Australian Drug Mafia to Sell Pirated DVDs?
Written by Ben Jones on July 01, 2008If you ask any Australian what the most annoying thing is about TV shows or movies, a common response is that it can take a long time for things popular in the US and UK to make it ‘down under’. Apparently, the Mafia has picked up on this, as they have started selling pirated movies and TV-shows on the streets, or have they?
When you get in any sort of reporting, you start to see the same sort of stories crop up. We’ve been writing for almost 3½ years, and even in that short time, and in as narrow a field as I keep an eye on, we see the same things crop up. In that way, it’s like fashion, except instead of cycles of 20-30 years, its often only 3-4. One such example comes courtesy of yesterday’s The Australian. Under a headline of “Organized Crime gets into Video Piracy” is a number of claims.
“DVD and other piracy can now be more profitable than drug trafficking,” AFACT’s director of operations Neil Gane told The Australian. “That’s why crime organizations are going into it.”
It might not sound familiar to some of you, but a similar claim was made some four years and 9500 miles away, in the UK. Back then, during a campaign called “piracy is a crime” they made similar allegations (see the top of this page, court. wayback machine), allegations that didn’t stand up to scrutiny back then, when we first encountered them.
Do these? Well, the article in question makes use of the infamous LEK study, and even the MPAA knows it’s inaccurate (pdf). So, it’s not exactly off to the best of starts. Unfortunately, that’s also the only start. Despite a trawl of the websites and press releases put out by the two organizations (the other being Foxtel), there is only one recent link (doc) between drugs and ‘piracy’ and that is the prosecution of ONE MAN just over a month ago, for cultivating cannabis, and what is described as ‘multiple copyright offenses’.
So, we’ve gone from one guy, with 3,300 movies+TV shows and growing some cannabis (total punishment, 7 month suspended sentence, and a 2 year good behavior order) to Organized Crime. Despite the utter failure of the similar campaign in the UK years earlier (where the only thing remaining of the campaign is the ‘You wouldn’t steal a…” advert) Australia seems determined to try and make it work.
However, there is a plus side, in that AFACT have established a market price it believes consumers feel to be the worth of a DVD. In all their estimations of yearly capacity, they give a ’street value’ of roughly $5AUS, which is about $4.77 US (3 Euros, or £2.40). In this they differ from the campaign in the UK, where the value given was some 20 times greater. In this, while telling lies, they are also more truthful.
In the end, no ‘criminal gang’ will forego their drugs, weapons or other lucrative money-making operations for DVD piracy. The reasoning is as plain as it is simple. With drugs, or guns they have small, highly valuable goods that can’t be easily obtained elsewhere. As the world becomes increasingly connected, and peer-to-peer becomes simpler to use, more reliable, less time consuming AND more powerful, the potential returns on selling bootleg DVDs reduces, ask Tony. Ten years ago, people had dial-up, and hard drives were maybe big enough for 2-3 DVDs. Now you can buy terabyte hard drives, and even the TorrentFreak researcher, living in the middle of rural Georgia, 10 miles from the nearest shops, has an 8Mbit connection.
The reasons for comparisons become clear when you hear the comments of Foxtel’s head of Fraud, Mark Mulready (a ‘former police prosecutor and detective’), who told The Australian “Police should have all the same investigative tools to fight piracy they currently have for organised drug trafficking or money laundering,” so, as usual, it’s about not having to spend time and money on civil cases, but having the taxpayer foot the bill, and the ability to use law enforcement to patch their business model.
Rehashing failed campaigns is a sign that the industry has no new ideas, and is desperately trying to avoid dealing with the root of the problem – themselves and their greed. When even the police are so into ‘piracy’, that there are too many to prosecute, it’s time to stop sticking your head in the sand, and deal with the causes.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent (wk26)
Next: Court Hits BitTorrent Users Who Failed to Appear
46 Responses
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The Mafia against the MAFIAA…
LOL!
great reporting as usual TF!
keep it up
The people also need to deal with this problem - hand out DVDs or CDs or other things on the street for free as civil disobedience.
Broadband in Australia is VERY expensive and has very limited caps in terms of per-month GB limits. Buying pirated DVDs is actually a viable market in such an environment. I’m not suggesting their information is factual on this basis alone, simply that your 8Mbps uncapped pipe in America does NOT translate well into Australia.
thanks lowdirt (and thank you eZee)
Shows even here we can’t escape from the RIAA =P
nice report ben :)
A some more positive news considering the last week or so has been abit depressing for pirates around the world, espically for the UK.
To be honest I hated in the UK when they claimed DVDs were sold to fund terrorists. It was the most insulting comment to be made!
To be honest at the cost of £2.40 for a DVD, I’d probably be even less worried about downloading as long as it let me rip them into MP4.
lol. eZee found that much too funny!
I would pay $5 for a GOOD DVD, but no way I’ll shell out $20-$40 for Hollywood’s recent contributions from the movie factories. Of course, I currently pay $0 because I don’t support terrorist organizations like the **AA. Actually, I would rather fund organized crime then the MAFIAA because at least they don’t take anyone to court =^P
Australia has a mafia?
after VIC banned underbelly that just sent the “pirate” business in AUS up dramatically lol…
Theres no reason why they take so long… so why not… Randoms on the street can get a movie here faster that a million dollar company.,.. thats just buggered up if u ask me…
@11
Yeah, and it’s run by kangaroos.
Good-on-ya Mate! We Aussies will tak any Joe Bloggs who crosses us on out to the wild Outback and introduce them to good ol’ crocky.
Welcome to the new “South S-I-E-E-D-E!
Aussie Mafia =P
Most welcome Ben
@ benny, 11 & 13 :D
I too wish organized crime humps these SOBs, but then again thats a confusing statement because the **AA are the most organized bunch of criminals the world has ever seen…
I guess what i am trying to say is: I hope a lot of the RIAA and MPAA meet some very sweet people in a dark alley, and these people have a silencer attached to give these lowlifes something that’s long been overdue.
But the thing that is most disturbing is… i just cant shake the image of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in a damn Aussie accent!
“My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse…..”
If pirate DVDs is more profitable than drugs, I know where I’m going for my drugs :P
Great article! Well written and for the most part supported with evidence, it makes a good read.
We need TF to defend P2P users and represent a view contra to what the MPAA etc. broadcast into a billion homes whenever they feel like it.
Keep up the high quality of reporting and don’t get shutdown!
A representative like this can be as important as the security of the technology we use and the politicians we vote for!
@ 16 - Bert
I doubt TorrentFreak could ever be such down for legitimate reasons…
Wait what am i saying? The Domain has torrent in it, it must be linked to guns, drugs, prositutes and… I dunno people who slap donkeys or some other made up crime!
:D
@ 17 - myself
Shut down*
man i’m such a tard sometimes.
What Josh said is true but only to an extent. Indeed you can’t get the kind of internet plans found in the US & across Europe down here in Aus. But you can get some pretty fucking good ADSL2+ plans. C
urrently I’m waiting on the exchange near my home to be upgraded before I can access ADSL2+, but what I’m on now serves my needs rather well. 40GB down a month, unlimited uploads, 512/128.
Yes to those on 8Mbit connections and such this sounds shit slow, you know what, it is, but I’m at work all day and go out most weekends, so it doesn’t bother me. Because with what little time I do spend at home, hey my PC is getting me a new movie and several new albums every day. :)
On the point of organised crime rings distributing pirated DVDs, HA! Honestly, it’s a few guys driving around in their ‘doof doof’ cars trying to sell to the workers in the industrial areas, aside from that it’s at flea markets, but it’s been like that for years, nothing new at all.
I am sure they will sway lawmakers into more retarded laws. They will probably not even allow talk about torrents seeing as how things have been going recently. They need to adapt their policies, technologies, and pricing for the Consumer, not the other way around.
Also, I beleive torrentfreak is hosted in the US by a company called SteadFast.net. They are based in Chicago, IL. Who knows what the US Gov or AA’s will do. The site could **accidently** go down ;)
Drugs are better than piracy, imo.
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ﾘﾘﾟ∀ﾟ）
( つ旦O そっし～♪＆挑戦
と＿)_)
i remember in the melbourne market picking out what pirated ps1 games to buy before the ps2 came out, had a nice stand set up all on display which mustve had over a 1000 games, i even seen a cop buying pirated game in uniform, but that was all before the free trade came into it
no biggie, mexican maffia´s been doing it for almost 2 years…
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