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Bootleggers selling illegal compilations, including live tracks from festival headliners Radiohead and REM, were raided in the early hours of Monday July 7. Police, along with various trading standards and copyright theft officials swooped on the factory.
Two arrests were made and along with three specialist PCs used to reproduce material, thousands of music CDs, DVDs, VCDs, adult material, and games were also seized. It also emerged that the suspects were claiming benefits.
David Martin, Anti Piracy Director at industry body BPI said: "The commercial piracy market has changed since the late 90s. Counterfeits now comprise about three-quarters of the commercial pirate market as it's become much cheaper and easier to produce them - but we're still talking about a million-pound market for bootlegs. The pirates are well organised and are very quick to cash in illegally on popular festivals like Glastonbury."
There is a long standing tradition of swapping recordings of live concerts over the net, especially among Radiohead’s huge international fanbase. Figures out last week also showed that 40% of all CDs/tapes sold worldwide are illegal copies.
