Enforcement operation resulted in the arrest of 675 suspected pirates, seizures of more than 2.6 million pirated optical discs and 1,200 optical disc burners, capable of producing hundreds of pirated movies a year and potentially millions in illicit revenue.

According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), seasonal sweeps by enforcement authorities appear to have had the desired deterrent effect.  Operation Blackout, an Asia-Pacific-wide anti-piracy enforcement operation initiated by the MPA that ran from November 2007 to January 2008, resulted in a treasure trove of arrests and seizures. 

During Operation Blackout, 894 raids were undertaken by enforcement authorities in 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. As with previous similar operations, the raids targeted the producers, distributors and sellers of pirated movies within the region, and particularly on the Internet. It also focused on the illegal camcording of movies in cinemas – with the MPA distributing hundreds of copies of its “Make a Difference” package to theater employees around the region to increase their awareness of laws designed to prevent movie camcording inside the theaters.

Among the “pirate booty” seized during Operation Blackout were:

Australia: 426 burners, 661,411 pirated optical discs

China 211 raids conducted, 676,384 pirated optical discs

India: 117 people arrested

Hong Kong 189 burners

Malaysia: 423 burners, 110 people arrested

Philippines: 541,800 pirated optical discs

Taiwan 114 raids conducted, 173 burners

Thailand: 241 raids conducted, 243 people arrested

Piracy in Asia is a big challenge. A comprehensive study aimed at producing a more accurate picture of the impact that piracy has on the film industry including, for the first time, losses due to internet piracy, recently calculated that the MPA studios lost US$6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005. About US$2.4 billion was lost to bootlegging*, US$1.4 billion to illegal copying* and US$2.3 billion to Internet piracy. Of the US$6.1 billion in lost revenue to the studios, approximate $1.2 billion came from piracy across the Asia-Pacific region, while piracy in the U.S. accounted for $1.3 billion.

The MPA has also found that to evade an increased focus on intellectual property crime by Asian law enforcement agencies and courts, movie pirates have shifted their tactics. They are going from large-scale production in optical disc factories using machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, to burner labs that can contain dozens of low-cost burners and are often located in apartments and small retail premises. Both types of operation are capable of producing tens of millions of pirate DVDRs or CD-Rs per year, but burner labs are inexpensive and easy to set up, and if raided, easily and quickly replaceable.

In 2006, the MPA’s operations in the Asia-Pacific region investigated more than 30,000 cases of piracy and assisted law enforcement officials in conducting nearly 12,400 raids. These activities resulted in the seizure of more than 35 million illegal optical discs, 50 factory optical disc production lines and 4,482 optical disc burners, as well as the initiation of more than 11,000 legal actions.

According to Mike Ellis, Senior Vice President and Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, for the MPA, “I am pleased to report that our tough actions throughout the year and our new focus on the Internet as an increasingly popular channel for piracy has had an impact. Pirates have been under pressure due to several of our region-wide operations. What we are seeing now in some countries is more covert pirate activity - many have moved underground or have found ways and means to cover their tracks.”

He added, “Our aggressive efforts have also made the pirates shift from factory operations to burner labs. A total of 1,289 DVD-R burners were seized in this latest operation as compared to 450 in the previous operation carried out between May to June 2007. That is almost a 300% increase, and we see this trend growing in countries like Australia, Malaysia and Taiwan. We are confident that we will stay one step ahead and do what it takes to smoke them out in the coming year, given the strong commitment to intellectual property rights protection by law enforcement agencies and governments around the region”.

In the past four years, the regional anti-piracy operations biannually conducted by the MPA have resulted in over 5,000 arrests and 32 million pirated optical discs seized. Operation Blackout initiatives were conducted in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.