Agenzia Giornalistica Italia – News In English

(AGI) – Rome, Dec. 30 – Computers, CD burners, cases, covers and labels ready to be printed, plus a very up-to-date archive, both on the computer and in paper version, from which customers could choose the DVDs, CDs or the PC program preferred from among thousands just put on the market. It was a bona fide “pirate” recording centre discovered by the financial police of the provincial command in an apartment on via Prenestina, not far from Porta Maggiore. Six have been arrested (3 Italians and 3 Senegalese), 20 reported, 20,000 DVDs and over 10,000 CDs sequestered. All of this was part of the operation “Roma Plus”, which was participated in by civil servants of the IFPI anti-piracy enforcement (International federation of phonographic industry) who came down for the purpose form Great Britain. The “mastermind” behind the organization was an 39-yr-old Italo-American, S.G., who owned the illegal workshop, and who daily supplied the illegal sellers with goods by using his scooter. Most of the sellers were non-Europeans who with the Christmas season coming up had to deal with a high-than-average demand. The favourite selling spots were the roads around the university and the main shopping streets. The offer was very wide-ranging (“and the quality excellent” admitted the police): among the material sequestered were, among others, 6,000 copies of the film “Commediasexy” ready to be sold, with 1,000 others to be assembled, hundreds of copies of “Natale a New York” and “Ole'”, thousands of disks which are already in the top places of the hit parade but also multimedia encyclopaedias, design and architecture software, antivirus and videogames which are very popular among those in university. (AGI) .