Animaxis wrote:Mobile Suit Gundam DVD Pirates Arrested in Tokyo
Three Chinese men residing in Tokyo have been arrested for copyright violations associated with DVD piracy. They are believed to have sold illegal DVD copies of anime series including "Mobile Suit Gundam" with English and Chinese subtitles. The Hong Kong-manufactured DVDs were reportedly sold via Yahoo! Auctions and over the World Wide Web.
The three Chinese men allegedly made tens of millions of yen in profits from the counterfeit DVDs. Video piracy-related arrests and lawsuits have become more common in recent years; in February 2003 a Saitama businessman was sued by Sunrise for a similar offence.
Tens of millions of yen...doesn't that work out to like...$37.50...LOL, sorry, couldn't help it. ^_^
Sounds like a pretty big operation if they were actually taking the bother to manufacture the lil bastards. With all the effort they put in you have to wonder why they didn't just phone up the copyright holders and get DVD distribution rights, I mean, it ain't that hard to do. Wouldn't take that much out of their profits either...*shrugs*...just remember kids, bootlegging is NOT pirating. If it ain't free, it ain't pirating.