Canada cracks down on movie piracy ring

OTTAWA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were arrested and thousands of DVDs confiscated in a raid on an alleged piracy ring in Canada's eastern city of Montreal, police said Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also seized 200 DVD burners in two separate raids on Tuesday dubbed Operation Copyright, a statement from the RCMP said Wednesday.

The network allegedly operated in Montreal and sold and distributed DVDs of popular television series through a number of websites. The majority of customers are based in the United States.

The investigation was launched in February 2007 at the request of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association.

The suspects could face charges under related laws, the statement said. A convicted could receive a maximum fine of 1 million Canadian dollars (990,000 U.S. dollars) and a maximum of five years in jail.

According to the American movie industry, Canadian bootleggers are costing the industry 6 billion U.S. dollars in lost revenue a year.

The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association says movie pirating in Canada accounted for 20 percent of camcorded copies of DVDs worldwide.

In 2005, movie piracy cost the Canadian film industry 225 million U.S. dollars and the Canadian government 34 million U.S. dollars, according to a Motion Picture Association of America study.