Montreal men charged in with DVD piracy
MONTREAL - Three Montreal men have been charged in connection with a major international DVD piracy ring, for allegedly reproducing and selling pirated TV series on DVD within Canada and abroad. Franois Garcia, Jason Joyal and Francesco Tomaino, all face heavy fines and jail terms if they are convicted under Canada's new, stringent Copyright Act violations. According to the RCMP, an investigation was started by the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA) after they received complaints about illicit DVDs being marketed through web sites ultimately linked to the accused. The RCMP raided a Montreal facility where they found equipment that could reproduce up to 14, 000 illegal DVDs daily. "Tens of thousands" of pirated DVD, 200 DVD burners, and computer equipment were seized from the Montreal location. "The distribution of pirated DVDs is a serious, worldwide problem that hurts not only the people who make the movies and legitimate retailers, but also consumers who end up with bad quality, counterfeit DVDs, " explains Steve Covey, CMPDA's deputy director of anti-piracy operations. "We salute the efforts of the RCMP in this operation. Active investigation and prosecution of copyright violations sends an unmistakable message to organized criminals that copyright theft is a serious crime that will be prosecuted." If convicted under the new terms of the Copyright Act of Canada, the sentence could be serious indeed. Garcia, Joyal, and Tomaino could face fines up to $1 million and a maximum of five years in jail.
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