Toronto Police Bust ‘Largest’ DVD Piracy Ring In Cdn. History
Posted August 28, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
But Toronto Police claim they’re anything but the genuine article and believe they’ve broken what the force calls the largest counterfeit DVD ring in Canada.
Cops seized around 20,000 of the phony discs from three east end offices at the Dynasty Plaza near Markham and Sheppard over the weekend.
What they allegedly found inside was staggering – enough equipment to turn out an incredible 560 DVDs an hour. The entire haul is said to have cost the motion picture industry at least $400,000.
But it could have been even worse.
“There were 142 burners…going for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the potential capacity is in the millions,” confirms Det. Cst. Tamari Caccamo.
She believes it was the largest such enterprise of its kind in Canadian history, and titles included some currently playing hits like Will Ferrell’s newest flick “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
Others were older films, but none of them were legit.
Cops believe the movies were taken to a nearby store and sold for the bargain basement price of $5 each. It doesn’t seem like much, but experts contend it all adds up quickly.
“Based at $5 selling price per disk would mean the illegal income to the pirate of $17.8 million in Canadian dollars per year,” calculates J im Sweeney of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association.
Three Toronto women and a man are in custody, facing a number of charges. Another 25-year-old Markham woman, Yannie Siu, is being sought.
If you know where she is or anything about the alleged operation, call (416) 808-4200.
How can you tell if you’re buying a pirated movie on DVD?
According to the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, there are several obvious signs.
The Price
If it sounds too cheap to be true, it usually is. Don’t expect big bargains, especially on the latest releases.
The Packaging
If the disk isn’t in a professional looking package, be suspicious. Also watch for spelling mistakes in the title or on the box credits which a movie studio would never allow to be released. Blurry graphics or bad or bleeding colours on the cover are also telltale signs.
The Label
If there isn’t one attached to the DVD or it looks poorly made, it generally isn’t the real thing.
Bad Quality
Chances are the pirates made their copy from an inferior duplicate and in some cases, even taped the movie off the screen using a video camera. The sound is usually pretty bad, as well.
Another obvious sign to look for – what’s called a ‘time code’ or numbers appearing on screen throughout the film, indicating the movie was made from a copy that wasn’t ready for prime time.
A New Title
There’s usually a few months delay between when a film hits your theatre and when it comes out on video. If it’s still playing in your local cinema or it just came out, you can bet it’s not the real thing.
The Region
Did you know that the movie industry has divided the world virtually in half? Because of differences in TV systems across the world, DVDs that will play in North America won’t function in Europe and vice versa. If there’s no region rating on the package, it’s a fake.
Where You Buy It
You can’t always tell because some stores that hawk the illegal disks are in malls. But well known chains will almost never stock or sell them and like most things sold from the back of a truck, if they don’t come from a legitimate place, you can bet they’re not the real thing.
