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SYDNEY-BASED
INTERNATIONAL RELEASE GROUP ‘CAMMER’ FOUND
GUILTY
On
2 April at Blacktown Local
Court in Sydney’s South
West, 26-year-old Craig Farrugia pled guilty and
was subsequently convicted on movie piracy
copyright crimes. He was fined $5,400, placed on
an 18-month good behaviour bond, and forfeited the
seized computer equipment to the
crown.
The
conviction resulted from a raid
on
13 February by New South Wales Police, with
support from investigators from
AFACT,
on
Farrugia’s residence in Sydney's
south-west. During the operation,
Police
seized sophisticated video camcording and computer
equipment which was discovered to have been used
for making illegal video recordings of a number of
latest
release titles including: "He's
Just Not That Into You",
"Marley
and Me",
"Yes
Man",
"Bedtime
Stories",
and "Beverley
Hills
Chihuahua".
The
raid resulted from an intensive investigation by
AFACT investigators assisted by the MPA's
Anti-Piracy
Intelligence
Center
(APIC). During the course of the operation,
Technicolor, Deluxe, ICG, and Disney all supplied
invaluable assistance, providing a model for
successful cross-organizational cooperation in
addressing a significant source piracy
problem.
Operation
Omen was launched in response to a series of
camcords with forensics matches to the Greater
Union Blacktown Drive-In Theater in Blacktown, New South Wales,
Australia.
Utilizing forensic watermarking results and
special intelligence, AFACT and APIC were able to
link as many as eleven camcords to the defendant,
all of which are currently believed to have taken
place at the Blacktown Drive-in Theater.
The
movies illegally camcorded by the 26-year-old male
and distributed by release group "PreVail" had
been made available on numerous web sites as well
as forensically matched to pirated DVDs purchased
in Australia and a number of other countries
around the world including the USA, Mexico,
Britain, Spain, the Philippines and
Malaysia.
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MARKET
STALL MOVIE PIRATE JAILED FOR 9
MONTHS
On
30 April, at Burwood Local
Court in Sydney, Mr Qing
Wang, 45, was sentenced to an immediate custodial
sentence of nine months after he pleaded guilty to
25 copyright crimes. The
sentence took into account that Wang had just
finished a community service order for similar
copyright offences,
and Magistrate Pierce ordered that Wang was
not
to be released before 29th January
2010.
The
case against Wang arose from raids by New South
Wales Police supported by AFACT on weekend markets
in South West Sydney where movie pirates were
suspected of possessing and selling pirated movie
DVDs. On 18 May 2008, Maroubra
Police,
assisted by investigators from AFACT, raided the
weekend market at Kingsford, seizing over 300
pirated movie DVDs from a stall operated by
Wang.
At the time of the raid, Wang was serving a
community service order following a previous
conviction for copyright crimes for selling
pirated movies at Darling Markets in February
2007.
In
a separate but related matter, Wang’s wife, Ms Min
Huang, was arrested on the same day as her husband
(18 May, 2008) when a police raid by Campsie
Police resulted in the seizure of hundreds of
pirated movie DVDs from a stall in Anglo Mall
Markets operated by Ms Huang. A follow-up police
raid on Mr Qing Wang and Min Huang’s Campsie
residence resulted in the seizure of a DVD burner
operation, additional pirated DVDs and large sums
of cash. Ms Huang subsequently pled guilty and was
convicted on 18 copyright offences and six
classification offences and is scheduled to appear
at Burwood court on 5th
May.
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CAST
AND CREW SCREENING OF ‘X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE’
CELEBRATES WORLD IP
DAY
On
Sunday 26 April - World Intellectual Property Day
- over 850 members of the Australian cast and crew
of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” gathered to
celebrate the first screening of the movie in
Australia.
The
screening event was hosted by Twentieth Century
Fox Australia, the Lantern Group, and the
Australian Federation
Against Copyright Theft and
provided an opportunity to showcase the innovation
and creativity in Australia’s
community and contribute significantly to our
economy.
AFACT
played host to both Federal and State government
officials, police superintendents and senior local
film industry executives including: Dr. Ruth
Harley, the CEO of Screen Australia, Sandra
Levy, the head of the Australian Film Television
and Radio School, and
Ray Argall, the President of the Australian
Directors Guild.
Over
1,000
Australians
worked on “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, and the film
engaged over 100 Australian companies including
visual effects companies Rising Sun Pictures and
Fuel. The movie, which was filmed in New South Wales at Fox
Studios Australia and on locations at
Lake
Macquarie, Brownlow Hill
and on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour,
contributed over $60 million dollars to our local
economy.
World
IP Day is an initiative of the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO), and has been
celebrated annually on April 26 since its
inception in 2001.
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MAN
JAILED FOR 6 MONTHS ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND MOVIE
PIRACY OFFENCES
On
26 March, at Burwood Local Court, 36 year-old Mr
Song XIE of Lakemba in Sydney’s south west was
convicted on 41 copyright offences and three
possession of child pornography offences and was
sentenced to a six-month jail term to start
immediately.
XIE’s
conviction followed an anti-piracy operation on 18
May 2008 by New South Wales Police assisted by
investigators from AFACT. A number of stalls at
the Anglo Mall Markets in Campsie, in Sydney’s south
western suburbs, were raided, resulting in the
seizure of over 2,000 pirated movie DVDs along
with DVDs containing child pornography. Later that
day, police raided XIE’s private residence in
Lakemba where they seized further discs containing
child pornography, as well as 1,700 pirated movie
DVDs, DVD-R burners and ancillary computer
equipment used to manufacture pirated
DVDs.
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POLICE
SHUT DOWN LARGEST PIRATE DVD BURNER LAB THIS
YEAR
In
the early hours of 30 March, following an AFACT
investigation, Victorian Police, assisted by AFACT
investigators, raided a residence in the
Melbourne suburb
of Springvale. Police seized 72 DVDR burners
(capable of producing 1.8 million discs per year)
14 printers and two computers, along with an
estimated 7,000 pirated DVDs of AFACT member
company titles, and 5,000 blank DVD-Rs. Police
discovered movie titles recently released in
cinemas, and not yet available legitimately on
DVD, including “The
Changeling”,
“Ink
Heart”,
“Milk”
and “Gran
Torino”.
A female in her mid-forties is currently assisting
police with their inquiries and investigations are
ongoing.
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