Soft sentences ‘have given counterfeiters control of 60% of DVD sales’

SIX out of 10 DVDs, videos and PlayStation games being bought and sold in Ireland are now counterfeit, according to industry estimates.

Industry and garda experts say the growth in piracy is partly the result of lenient sentences being handed down to criminals in the courts. Preliminary figures from the film industry suggest that 59% of the trade is now made up of counterfeit products, compared with 44% last year.

“It might sound extraordinary, but two years ago we had 42 seizures for the whole year, involving 14,000 counterfeit disks. By the end of December this year, we’ll have 700 plus seizures and we might exceed 100,000 disks,” said Brian Finnegan of the Irish National Federation Against Copyright Theft (INFACT).

INFACT estimates the film industry will lose around €80 million this year, compared with €64m last year. The pirates will earn about half of the €80m in profit, explaining why organised crime is increasingly involved.

Mr Finnegan said experts from INFACT accompany gardaí and customs on raids in order to identify counterfeit products to officers.

“Very often you have to go into markets to their stalls in numbers, quite often with armed gardaí,” he added.

He told the Irish Examiner that counterfeiters were now in “every nook and cranny in the country.”

He said car boot sales and markets remained one of the main sources. Disks are also sold door-to-door, in pubs, on streets and in factories.

“The stuff is going like hot cakes. The Christmas season will be very busy. They’ll focus on children’s films,” he said.

The trade is targeted internally by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) and at the border by Customs.

Detective Sergeant Martin Mooney of NBCI’s anti-racketeering unit said they were “hitting pirates hard.”

But he said there was a low risk and high return for criminals.

“Nine times out of ten they are only going to get a slap on the wrist or maybe a €200 to €1,200 fine and they can start off again,” he told the Garda Review magazine.

In a recent case, one of the country’s top counterfeiters - David McGoldrick from Tallaght, Dublin - received an 18-month suspended sentence.

“I know one case earlier this year, where a guy we estimated to be turning over between €2.2m-€2.6m worth of disks received a fine of €120,” said Mr Finnegan.

He said the problem was not with the legislation, which lays down a possible five-year sentence for repeat offences and a maximum fine of €127,000.