Upping The Ante Against Piracy

As physical piracy operations appeared to consolidate and gain sophistication in 2006, enforcement measures picked up steam.

The RIAA reports that while raids on illegal CD-burning operations in 2005 revealed at most 60-80 CD burners at one location, raids this year exposed operations with more than 200 burners. The three largest U.S. seizures uncovered a New York lab with 208 burners, a Philadelphia operation with 291 and an Atlanta lab with 281.

Movie DVDs used to comprise about 25% of seized pirate product, with music accounting for 75%. Now movies are about one-third of the product—and almost 50% in some places like New York.

RIAA executive VP of anti-piracy Brad Buckles expects that year-end data will reveal progress in some areas. In the RIAA's 12 target cities—where CD sales lag behind the national trend of increasing sales, thought to be because of piracy—he expects to see that their increased anti-piracy efforts narrowed the gap between local and national sales.

Buckles also expects the data to show that, for the first time, police initiated more investigations than the industry. This means law enforcement did not wait for the RIAA to bring cases to its attention. The RIAA has ramped up the training of officers to show them how to detect illegal music and how piracy operations work.