TORONTO, March 6 \/CNW\/ – Following a year-long investigation by the
\nCanadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), the RCMP has shut down
\nAudiomaxxx.com Ltd., a major alleged music counterfeiting operation in
\nWinnipeg, and filed criminal charges against four individuals.<\/p>\n
\nPolice file criminal charges against four people and seize more than
\n200,000 music CDs and DVDs\n<\/p>\n
\nTORONTO, March 6 \/CNW\/ – Following a year-long investigation by the
\nCanadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), the RCMP has shut down
\nAudiomaxxx.com Ltd., a major alleged music counterfeiting operation in
\nWinnipeg, and filed criminal charges against four individuals.\n<\/p>\n
\nRaj Singh Ramgotra, the principal behind Audiomaxxx, was among those
\narrested during a raid yesterday at the organization, which for three years
\nhas allegedly manufactured pirated compact discs and hard core pornographic
\nvideos, and distributed them throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe and Jamaica.
\nMore recently, Audiomaxxx’s offerings have also included allegedly pirated
\ndigital downloads.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn addition to the arrests, police seized an enormous volume of suspected
\ncounterfeit goods. This includes more than 200,000 music CDs and DVDs,
\nnumerous movie DVDs and hundreds of thousands of blank discs. Police also
\nseized five CD\/DVD burning towers, each with 12 burners, which together are
\ncapable of burning well in excess of 10,000 CDs and DVDs a day. The raid also
\nnetted several computers and hard drives, two commercial CD printers, four
\ncolour copiers and other office equipment.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn the past 10 years, the raid closest in scale to the action against
\nAudiomaxxx involved the seizure of about 10,000 counterfeit music CDs and DVDs
\n– one-twentieth the volume netted yesterday.
\nMore than 10 police officers were involved in yesterday’s raid.
\n"We sincerely thank the RCMP officers who have worked so hard to bring
\nAudiomaxxx to heel, and to the federal prosecutors who have worked closely
\nwith them," said Graham Henderson, President of the Canadian Recording
\nIndustry Association. "Today’s arrests send out a clear message that
\ncommercial piracy will no longer be tolerated in Canada."\n<\/p>\n
\nAudiomaxxx is suspected of being one of Canada’s leading music
\ncounterfeiters. In Toronto alone, approximately 30 percent of the pirated CDs
\nseized allegedly originate from the operation. CRIA estimates that, at
\nminimum, Audiomaxxx has been shipping tens of thousands of allegedly pirated
\nCDs each month.\n<\/p>\n
\nCRIA has received dozens of complaints concerning the operation from
\nartists, music associations and music labels around the world, including
\nnumerous small, independent labels. In the past, when faced with demands by
\nrights holders to cease its activities, Audiomaxxx has consistently ignored
\nthe demands or failed to fully comply.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe operation appears to be highly developed, with a significant
\ncatalogue of allegedly pirated CDs and music downloads offered for sale via
\nthe website www.audiomaxxx.com, including copies of tracks by famous artists
\nlike Shania Twain, Lionel Richie, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige and Nelly Furtado.\n<\/p>\n
\n"The RCMP has again demonstrated that it stands side by side with artists
\nand rights holders in the fight against intellectual property crime," said
\nRandy Lennox, President and CEO of Universal Music Canada Ltd. and Chairman of
\nCRIA. "CRIA has a longstanding partnership with the RCMP and other police
\nforces in fighting piracy, and today we have taken a big step together to stop
\none of the most flagrant examples of its kind in Canada."\n<\/p>\n
\nAudiomaxxx’s alleged piracy affects not just famous artists, but also new
\nand independent artists – largely in the reggae, soca and hip-hop community –
\nwho are struggling to build careers. For example, Vancouver’s Utopia Records,
\none of the many independent labels to voice concerns, has seen new artist
\nalbums appear on the Audiomaxxx website on the day an album is released in
\nstores or even before the legitimate launch date.\n<\/p>\n
\n"The harm done by music piracy is especially troubling when it undermines
\na promising artist’s burgeoning career," Henderson said. "We will continue to
\nwork with police and lawmakers to give these artists, and the organizations
\nbehind them, the opportunity to succeed."\n<\/p>\n
\nCRIA began investigating Audiomaxxx as part of an ongoing program to
\ndeter music counterfeiting and piracy. The operation came to CRIA’s attention
\nbecause of the large volume of suspected counterfeit products openly offered
\nfor sale on the Internet and the owner’s failure to stop selling these
\nproducts after the issuance of cease-and-desist orders.\n<\/p>\n
\nSince CRIA began dedicated anti-counterfeiting operations more than a
\nyear ago, the association and police have seized more than 400,000 CDs and
\nissued 80 cease-and-desist orders against retailers of illicitly copied music.
\nThe Impact of Piracy and Counterfeiting on Canadian Artists and Rights
\nHolders\n<\/p>\n
\nPiracy and counterfeiting exact a steep toll on artists and rights
\nholders in Canada. This is reflected in significant music sales declines since
\nthe advent of widespread unauthorized file-swapping in 1999 and the
\nproliferation of CD and music DVD counterfeiting in recent years. In that
\ntime, retail sales of pre-recorded audio products (CDs, digital tracks, etc.)
\ndeclined by 47 percent, from $1.3 billion in 1999 to $703.7 million in 2006.\n<\/p>\n
\nFor the 11 months ended November 2007, net wholesale shipments of CDs,
\nmusic DVDs, and other "physical" recorded music formats dropped 16 percent to
\n37.9 million units from 45.1 million units in the year-earlier period, while
\nthe related net wholesale value dropped 20 percent to $382.4 million from
\n$476.3 million.\n<\/p>\n
\nA 2007 national POLLARA survey found that purchases of counterfeit goods
\nsuch as music CDs displace legitimate commerce. About half of those who bought
\ncounterfeit music, movies or software would have purchased the genuine version
\nhad they not purchased a copy (for music, the figure was 43 percent; movies,
\n45 percent; and software, 44 percent).\n<\/p>\n
\nAbout the Canadian Recording Industry Association
\nThe Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) promotes the interests
\nof Canadian record companies\n<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TORONTO, March 6 \/CNW\/ – Following a year-long investigation by the
\nCanadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), the RCMP has shut down
\nAudiomaxxx.com Ltd., a major alleged music counterfeiting operation in
\nWinnipeg, and filed criminal charges against four individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.virginiareggae.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}