By Neena Bhandari, IANS,
Sydney : A 63-year-old Melbourne resident has been charged with importing and selling Australian $220,000 ($183,000) worth pirated movie and music DVDs, some allegedly imported from India among other countries.
According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the man is said to sold the DVDs imported from various countries, including India, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singapore and the US.
The investigation began after the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) located a suspicious seller of DVDs on an internet auction website. More than 5,000 copies of movies and music DVDs were seized from the man’s home.
“The AFP is working closely with its industry partners to disrupt organised intellectual property crime. This investigation shows that criminals, who seek to sell unauthorised copies for financial gain, risk facing criminal prosecution,” AFP national manager for economic and special operations Warren Gray said.
The maximum penalty for these offences is five years imprisonment and/or a fine of $60,500 per infringement.
In October last year, customs officers in Sydney had seized more than 11,000 pirated Indian movie DVDs. The Bollywood counterfeits were in two commercial consignments from Singapore.