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News Item
AICO Newsletter - June 2009 Issue 14
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Post Office Box Terminated – AICO Assists Police
The NSW Police have advised AICO that Adult Global’s Post Office Box at Kogarah NSW, has been terminated by Australia Post. AICO had sent a letter of complaint to the Police about Adult Global.
AICO alleges that certain DVDs advertised and sold by Adult Global are illegal parallel imports of titles exclusively licensed in Australia to AICO members. Adult Global advertises and sells DVDs via their mail order catalogue and online.
Parallel importing occurs when someone who is not the authorised exclusive importer of films brings those films into Australia for commercial purposes. The sale of parallel imported films in defiance of the exclusive rights of an Australian distributor infringes copyright.
AICO understands that Australia Post has the authority to terminate a PO Box if “it has reason to believe” that it is being used “in the furtherance of an offence” against a state or federal law “or to prevent the detection of the offence or the offender.”
AICO will continue to work with the police and other authorities in its fight against adult film pirates.
Bankruptcy Notice Served on DVD Pirate
AICO has commenced legal action by filing a Creditors Petition against adult film pirate Mr Anthony Constantinou, aka Mr Conti, to recover $10,000 in settlement damages as ratified by the Federal Magistrates Court.
Mr Conti was a respondent in the Digital Wholesalers piracy case that concluded in December 2008. A Notice of Bankruptcy has been served and the matter is scheduled to be heard in early June 2009.
DVD Piracy – Can You Afford It?
Leading US adult industry attorney Clyde DeWitt wrote an article last December where he said, “Piracy is the biggest factor that is killing the adult DVD market.” (The Legal Eye by Clyde DeWitt published by Storerotica.com December 2008) I know that retailers and wholesalers of legitimate DVDs and the copyright owners won’t argue with that.
While referring to the US experience and US copyright law, much of what DeWitt wrote rings true for Australian adult store owners. This is particularly so for the end game in copyright enforcement. Where a store owner is found by a court to have sold pirated DVDs, the copyright owners can expect to be awarded damages and that injunctions will be imposed against the store owner. It has also been AICO’s experience that the courts have ordered pirates to pay legal costs to the copyright owners.
Thus far AICO has successfully prosecuted piracy cases in Australia with the smallest award of costs and damages being $100,00 and the largest being over $1million.
Store owners might think that the guy who supplies them with pirated DVDs is doing them a favour. Why buy the legitimate DVD when a copy can be bought for half the price or less? But for the sake of saving a few dollars up front, store owners selling pirated DVDs run the risk of paying substantial damages. They could also have to pay copyright owners’ court costs plus pay their own expensive legal costs. As DeWitt states, “hiring a lawyer does not mean that you win the case. It only means you can defend it.” To top it off court orders then require the infringing store owners to sell only authentic DVDs or face allegations of flagrancy if brought back to court a second time.
As regular readers of this newsletter are aware, AICO and its members have run several successful high profile piracy cases over the past five years. While we have reported these cases and named the pirates, many other actions happen behind the scenes including settlements based on letters of demand and working with police and more recently other authorities to fight piracy.
Letters of demand sent to alleged pirates by AICO’s lawyers have led to damages settlements of tens of thousands of dollars per store plus in most cases the store owners have had to pay the high costs of engaging a lawyer to seek advice. This is a costly exercise for store owners without even setting foot in a court room.
Now I expect that many store owners who sell pirated DVDs will think that they won’t get caught, that they will run the risk because it will be somebody else’s bad luck. But how do you know if or when mystery shoppers will visit your store?
How to spot a pirate DVD BROCHURE
AICO’s investigation of the sale of pirate blue back DVDs, pirate factory pressed silver back DVDs and parallel imported DVDs is ongoing.
AICO’s How to spot a pirate DVD brochure will help you identify copyright infringing DVDs. If you are uncertain about the authenticity of AICO member DVDs offered to you check with an AICO distributor member or the film studio.
You can request a copy of AICO’s brochure How to spot a pirate DVD via email, info@aico.org.au or by calling 02 9328 5527. A soft copy download is available on the home page of the AICO web site www.aico.org.au.
AICO HOLOGRAMS
AICO distributor members have affixed over 4 million AICO holograms to their films. By purchasing DVDs that display the AICO hologram you are assured that the film you are buying is authentic.
Visit the “News” menu on Home Page of AICO’s website www.aico.org.au for updates on piracy cases, AICO press releases and related matters.
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| Date :2009-05-23 00:00:00 |
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