Police celebrate success of anti-piracy campaign in Rome

February 27, 2007

Fiscal Police in Rome held a press conference today to reveal the success of their campaign to clean the streets of the city of pirate compact discs. Officers revealed that their pre-Christmas campaign led to the seizure of 170,000 CDs, 243 CD burners and the prosecution of 183 pirate music dealers.

The campaign named 'A Fake Present Is Not A Real Christmas' lasted throughout November and December 2006 and saw nearly 250 raids across Rome. The Fiscal Police was supported by anti-piracy experts from FPM (Federazione Contro la Pirateria Musicale) and IFPI London.

Figures show that the seizure of counterfeit CDs were up 84 per cent on the same period last year, seizures of burners were up 700 per cent, there were 55 per cent more raids and prosecutions increased by 155 per cent compared with the last two months of 2005. The material seized was a mixture of Italian and international repertoire.

The officers who lead the actions - Colonel Zafarana, Commander in Chief of the Fiscal Police in Rome; Colonel Sozzo, Commander in Chief of the Rome Fiscal Police Second Group; Captain Di Filippo and Lieutenant Salvagno - will each receive a plaque and a gold disc from the recording industry in gratitude for their actions.

Iain Grant, head of enforcement at IFPI, which represents the music industry worldwide, says: "Rome traditionally suffers from pirate vendors hawking CDs at train stations and in markets. The result of this campaign was to almost completely clear the streets of such illegal traders.

"Around one in three CDs sold worldwide is a fake. It means there is less money available to invest in discovering and nurturing new artists. That is why it is vital that law enforcement agencies work with us to take on the pirates who make around $4.5 billion a year and pay nothing to artists, songwriters and record producers."

More than 1.2 million counterfeit CDs were seized across Italy in 2006 and 53 people have been arrested for manufacturing or trading copyright infringing material.

Colonel Zafarana of the Italian Fiscal Police says: "We wanted to send a clear message that there is no place in Rome for illegal pirate music vendors. These people thought they could operate with impunity - they were wrong."