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IFPI welcomes Masterbox raids
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 26 October 2010
The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has welcomed a series of police raids as part of an investigation into a bootleg CD operation called Masterbox.
The piracy franchise made boxsets available which contained CDRs carrying MP3s from up to 60 albums at a time. Numerous major league acts illegally appeared on the CDs, which also including some pre-release albums. The boxes were sold at forty euros a shot on mainland Europe, though mainly the Netherlands. It is thought 450,000 copies of 50 editions of the Masterbox series were sold.
This week police from four countries – Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Spain – raided premises of people believed to be linked to the piracy venture. Three men were arrested and a fourth held for questioning. It’s not the first time buildings have been raided in relation to the Masterbox enterprise, though it’s the first time a cross-border raid has been staged.
IFPI anti-piracy man Jeremy Banks told CMU: “This was a major cross-border anti-piracy action against an operation that we believe was causing very significant losses to the legitimate music industry. Police took action against a gang that had generated millions of euro in illegal revenues by infringing the rights of artists, songwriters and record producers”.
