Antipiracy police raids in Hong Kong and Indonesia have led to arrests and seizures of illegal DVDs and reproduction equipment, the Motion Picture Association announced Tuesday.
In two separate Hong Kong raids on June 28, Hong Kong Customs & Excise Department officers seized equipment including 75 disc stampers, 50 DVD-R burners and 10 CD-R burners. The stampers and recording equipment were worth more than US$3.6 million, the MPA said. Eight arrests were made in the two police actions.
On June 23, police in the Indonesia capital of Jakarta raided what the MPA called “the notorious pirate retail center Ratu Plaza,” grabbing 410,000 illegal DVDs in the process. The street value of the discs was estimated at $400,000.
The MPA estimates that U.S. film studios lost $6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005. MPA is the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America, a trade group representing the interests of the American film industry.
