There was a worry amongst many in Liverpool that knocked off CD’s and DVD’s would no longer be available as police boasted of their crack down on pirates.
The Echo reported:
“A CD piracy ring worth millions of pounds was smashed by police today.
In raids on 12 Merseyside homes, 21 people were arrested and thousands of CDs, DVDs and computer games seized.
Police also confiscated CD burners, computers and other equipment in the raids, the largest of their kind in the UK.
Up to 135 officers targeted homes in Kirkby, Fazakerley, Southport and Skelmersdale in Operation Zealot, uncovering four production factories believed to be chief suppliers of CDs, games and DVDs to Stanley Dock and Walton markets.”
One local resident commented, ‘I don’t mind so much because a cousin on me sisters side is a busy, so I suppose I’ll be able to get them off him now.’ However others expressed their fear that it could have a massive impact on the area ‘I remember when I seen on North West Tonight that they’d broke up a big pill ring and I remember saying to our Steve that it might effect the weekend, he said it wouldn’t, but we had to drive all the way to Manchester to get sorted, it was shit.’
“Eddy Leviten, from the Federation Against Copyright and Theft, said investigators had all the addresses under surveillance for six months.
"You can go to the market and confiscate the goods at the stall, but they will be back the next week.
"Today we've struck at the heart of this piracy operation, which costs the record, film and software industry millions in lost revenue.”
The Echo failed to question why Mersyside Police were so bothered about protecting the massive profits of the record, film and software industry. As most of the pirate goods were mainstream productions it would have little effect on grass roots arts, but it was automatically viewed as great news all round that people in Liverpool will have to pay inflated British prices to fatten the profits of Time Warner, Sony, MGM etc.
Some people say that modern day pirates are not as bad as the ones who used to rape and pillage across the Caribbean, however I doubt that Captain Black ever signed on whilst commandeering ships. Mr Levington revealed the full extent of these horrible crimes claiming, "These people are making thousands of pounds and many are living on benefits."
Meanwhile someone’s Gran had their house broken into and had to wait six hours for the police to arrive, she was quoted as saying “I understand the wait as the police were out there protecting copy write. Having to wait frightened and scared is a sacrifice I am prepared to make so that I am sure that when I buy the new GTA it will be the official one!”
“A CD piracy ring worth millions of pounds was smashed by police today.
In raids on 12 Merseyside homes, 21 people were arrested and thousands of CDs, DVDs and computer games seized.
Police also confiscated CD burners, computers and other equipment in the raids, the largest of their kind in the UK.
Up to 135 officers targeted homes in Kirkby, Fazakerley, Southport and Skelmersdale in Operation Zealot, uncovering four production factories believed to be chief suppliers of CDs, games and DVDs to Stanley Dock and Walton markets.”
One local resident commented, ‘I don’t mind so much because a cousin on me sisters side is a busy, so I suppose I’ll be able to get them off him now.’ However others expressed their fear that it could have a massive impact on the area ‘I remember when I seen on North West Tonight that they’d broke up a big pill ring and I remember saying to our Steve that it might effect the weekend, he said it wouldn’t, but we had to drive all the way to Manchester to get sorted, it was shit.’
“Eddy Leviten, from the Federation Against Copyright and Theft, said investigators had all the addresses under surveillance for six months.
"You can go to the market and confiscate the goods at the stall, but they will be back the next week.
"Today we've struck at the heart of this piracy operation, which costs the record, film and software industry millions in lost revenue.”
The Echo failed to question why Mersyside Police were so bothered about protecting the massive profits of the record, film and software industry. As most of the pirate goods were mainstream productions it would have little effect on grass roots arts, but it was automatically viewed as great news all round that people in Liverpool will have to pay inflated British prices to fatten the profits of Time Warner, Sony, MGM etc.
Some people say that modern day pirates are not as bad as the ones who used to rape and pillage across the Caribbean, however I doubt that Captain Black ever signed on whilst commandeering ships. Mr Levington revealed the full extent of these horrible crimes claiming, "These people are making thousands of pounds and many are living on benefits."
Meanwhile someone’s Gran had their house broken into and had to wait six hours for the police to arrive, she was quoted as saying “I understand the wait as the police were out there protecting copy write. Having to wait frightened and scared is a sacrifice I am prepared to make so that I am sure that when I buy the new GTA it will be the official one!”
Comments
Hide the following 13 comments
Not a joke to me
16.03.2006 17:29
Copyright theft is theft,
Muscian
Brilliant article!
16.03.2006 19:20
Ad Nauseam
knock knock
16.03.2006 20:43
If they were crediting me, name-checking me and popularising my work - as all downloaders do, then I'd be fairly chuffed. Witness the huge financial success of the Artic Monkeys who popularised themselves by giving away all their initial work at a rather low bit-rate knowing real fans will always want to collect the actual product. Compared to the awful mundanity of Metallica and their pro-corporate lawyers, and your sad little plea. Punks not dead, punk. The only acceptable copyright notice I have ever seen in any field of human intellect is ' Home copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing'. Stick that on your product and we'll respect it more than the empty threat of legal action. Of you really are a musician you should be able to identify the author of that statement, someone more talented and creative and successful than you I'll bet. Otherwise, if you are talented and broke and determined to cash in on your talent, charge higher ticket prices and you'll soon see if the rest of us agree with you. If you really are a musician then publish your response under your stage name and I for one promise never to steal any of the shit you produce. Or else shut up and stop pretending to be creative when you are only a corporate lawyer.
copyright is theft
oh,copyright is theft?
16.03.2006 22:38
sceptic
The police act for publishers that regularly infringe the copyright of others.
17.03.2006 03:40
The copyright of materials owned by muslims is thus regularly ignored by the self-same companies that publish most books, films, and records. As far as I am concerned, if Murdoch publishes ONE photograph recovered by Israeli terrorism in order to push his racist anti-muslim agenda, then why should ANYONE respect the copyrights of anything published by Murdoch or ANY of his companies? The same goes for the other media groups that also have news divisions.
Also, the vast majority of people would prefer that police time was spent persuing the pedophile Roman Polanski- relevant because this foul monster that drugged and anally raped a young child in the US, and then used his showbiz connections to flee from (very, very, very watered down)justice in order to find a safe haven in child-rape-friendly France, still produces valuable copyright protected material for the big publishers (and also is given regular access to child actors via British showbiz agencies). No doubt his recent film "Oliver Twist" was one of the products that this police action was designed to protect, literally meaning that the UK police were spending OUR money to protect the income of a fugive pedophile!
twilight
"What right has anyone to steal the hard work of others?"
17.03.2006 06:39
Thief
It might have escaped your notice
17.03.2006 10:45
sceptic
Artists and creatives just want credit for our work.
17.03.2006 13:06
It's not to stop Joe public from passing on my poems, my photos, my video work, etc it's to stop big business from making a profit from my work. It does work, it can work, it's usually worked on my video work though.
However I've had a least one of my photographs printed in the Liverpool Echo without even so much as a 'photo by' and even had articles published in another local newspaper with only a 'by line' with no payment, because I was after the experience and recognition of getting articles printed.
To be honest copying creative work, music, video, games, etc, etc hasn't ever meant a major artist falling into poverty. The small time musician moaning about being ripped off, ain't being ripped off by Jolly Roger the pirate, said small time musician just ain't become a big enough commodity to get ripped off by corporate music business.
Kai Andersen
If may have escaped your notice
17.03.2006 13:47
sceptic
It may have escaped Sceptic's notice...
17.03.2006 22:44
Ad Nauseam
Per Adstra Ad Nauseam
18.03.2006 09:07
sceptic
"Sceptic will be able to make money selling scepticism to other sceptics"
18.03.2006 09:40
Actually Sceptic (you're only sceptical about challenges to the status quo it seems - hardly Nietzsche!), lots of authors are now making their books availabe free online as well as in published hard copies, which hasn't seemed to hurt sales (of the top of my head some lefty books Parecon by Michael Albert and Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver are both available online AND sell well in print).
Thief
Marx and the value of labour
18.03.2006 11:51
sceptic