Saw a story about this on my local news and did some searching to find the source of the story. With the prevalence of people who I know that copy CDs like crazy, it kind of makes me wonder if cops would arrest someone who had a bunch of copied CDs.


Man Arrested for Bootlegged DVDs

Local cops stop a car for driving with an expired tag and make a surprising discovery. West Palm Beach Police found one thousand boot-legged DVDs inside the car. Police confiscated the DVDs and arrested 35-year-old Clarence Blackmon of Lake Worth. Cops say Blackmon admitted to making the bootlegged movies. They say now they'll present the case to the motion picture industry for charges to be filed. Lieutenant Chuck Reed of the West Palm Police Department said "According to the motion picture industry, they're losing millions of dollars because of this. Obviously this isn't a case that's unique. It's very large for us in West Palm Beach but it's happening all over the country." Cops found copies of every movie from Star Wars 3 to the classics in the van.

Link to the original story.

Cops will only arrest you if you intend to sell the copied DVDs or CDs--their job is not to be the MPAA or RIAA police, driving around in their patrol cars to see who's listening to a bootlegged version of Britney Spears. We have more important crimes to take into consideration...of course the MPAA and RIAA think differently.

Driving around with expired tags, and having 1000 bootlegs in your vehicle, is quite a combination of intelligence.

it will be nice to see what the industry people will spend to put the heat on this guy. I have always wondered why no states have cracked down on flea markets and the sort for this...

Told a co-worker that I had seen Star Wars 3 times and like the movie alot. He then told me that he was going to download it and watch it on his computer.

I know that SW 3 has made lts of money, but it is still wrong. Ford makes lots of money making autos, and stealing one of theire cars is illegal. The internet and CD burning makes that amount of money that is stolen like stealing a car.

The best way to combat piracy is to start a registry like they use for sexual predators. When you move into a new neighborhood you will have to go to all your new neighbors, introduce yourself, and say, "hello, i am a dvd pirate".

You will of course not be allowed to live near schools.

Way to go West Palm Beach PD!

Yeah, and then get them after eBay! It's annoying to have to wade through all the bootleg crap to find legit versions. 'Most' of the people are pretty obvious about it too. At least give them their own category so that I can easily avoid them.

LOL @ Polizei's intelligence comment.

....especially since many of those boots were Gigli and Pluto Nash.

The funny thing is, the response will most likely be "hey, then can ya burn me a copy of the movie too? How in the heck do you fit 1000 dvds in your car? Must've had several CD book cases I guess. What a dumbass though for driving around with expired plates and the bootlegged DVDs at the same time.

yeah meanwhile there is actual crime going on in the world... noone can find osama the turd but they seem to find every other petty criminal that lives.. haha.

we can't find osama but we sure put the sting on the guy stealing slushies from the supermart.

cmon.. who cares about bootlegging.. get with the real crimes.

Maybe he bought all the originals and had them safely stored away at his home, and was merely transporting his "backups" to the new home he was moving to. LOL!

...or video stores.

...movie theaters.

Earlier in the year I was at a SuperCuts and the female "stylist" started talking to me about a movie (that was currently in theaters) on DVD. Even though I knew the answer I asked where she got it. She said it was out of a van in the parking of a store that wasn't far from where I live. I think she said she got it for $10 and said the quality was pretty good.

Fast forward to a couple months ago and I read in the paper where a man was arrested for selling pirated movies. I checked the address and, sure enough, it was the same store by me that the hair cutter mentioned.

Yeah, I agree. Why isn't this traffic cop in Pakistan looking for Osama?

Illegally copying dvds is a "gateway" crime. You start out making 100 copies of "Are We There Yet" to sell at the Flea Market, but then the rush just isn't good enough so you start a meth lab, and thats still not enough so then you get into international black market weapons sales, and then you're looking to take out the leaders of our fine country or hijacking a passenger jet and crashing it into Mount Rushmore.

You left out Armageddon and sending us all to hell.

Especially all of the turd copies that come from China or Hong Kong.

If you're lucky. For me it started with copying DVD's. But I just couldn't get a rush out of it any more. Now it's strictly raping women and children. Thanks DVDXCOPY!

Oddly enough, that guy's expired licence plate reads "DVDXCPY".

Bad example...you should have cited a movie that actually will sell.

Hell yes. Hopefully I see more of these stories!

Apparently you have never been to a flea market...

My local hastings has suspicious crap all the time, I've more than once considered reporting it. I'm talking about things with computer printed artwork, a Halloween Resurrection "Superbit" (explain that one), etc.. They're not passing them off as new copies, but still, the fact that they not only accept them from customers and then turn around and sell them is ridiculous. They need to be caught just for being so idiotic about the whole thing.