Internet cafés in Brazil raided

Sao Paulo, 28th January 2008

Civil Police in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo conducted more than 335 raids on internet cafés, known locally as Lan Houses, across the state in the second week of January. The Associacao Anti-pirateria de Cinema e Musica (APCM), the joint IFPI/ MPA anti-piracy group, provided significant intelligence to the police which helped make these raids a successful operation.

Independent market research has shown that over 20 per cent of illegal downloading and burning in Brazil takes place in internet cafes. The latest estimates suggest that Brazilians download over 1.8 billion copyright infringing tracks annually. The raids on these cafés are a key element in Brazil’s general anti-piracy campaign. The Sao Paulo raids resulted in the seizure of 2,339 computers containing more than one million illegal music files and the arrest of one suspect. A total of 600 police officers from 93 districts of the Special Operations Division participated in the raids.