“Operation takedown”, 461 alleged movie pirates arrested

2008-08-19 03:12:03

The Motion Picture Association of America announced the arrest of 461 alleged movie pirates. The operation, called "Operation takedown", was launched in May 2008 and concluded at the end of July. It was conducted jointly with local authorities in 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific, including China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Australia.

Businessofcinema.com reports that nearly 600 raids were undertaken and more than 7.5 million pirated optical discs and 1,000 optical disc burners were seized. 56 people were caught using a camcorder in a theater. Some of them were nabbed by cinema workers using night-vision goggles.

According to MPAA, pirated discs were burned in labs and were sold via the Internet.