 million discs seized in China alone, followed by the seizure of 305 DVD writers and 2.16 million discs in Indonesia.
While this Red Card option has complete, the MPAA still regularly performs anti-piracy operations and over the past two years, four anti-piracy operations were carried out resulting in over 2,500 arrests and the seizure of some 23 million pirated discs. They claim that global piracy has cost the MPAA members $6.1 billion in lost sales last year.
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Operation Red Card, which ran from early May to mid-July, also resulted in 915 arrests and the seizure of 1,483 optical disc burners, said the Motion Picture Association (MPA), whose members include all the major Hollywood studios. Authories conducted 1,919 raids in 12 countries throughout Asia, with a special emphasis on piracy hot spots "that had caused significant problems in the past and resisted previous arrest efforts," the MPA said |
It would be interesting to see how much the MPAA's
efforts have actually cut piracy in the Asian countries, especially since with
how widespread piracy already is there, killing a group of pirate
companies may only drive consumers and business to other pirates. On the other hand, their operations should help give a clearer message to these other pirate organisations that they are taking a serious risk by continuing to sell pirated content.
With such weak laws in some Asian countries; Russia in particular, it would
also be interesting to see just how severe the charges are against those who
have been arrested. For example, if the charges are not really that much
worse than trying to
tape in the cinema, then once these people are released, there is little
stopping them picking up new equipment to start pirating as
before.
Source: Reuters News
