RCMP Busts Counterfeit DVD Peddlers

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that it seized thousands of counterfeit DVD movie discs from a man and woman operating a booth at the Gibraltar Trade Centre in London, Ontario.

For more information visit: www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca


Unedited press release follows:

RCMP Seize Pirated DVDs from the Gibraltar Trade Centre

LONDON, ON, March 2 – On Sunday, February 27th, 2011 members of the London Detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Federal Enforcement Section seized thousands of pirated DVDs, from a booth at the Gibraltar Trade Centre on Dundas Street East in London.

Pirated DVDs in flimsy plastic sleeves were openly displayed for sale at space rented by the accused at the Gibraltar Trade Centre, where it is alleged they sold the pirated movies. The accused were found in possession of approximately 4000 movies for sale including recently released DVD movies, movies still in the theaters and others yet to be released. Titles included: The King’s Speech, The Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit, and Inception amongst many others.

The accused, a 25 year old man and a 24 year old woman, both from Toronto, Ontario face charges under the Copyright Act for allegedly offering for sale an infringing copy of work where copyright subsists. If convicted the accused could faces fines not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.

“In a joint study undertaken by Ipsos and Oxford Economics on behalf of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association has indicated the scale of harm caused by movie piracy in Canada as follows: Direct consumer spending losses to the movie industry i.e cinema owners, distributors, producers and retailers were $895 million. There were 12,600 Full time jobs foregone across the entire economy as a result of movie piracy,” according to Marc Proulx, Director for Content Protection of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association.

“This isn’t a victimless crime,” stated Inspector Dwight Blok, Officer in charge of the RCMP London Detachment. “We are committed in our efforts to combat this type of criminal activity.”

Anyone with information regarding the sale and /or manufacturing or distributing of Pirated DVD movies is invited to contact the RCMP at 1-800-387-0020 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-265-4444.