Local men convicted over copyright offences
Two Ballina Shire men have been convicted of copyright offences.
“On 21 February, at Ballina Magistrates Court in New South Wales, copyright pirate brothers Stephen and Michael McCarthy were convicted on a number of copyright offences,and were ordered to hand over thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment and fined a total of $9000 plus court costs,” Neil Gane, Director of Operations for the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) said:
“Stephen McCarthy, from Ballina, was fined $5000, and Michael McCarthy, from Alstonville, was fined $4000.
“Together, they had been running a sophisticated DVD piracy operation with a website that offered hundreds of film, music and software titles for sale nationwide. The 14 DVD burner operation had the capacity to produce over 350,000 pirated DVDs a year.
“This case proves that movie pirates will face the full force of the law no matter where they try to set up their criminal operations. Whether in big cities, or small country towns, movie thieves threaten the legitimate businesses of local cinemas and DVD stores, and their illegal activities will not be tolerated.”
Sabiene Heindl, General Manager, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), said: “People who illegally trade on the fruits of others’ creativity in the form of music, film or software are simply thieves.
“The commitment of the NSW Police working hand in hand with industry groups, shows that copyright criminals will be brought to justice no matter where they reside or their methods of distribution.
“The Australian music industry welcomes the Court’s clear deterrent orders that the McCarthy brothers forfeit thousands of dollars worth of their computer equipment that was involved in the commission of copyright theft.”
On 21 March 2007, NSW Police, assisted by investigators from AFACT and MIPI, raided two residential locations in Ballina and seized over 5,000 optical discs and computer equipment used to manufacture the illegal discs.
