In the largest raid on counterfeit goods in Los Angeles history, the city’s Anti-Piracy Task Force arrested 10 people and seized more than $4 million worth of pirated product. The operation, dubbed Operation Chimney Sweep, is part of a stepped-up effort to battle the production and sale of illegally copied music, movies, and apparel. “This should serve as a wake up call, not only to the criminals that produce and sell these illegal goods, but to all of the holiday shoppers out there,” said City Controller Wendy Greuel. “Piracy is serious business, but we are determined to sweep it out of Los Angeles.”
“we intend to sweep it out of LA” from Operation Chimney Sweep is the best/worst tagline this year.
No.
You’re just a hard up loser with pitifully low standards.
Well, that wasn’t very nice. And right before Christmas too…..
Aaargh!
terrible news and DateATallGuy was amazing
Aren’t there violent killers they should be chasing rather than computer nerds? Sadly 4 million doesn’t even sound like a huge heist these days.
4 mil in product is their way of saying $20-25 for every $.60 burned dvd. I’m not advocating piracy, but the DEA and RIAA inflate numbers left and right…
don’t they have better things to do with their time, like solve real crimes, murders, rapes……
Since most piracy money (including counterfeit purses etc) goes to China and some other piracy money gets into the hands of terrorists, I say get them. But then you probably don’t think it is stealing to buy counterfeit goods (newsflash – it is stealing).
Let’s pick the worst crime and only try to stop that one
The cities “Anti Piracy Task Force” does not investigate “real crimes” like “murders, rapes….”, hence the title ANTI PIRACY TASK FORCE. But maybe the “Entertainment Capitol of the World” should not try so hard to protect their investments.
There was a similar raid, confiscation and arrest announcement earlier this week in Toronto as well. Maybe these special police task forces like to feel like they’ve really accomplished something but in reality it’s just low level, bottom rung of the food chain store clerks getting arrested, and while 4 million is a fortune to us lesser mortals, to the kingpins at the top of the food chain the profits are so vast from these illegal enterprises that 4 million dollars represents no more than a line item on their yearly cost of doing business budget.
I love how they say that they are going to sweep it out of LA, but they cannot take out gangs that pose a worse threat. Goodo job people. Lets put all these people in jail to over crowd them and leave all the killers, rapers, molesters and all the other scum of the earth free.
We will have jails filled with computer nerds and weed smokers…
The “largest raid” in Los Angeles history grabbed 10 people? That’s just sad. There were more than 10 people arrested at my high school graduation.
Oops, meant to say largest “PIRACY” raid. I assume that there have been raids in LA that led to more than 10 arrests. But this certainly underscores my belief that the scale of piracy is a lot smaller than the suits keep telling us….
Where are these people they arrested from? I’ll just say isn’t immigration wonderful.
Yeah because lose in sales is all about piracy, nothing to do with iTunes selling individual songs, 1000 more artist being discovered through the internert. The era of super artists is over (fans are not limited to mainstream artists anymore), the film industry has an increase in profits every year, televisions ratings down, maybe because there is 1000′s more channels. Piracy destroying industries is a myth. Just an excuse to why the music industry is failing. I haven’t bought a mainstream act in years, mainly because I discovered smaller indie artist and I give my money directly to the artist. I also don’t albums and just the songs I like most of the times. Television I watch nearly all cable shows now, because network television sucks. Movies I have access to a bunch of free ones through The Movie Network or only pay $7 through Netflix. Piracy isn’t killing these industries a lack of adapting is. Piracy in many ways helps the industries and they are in for a rude awakening if they piss of the consumers. Many of my friends pirate everything. But, when they hear or see something they like, they buy it and go out of there way to promote it. I rented then bought The Town after of a friend pirated it (bought it himself) and recommended it. People pirate because they dont have the money to by every CD, Movie and Television Show. Instead they try it all for free then support the ones they like. Then spread the good word of mouth. Don’t get me wrong stealing is stealing. But, I think if piracy is completely wiped out, sales arn’t going to sky rocket like the executives think.
I completely disagree with your point. With all of the other avenues of discovering other acts and obtaining the pirating thing (through iTunes, Netflix, or whatever), it’s more important to the studios and those types of people to stop pirating, because they are already losing profits from the other endeavors. I have never seen any studio executive say that if pirating is stopped, their grosses would skyrocket. The reality of the times is with other cheaper, legal ways of obtaining entertainment, losing even a percentage of that product to piracy is that much worse…
“Serious business” used in a press release, FTW!
The music industry is now counteracting piracy with ridiculous concert and merch prices. And main artists still make a ton of money. Yeah, it is illegal but I’m sure some people would try to justify pirating for the sake of art and not capitalism.
But also, I’m not sure how movie and apparel industries would make up the difference.
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