An investigation started in October found a large-scale DVD piracy ring after two premises were raided. Investigators found 11,000 adult film title masters, a VHS duplication facility and digital printing equipment that had produced more than 2.2 million prints, including VHS and DVD slicks, business records, customer lists and thousands of counterfeit DVDs.
“The sheer weight of the unavoidable evidence was astounding,” General Manager of CalVista Australia and AICO director David Newnham said. “Uncovered was a treasure trove of damning [evidence] which left the respondents no option other than to admit culpability and to quickly reach a settlement.”
Gay production company Titan Media, who has been aggressively pursuing copyright infringement issues for the last five years and is a member of the AICO, applauded the efforts that led to the success of the investigation and which directly affects the profitability of Titan product in Australia.
“We are so pleased that AICO has once again been able to smash and destroy another pirate ring in Australia. No matter where you are in the world, if you steal Titan content we are going to hunt you down and make you pay,” Titan Media Vice President Keith Webb told XBIZ.
“Because of AICO antipiracy efforts in Australia our DVD sales have been outstanding. Australia is now our third largest DVD market after the U.S. and EU. Antipiracy efforts such as these pay off in hard dollar results to our bottom line,” Webb said.
Fellow AICO member production company Evil Angel has also had experience in pursuing content piracy.
“[The AICO has] been doing some wonderful work down there. It’s more than just this single victory they’ve had, but I know that we were participants in getting them copyright information so they could pursue this and they’ve done a great job,” Evil Angel General Manager Norman told XBIZ.
Norman said though specific legalities in the U.S. made it more difficult to pursue infringers, he would still like to see the adult industry more united to fight piracy, in physical product as well as online.
“I’d like to see other territories including the United States adopt something similar to what they’re trying to do,” Norman said. “It seems to be a collective effort rather than what we’ve got in the United States and various other countries where the burden is on larger companies to pursue these pirates.”
“In the Australian market there are a few distributors that distribute all the product. It’s very much easier to get a collective mind on anything. There are a couple of issues in American law that make it difficult or awkward in terms of sharing company information,” Norman said.
With the piracy ring effectively shut down, AICO Executive Director Graeme Dunne said, “This is yet another example of AICO’s continuing investigations and enforcement of the now long-stated and unambiguous mandate to rigorously attack piracy wherever it is found.”
“All adult industry retailers need to be cognizant of the consequences. As this case illustrates, trading in infringed product results in direct action from AICO, the outcomes of which are well proven and very costly,” Dunne said.
