AfterDawn: News

Pirated goods seizures explode in EU

According to EU customs officials, seizures of pirated goods have jumped 55 percent year-on-year from 2007, from 79 million to 178 million items seized.

DVDs and CDs accounted for a massive 44 percent of all the items seized, jumping 2600 percent from 2007 from 3 million to 78 million units seized.



Says the European Commission, via Variety, that the significant increase is due to improved "cooperation" between the media industry and authorities. The EC also added that overall cases of suspected violation of intellectual property rights rose from 43,000 in 2007 to 49,000.

The report also noted China and greater Asia as the "main source of all counterfeit goods."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 10 Jul 2009 16:40

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• 12 comments

• bam431

  When i saw the headline i thought a bunch of pirated goods blew up. Not as exciting as i thought.

  10.7.2009 22:25 #1

• Leningrad

  literally i was thinking the exact same.

  11.7.2009 00:30 #2

• bam431

  It is misleading

  11.7.2009 00:32 #3

• anhjinzan

  Literally dudes! I felt the same way too!

  11.7.2009 00:44 #4

• Mysttic

  This explosion stunk, no bang. But seriously, what can anyone expect with a global wide recession, and the constant fight against piracy; which is proving laughable everyday because more and more consumers are converting to piracy to fight for their rights to sharing information, and as people share how to get access to it, the more people are easily swayed to do so. It's a losing battle to fight and it's a waist of tax payers money to try to do so.
  
  What's sadder still is somewhere along the line piracy went from being "backed up copy-written material being sold for the purpose of profit" to being "anything downloaded that is deemed illegal and therefor loss of profit is theft, by corporations even if it has no relation to their company" I only hope my own county doesn't fall into the same stupidity of siding against piracy in ways of outrages fines or arresting.
  
  PS. It would really be interesting to see the effects on a Global scale if we had a one day Strike against purchasing, downloading/streaming, any media entertainment of any source.

  11.7.2009 01:22 #5

• DXR88

  Quote:It would really be interesting to see the effects on a Global scale if we had a one day Strike against purchasing, downloading/streaming, any media entertainment of any source.there wouldn't be, its an automated system. the fat cats just sit back on there yacht and wait for the latest numbers. if they don't like it the bitch that its do to piracy.
  
  Quote:that the significant increase is due to improved "cooperation" between the media industry and authorities. The EC also added that overall cases of suspected violation of intellectual property rights rose from 43,000 in 2007 to 49,000.Last time i checked in America the authority's want nothing to do with the media industry. thats from the authority's on pie hole. but when a paid of politic says jump the authority's don't have much of a choice.

  11.7.2009 02:08 #6

• KillerBug

  It seems like there should be more physical pirated material around these days...it has become far more dangerous to download such material, therefor it only makes sense that people would start buying their pirated materials. Why spend a week downloading and risking being tracked when you can just go to the street corner and spend $2 for the latest photoshop?

  11.7.2009 05:00 #7

• Mysttic

  For nearly 15 years there were numerous stores in Toronto, ON Canada, that sold nothing but ripped media of all kinds; be it games, movies, music, etc.. I was actually glad when someone finally took them down, for what made me angry at these retailers is that they tried to claim the product was authentic.
  
  Granted, their dvd covers, game covers and etc all looked like authentic printouts; you could only tell it was ripped by looking at the back of the disc for the engraved text which would tell you if it's legit or not.
  
  Now its one thing to sell pirated goods and telling the consumer they are copies, not the original. It's another thing all together to mask it. And where were these items shipped from? Taiwan. So for people who don't want to get suckered at flea markets or open store vendors in malls, be sure to check what you by; cause not all the time people are made aware of pirate material, and those are the people I think should be arrested. For going out of their way to not only cheat the industries, but the public as well.

  11.7.2009 12:12 #8

• subpopz

  Originally posted by KillerBug: It seems like there should be more physical pirated material around these days...it has become far more dangerous to download such material, therefor it only makes sense that people would start buying their pirated materials. Why spend a week downloading and risking being tracked when you can just go to the street corner and spend $2 for the latest photoshop?
  If it takes you a week to download Photoshop, that means you're doing it wrong. :P

  11.7.2009 16:00 #9

• ripxrush

  uh... is it me or are those numbers wrong?! ok if you have started with 79 then add 55% you get 122.45, if you add another 55% you get 189.79, so either way i figure it 55% over 2 years or 55% peach year for the past 2 years the total # is wrong.
  CD's also 2600 (ironic on its own accord) of 3 mill is 81 mill not reported 78%!
  Oh & yes 2600 is just such an ironic # i am wondering if someone rounded up the % to make it look bad for 2600? pointing off blame on a "hackers magazine" that is highly miss understood.

  11.7.2009 16:22 #10

• DXR88

  i was hoping to read something like pirated goods explode killing 8 intruding swat members. cause of death chunks of CD.
  
  CD launcher would be bad ass.

  14.7.2009 01:28 #11

• kyo28

  I for one am glad more pirated goods get intercepted and hopefully the pirates will be brought to court.
  
  I make a clear distinction between these two kinds of pirating:
  
  1. A single person who downloads software, music or videos for personal use: I don't have a big problem with that as I agree some prices are too high for some or people want to 'try before buy'.
  
  2. Pirates that massively copy and sell copyrighted material: these people are scum, pure and simple. They make a profit on the back of the original creators. Downloading something for free is one thing, but massively sell someone else's work for your own personal gain is just plain wrong. If they want to earn money, why not use their creativity and make something of their own instead of stealing other people's ideas? These are the pirates that in my opinion deserve to get dragged to court.

  14.7.2009 03:59 #12