(21 February 2008 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: 20 officers from Economic and Technological Crime Suppression Division (ECOTEC) of the Royal Thai Police, together with Motion Picture Association (MPA) representatives, arrested six people for burning pirated DVDs and CDs.

The raid, done at a flat in Bangkok, also seized 170 DVD-R and 30 CD-R burners, approximately 45,000 pirated DVD-Rs and CD-Rs as well as 22,000 artwork sleeves.

"We commend the Thai authorities' vigilance in seeking and taking out a major pirate operation so close on the heels of the successes of Operation Blackout," said MPA SVP and regional director (Asia Pacific) Mike Ellis.

"Burners seem to be the equipment of choice these days of pirates in Thailand. Compare the 142 burners seized in 2006 to the 1,282 seized in 2007, and now, this haul, just weeks into 2008. We look forward to hearing more such news throughout the year," added Ellis.

Among the haul were 1,000 discs infringing MPA member company titles including Aliens vs Predator 2, Charlie Wilson's War and Cloverfield. Most of the seized titles infringed local Thai movies just released in cinemas.

The lab allegedly supplied pirated discs at approximately $1 to pirate vendors in and around Bangkok who then retail them for $3. The seized burners are estimated to have been capable of producing as many as five million pirated discs in one year, yielding potential revenues of $15 million.

"They might be able to transform their activities from a factory to a burner lab, but we will use all the efforts at hand to combat them," added Vanichburta.