These DVD pirates are missing the boat

[Brian Damage]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...-4701152c.html

IF you want to keep it secret that you're selling pirated DVDs, it's probably not a good idea to use a major Canadian newspaper as your return address.

Over the last few days, several packages of pirated DVDs have been shipped to the Winnipeg Free Press from disgruntled customers around the world.

The packages originated from entities called DVD Avenue.TV, DVD Store, AllMyFavoriteShows.com and Expediteur, but they all contained the return address for the Free Press in Winnipeg.

The videos include Ally McBeal, The Carol Burnett Show, Little House on the Prairie and The Six Million Dollar Man.

Included in the packaging is a card that tells people in bold-face letters not to send the items back to the address on the package before calling for an authorization number.


But apparently, people haven't been getting a response from that number, so they've just popped the packages back in the mail and a few days later, they've showed up at the Free Press.

One of those people was Margaret Cooper of Tampa, Fla., who spent a total of $228.32 for the complete series of Upstairs, Downstairs.

"This was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I looked at them and they were so poor," Cooper said on Friday.

"They were even plain white on the discs inside. Geez, I thought, it can't be legitimate."

Cooper has since told her credit card company she has returned the DVDs and expects to get the charge reversed.

"They were so amateurish it looked like a 10-year-old did it. I now tell my family to be careful when you order online."

The actual video quality of the television shows varies widely.

Some, like an episode of Beverly Hills 90210, are picture perfect -- although it includes in the lower right corner the SoapNet channel insignia from which the show was dubbed.

Others, like an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, look like they've been recorded onto a videotape using the slow speed and then dubbed onto DVD.

But the shoddiest example is the packaging of the Newhart show.

In Newhart, Bob Newhart played the owner of an inn in Vermont, and that's what the writeup on the package says. But the packaging on the pirated DVD features photographs of him from his earlier TV show, playing a psychologist.

The website is registered to a man living in Miami, Fla., but repeated attempts to telephone the man, as well as an 800 number listed on the website, received no reply.

Local television producer Kim Todd, who produced Falcon Beach, which recently was released on DVD, said the pirated TV shows don't surprise her.

"The Internet is like the Wild West, and law and order always follows after," Todd said.

"There's no doubt this is stealing. But the solution isn't putting everybody in jail, it's finding another way to meet the market."

Gary Osmond, the Canadian Motion Picture Distribution Association's director of investigations -- anti-piracy operations, said the DVDs received by the Free Press are connected to the massive seizure of thousands of counterfeit DVDs by the RCMP in Montreal just before Christmas.

More than 200 DVD burners were also seized by police and eight people were arrested who are facing fraud charges under the Criminal Code and Copyright Act.

But Osmond was surprised to hear the DVD pirates had used the Free Press' address.

"They're not too smart," Osmond said.

"In Montreal, they used post office box numbers for Canada Post or private companies. There was one legitimate address in Montreal, but it was a hole in the ground with a building being constructed.

"Yours is the only legitimate address and the first in Winnipeg."

Osmond says what makes purchasers especially angry is the DVDs in many cases are not cheap and rival the prices of legitimate versions.

"The problem is, with the Internet you can burn these in your basement and you have access to customers around the world."

To verify the legitimacy of Internet websites selling DVDs before making an order, contact the CMPDA at 1-800-363-9166. Anyone who believes they have purchased a pirated DVD is asked to call the RCMP at (514) 939-8307.

[savageamusement]

Glad you posted this-


Trading isn't legal- no doubts about that- but its a hobby where, you usually only take the benefit of seeing an old show.

However people who use it as a means to support themselves and go global on trying to cash in for something other than a couple bucks to reimburse for discs, or postage- are just ASKING, BEGGING to be caught, or worse.


Someone posted here over x-mas asking about that site, I at that time discouraged the buying or selling through them for this very reason.


I wish there was a legal way for everyone to see what they want...wouldn't that be nice- even a pay per view option on a cable to grab some old shows ---oh well there is always dreaming.

[RGR1973]

I ordered from them once, the full set of The Beverly Hillbillies. I was a tad bit suspicious, but I was naive and figured if they weren't legit, they would've been shut down. The line of thinking was that a lot of times there are legit CD labels that release stuff not released in the US and I thought that might've been it. Long story short, I filed for a credit on my card and AFTER I filed for credit, they sent the DVD's, lol! They were sent to the Post Office, so I put Truman (our carrier) a note in my mailbox telling him I refused them, that I found out since ordering that they were bootleg and that I had already had my credit card refunded. It's sad that CBS Video won't get off of their butts and release TBH on DVD officially!