AfterDawn: News

Crackdown on counterfeit goods in UK

Plans for a new multi-agency approach to tackling traders who sell counterfeit goods are being drawn up in the UK following a series of four raids, dubbed Operation Dawn. The raids took place in the run up to Christmas at North London's Wembley Market. Between 50 and 70 people including police officers marked more than 30 traders for possible prosecution and seized counterfeit goods that would have been valued at £1.5 million at retail.

"My understanding is that Operation Dawn is likely to be the blueprint for similar operations from the Patent Office... for dealing with this sort of trader or organised crime." said Giles Speed, the Brent and Harrow trading standards officer. A spokesman for Britain's Department of Trade & Industry said the multi-agency approach would be co-ordinated by the Patent Office and the National Criminal & Intelligence Service.



Apparently some legitimate traders and local businesses, including Blockbuster, supported the raids. Agencies included in Operation Dawn included the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, Job Centre Plus and the Inland Revenue. However, no piracy-related arrests were actually made. In fact, the two arrests made were a man on suspicion of outstaying his immigration visa and another man for not producing identification. The raids were instead a deterrent for traders.

Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Jan 2006 18:47

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• 8 comments

• p4_tt

  Wow were these two peeps selling fake stuff while claiming from the Job Center??? Seriously if there were no piracy-related arrests then they musta broke the terms of there JSA by selling (fake) goods :D If not why were JCP involved?!? I would love to know how much the fake stuff would have made, nowhere near £1.5 million i think.

  4.1.2006 19:21 #1

• dubire

  this is funny its the same in Ireland at the markets people openly sell copied dvd's and games that what 50% of the market stalls are and no one cars except the government when they have to play the blame game on where organised crime gets there money
  I think I have heard bush saying the very same thing
  

  4.1.2006 22:45 #2

• Rosco404

  Yip, car boot sales and markets are crawling with bootlegs and people know this!

  5.1.2006 03:36 #3

• etherz

  Yeah virtaully every market or car boot sale in the UK has Pirated goods for sale, and people buy them because they dont mind the dip in quality for the cheaper price, the industries need to take note, they charge too much for their goods. Just make films more reasonably priced and they would make more sales as it would not be worth pirating them.
  
  And not arresting anyone due to piracy is not much or a deterrent, they will just carry on until they are caught!

  5.1.2006 06:11 #4

• McKeva

  For me it isn't worth buying the pirate films as I like the quality and poor quality just annoys me.

  6.1.2006 14:33 #5

• Wild9

  The technology has improved to the point where the quality (and quantity) of pirated multimedia has increased significantly.
  
  It's a case of supply and demand - the demand is certainly there especially with the price-fixing in stores. Additionally if there is a crackdown on market traders then piracy will as it has done before, simply go underground. Can you see it stopping soon, especially when many UK consumers are normally in debt after Christmas right until summer?
  
  I view cheap games like cheap cigarettes; the UK government hikes the price on the latter and then wonders why people buy them from elsewhere, especially when the actual price difference is quite considerable. The same for cheap petrol..are these measures designed to tackle piracy or secure monopolies?
  
  Many "big" stores are finding it harder because they're having a taste of their own medicine.
  
  May I also suggest those officers targeting "trader or organised" criminals, also target the drug-pushers and the people-smugglers who enter that country..including the one's who don't have national insurance numbers or visit car boot stalls and can disappear inside a community at the drop of a hat..

  8.1.2006 19:35 #6

• blueyond

  Seems to me that the Police etc are going for the easy targets again. Just like speeding offences. The offenders are there for the taking, whereas serious crime requires a lot more work and doesn't produce the same results. They are always complaining of being under manned but waste there resources on petty crime. This is all very well, but serious crime like drugs should be their priority.

  9.1.2006 01:15 #7

• Nicklt

  When i walk to the high street in my local area (UK) there is always a dodgy fellow selling obviously fake DVDs in the past i have actually brought some, and to be honest the quality was well to put it blunt shit, they where obviously filmed from the back of the cinema, you can even see people getting up and walking around the cinema, i even find myself saying "Sit Down" when im trying to watch the film....Somehow though my G/F uncle managed to get Madagascar on DVD before it had even come out in the cinema and it was top quality, how the hell he managed that i dont know! I watched a raid on one of these "Pirate" bases and it was amazing what they had, they had about 40 PC towers which where just full of DVDRW producing and estimated 5000 pirate DVD every day, crazy! to be honest im glad that they do raid these people and arrest them, because mnost of them are nasty peices of work who deserve to be locked up

  9.1.2006 01:20 #8