Italian police targeted a factory manufacturing counterfeit discs intended for export around Europe last week. The Italian Fiscal Police (GdF) raided the Bologna-based plant, which was producing unlicensed box sets that included music, films and TV programming. The raid followed an investigation into an unlicensed box set “Masterbox”, which contained music by international artists such as Bob Dylan, Depeche Mode, Eminem, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Tiziano Ferro.
Masterbox box sets had previously been manufactured in Poland, but the operation moved to Italy following raids by Polish police in February 2009. At that point, nine million copyright infringing albums in total were estimated to have been distributed around Europe, with an estimated trade value of around €19 million being put on the previous 15 editions of the box set series produced in the plant.
FPM worked with the Italian Fiscal Police to investigate the manufacturing plant that was producing new editions of the Masterbox series, while IFPI coordinated industry enquiries across Europe in support of the official investigation.
“This investigation highlights the international reach and resources available to the criminals responsible for this pirate release. The Masterbox series distributed in Europe is a classic example of a criminal enterprise involved in the lucrative business of copyright infringement,” Jeremy Banks, director, anti-piracy at IFPI, said.
“The music industry will continue to be vigilant and work internationally and locally in partnership with law enforcement to protect its rights. The Italian Fiscal Police have done a magnificent job taking decisive action and sending a strong message that they will actively investigate these types of offences.”
Result for: tv programming
Microsoft has announced that its anticipated addition of BSkyB TV programming to the Xbox 360 will begin on October 27th in the UK.
Graeme Boyd, Xbox community manager for Europe, announced the news today via Twitter, with an “official” announcement set for next week.
The tweet said: “October 27 - that’s the date when you’ll be able to watch TV from Sky on your Xbox 360. Channel line-up and pricing to come at launch.”
The deal was first revealed at the E3 event, and will give access to current subscribers or new deals for non-subscribers. Pricing was not announced, but expect it at the “official” launch next week.
Result for: tv programming
Sky has announced that they will be adding channels to their web TV player, the Sky Player, for free, giving users more options no matter what package they have.
The new channels are Sky Movies Screen 1 and 2, Nat Geo Wild, G.O.L.D. and Sky Real Lives, which are all free as long as you have the basic online entertainment package, which costs £15 per month. That budget bundle gets you 12 channels total with the new additions.
For those who want Sky’s full lineup of channels, including futbol games, cricket matches and kids TV programming, the price per month is £41.
The company adds that more content is coming soon.
