A joint raid carried out by Trading Standards and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has led to the apprehension of a man accused of video game piracy offenses. A sting operation had been carried out, in which participants visited the unnamed Staffordshire man to have an Xbox console chipped, and to purchase several illegally copied games.
After the games were taken for examination, there was enough evidence to get a search warrant. The raid turned up over 1,000 pirated video games, including over 700 Xbox 360 games and 300 Wii games. Around 100 PlayStation 2 games were also found. Three Xbox 360 consoles and two Nintendo Wii consoles were seized.
The man admitted to running his operation through Gumtree.com for the past two years. “Our team in the Intellectual Property Crime Unit (IPCU) will step up its fight against counterfeiters and illegal chipping services in 2009. Such illegal activity can pose real health dangers for the public and certainly deprives gamers of any proper quality control. Furthermore, it can cause the industry to lose vital income and with it jobs across the UK,” said Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA.
An investigation under the Proceeds Of Crime Act has begun to determine the criminal gain from the illegal activity.
Result for: crime unit
According to the UK police, a factory raid has netted pirated video games, DVDs and CDs with a street value estimated at £1 million.
30,000 of the counterfeit discs were seized from the factory in West Midlands, and there was an estimated 10,000 each of DVDs, video games and audio CDs.
Along with the discs, seven PCs were seized with 35 DVD re-writers, 19 HDDs, 15 Xbox 360 consoles and two Wii consoles. “Multiple” modchips were also found.
John Hillier, head of ELSPA’s crime unit added, “Piracy, like that of any other entertainment industry, costs us dear. Making good and inventive games is an expensive and creative process, with some titles today costing £20m or more to develop”.
“When a pirate sells illegally copied games they undermine the viability, value and creativity of our industry. The worst-case scenario is that pirate activity could cost the jobs of some of the UK’s outstanding creative talent and that would be a catastrophe”.
“The public should be aware of many other pitfalls of counterfeit games - some will even damage hardware such as consoles including PlayStation, Xbox and Wii. Other fakes will not play correctly at all”.
“Most importantly, of course, pirated software comes with no quality assurance whatsoever - so if a game turns out to be faulty then retailers and publishers just will not replace them”.
Result for: crime unit
One of the largest BitTorrent sites on the Internet, TorrentValley.com, has been shut down in a raid by Bulgarian authorities. The so-called Cyber Crime Unit got tipped off by the Bulgarian Association of Musical Producers (BAMP).
“Torrentvalley was a major international source of copyright infringing material. This site was a gate towards more than 5 000 torrent-trackers from all over the world. The decisive action by the authorities shows that Bulgaria is no haven for copyright abuse in Internet and makes efforts to protect the rights of those involved in the creative industries,” said the BAMP representative Ina Kileva.
The press release by IFPI estimates that TorrentValley aided the distribution of more than one million copyright infringing files.
This is not the first time Bulgarian authorities have acted against BitTorrent sites. In 2006 police arrested the admin of Arenabg.com, who was soon released due to lack of evidence.
