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Bradford man accused of piracy

April 11, 2013   ·   0 Comments

On the 6th of April, South Simcoe Police along with representatives of the Motion Picture Association – Canada executed a search warrant today on a residence in Bradford. The investigation began with the purchase of pirated DVD’s over the Internet on a buy/sell website. The Motion Picture Association – Canada completed analysis of  the DVD’s and found that they were pirated or “burned” copies of movies, some of which were still in theatre upon receiving them. South Simcoe Police were notified and executed a search warrant and seized items from the residence such as computers, hard drives, thumb drives, burned copies of DVD’s as well as blank writeable DVD’s, shipping receipts and a sales log including e-mail transactions between buyers and the accused. A 51 year old male has been charged with multiple counts under the Copyright Act.  South Simcoe Police remind the public that it is an offence to possess and distribute pirated copyrighted material.   Under the Copyright Act fines can range from $500 – $5000.00 for non commercial violations.  Those involved in commercial sales can face fines of $20,000.00 per copyright violation.

The MPA serves as the voice and advocate of the major studios of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) whose distribution divisions market feature films, pay TV, prime time entertainment programming for television and pre-recorded videos and DVDs in Canada. The CMPDA conducts investigations, assists with the criminal and civil litigation generated by such cases and helps to teach movie fans about the harmful effects of piracy. Its members include:  Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures Entertainment.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLLP; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

A comprehensive study aimed at producing a more accurate picture of the impact that piracy has on the film industry including, for the first time, losses due to Internet piracy, recently calculated that the CMPDA related studios lost US$6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005. Canada has experienced its own radical growth of film piracy over the last number of years. Piracy impacts a wide spectrum of artists, manufacturers, distributors, producers, retailers, theatre operators, employees, consumers and governments and is recognized as a serious and growing problem throughout the world.

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