AfterDawn: News

Huge piracy ring busted in Brazil

According to the MPAA and IFPI, a police raid was conducted today in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 4 seperate locations that were used to manufacture pirated CDs and DVDs. In all, 30,000 pirated CDs and DVDs were confiscated alongside over 200 burners.

The raids were a result of an investigation into piracy rings in Sao Paulo and more arrests are expected in the coming days.



Pirated DVDs and CDs are very commonplace in third world and developing countries but many American movie studios have yet to set a long term strategy to fight it.

So far, only two studios, Warner and Fox have ever done anything to combat piracy and that is to sell retail DVDs for unbelievably cheap prices. Both companies sell their DVDs on the streets of Russia and China for under $3 USD.

Source:
Arstechnica

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 4 Apr 2007 13:51

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• 15 comments

• corn

  Ouch, 30,000. Wonder how much money it took to buy all the disks.

  4.4.2007 14:04 #1

• navsav

  Under 3 bucks per dvd? So now we know how much of a freaking mark up they put on those things -no wonder Americans pirate movies! So what it costs them a 1.50 to make a movie? And I pay 15 bucks for it?

  4.4.2007 14:34 #2

• skeil909

  Originally posted by navsav:So what it costs them a 1.50 to make a movie?I would bet it is considerably less than that even.

  4.4.2007 14:51 #3

• PeaInAPod

  This is exactly why people in developed countries pirate items, films/dvd rips to be specific. The MPAA or whoever is in charge can afford to sell the same movies they sell "us" for $3 USD and they charge us $18-$20+ its outrageous. Lower prices to accomodate the market and piracy will drop.

  4.4.2007 14:56 #4

• sssharp

  Three dollars a dvd on the streets in russia. They should stop this lawsuit crap against us. The dvds are sold 5x higher in USA and they still want to sue the p2p people. Figure the math here: the file sharing only affects 10% of the sales which is a $1.50 of the price. How does this force them into bad money days when their profit is still much higher then russia/china. They cry loud and the government listens, thats American purchased politicians.

  4.4.2007 17:59 #5

• cart0181

  What came first, the chicken or the egg? The journalist could be putting the cart before the horse here. Are Warner and Fox selling DVDs for $3 in Russia to combat piracy, or is it because that's all the market will bear (thanks to the pirates ;). Supply and demand... supply and demand...
  
  I believe the situation may look something like this:
  Russia and China- Difficult for US and MPAA to control piracy due to foreign laws. US companies can choose to forego export of DVDs to these massive markets and make zero dollars, or sell at the reduced rate and make a much smaller profit on a per-sale basis. Option #1 would give the pirates the win because it would be impossible to buy legitimately. Option #2 allows at least a small profit margin and the hopes these countries will do something in the future about piracy. Who knows? Maybe they're "breaking even" or even losing money but viewing it as an investment.
  United States- Closer to an ideal environment. Laws against piracy, high demand for product (which created Hollywood in the first place). Supply can be controlled. Many can afford to pay higher price. Obviously, if it wasn't for the American market, these companies wouldn't be in business in the first place and it's where most the money is made.
  
  By the way, don't make me out to be anti-pirate. I just know a little bit about business. Piracy is a business-model after all ;) Check out this article. [url=http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8009.cfm][/url]

  4.4.2007 22:08 #6

• SProdigy

  The real truth is, they sell the DVD's and CD's to the RETAIL STORES at the higher price, which causes the retail stores to sell them for $15-$20 a piece. In fact, when Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. sell new releases the opening week, they are usually losing money on the best sellers rather than making any. Hence all the special edition packages and buy-one-get-one offers these stores make, in order to break even.

  5.4.2007 05:52 #7

• barryblue

  Originally posted by PeaInAPod:This is exactly why people in developed countries pirate items, films/dvd rips to be specific. The MPAA or whoever is in charge can afford to sell the same movies they sell "us" for $3 USD and they charge us $18-$20+ its outrageous. Lower prices to accomodate the market and piracy will drop.[b

  7.4.2007 02:06 #8

• Sliztzan

  Well they gotta charge somebody more to make up for those $3 DVDs. I'll give you 1 guess who they'll make it up with. Yep, The US buyers. Prices for DVD's should be coming down by now.

  10.4.2007 09:46 #9

• Sliztzan

  Ha, and another thing. If its such a big deal to sell them for $3, don't sell them at all in those countries. No lose then!

  10.4.2007 09:51 #10

• Sliztzan

  Originally posted by SProdigy:The real truth is, they sell the DVD's and CD's to the RETAIL STORES at the higher price, which causes the retail stores to sell them for $15-$20 a piece. In fact, when Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. sell new releases the opening week, they are usually losing money on the best sellers rather than making any. Hence all the special edition packages and buy-one-get-one offers these stores make, in order to break even.
  I don't believe it for 1 min. DVD are the cheapest to make than any format every in history. Cheaper than VHS tapes...or anything else ever.

  10.4.2007 09:56 #11

• cart0181

  Why do some people not understand the content costs tens of millions of dollars often times? It's not just the cost of the "soda in the cup" so to speak. There's something called overhead and ROI. People don't invest that kind of money without hoping to at least double their money in 5 years or less. In fact, they probably have to make up for the 10 other movies they invested millions in that completely flopped. By the way, Sliztzan, the cost has come down by quite a bit. That's probably due to the novelty wearing off and the capital investment for the stamping equipment reaching maturity. Oh, and there's something called the EDIT BUTTON also. Quit trying to up your post count noob.

  17.4.2007 20:44 #12

• Sliztzan

  So cart, are you a lobbyist for the MPAA? Sounds exactly like something they would say. Well if you believe all that hype thats fine, but I wanna know something. Do you get your rocks off thinking your all big and bad, pickin on who you think is a newbie just outta kindergarten?
  
  For your information DICK HEAD, I've been around here since early 2005 and it doesn't give me a hard-on trying to get my little posty counts up like you do Junior. Come on now, tell the truth... your the one who wants to be the "**StarBoy**"
  aren't ya? Or are you just one of those wanna bees?
  
  Now when you grow up and out of your Junior diapers, you'll come to realize my 1 wittle extwa-teenie-weenie-wittle-post won't make me President, now will it? Huuuuh?
  
  Damn, theres never an ignore button around when you need one is there?

  18.4.2007 06:38 #13

• Sliztzan

  oooops! thought I'd just put another one here. Don't mind me, I'm just a tease. Don't get any funny ideas now starboy.

  18.4.2007 06:42 #14

• cart0181

  You may be interested in reading some of my other posts to fully understand my particular viewpoint. I highly recommend the article titled "Piracy as a Business Model." (linked above) Here you will find I'm definately not a MPAA or RIAA spokesman.

  19.4.2007 06:48 #15