
David Hynes, president of AVRRA and general manager of Network Video Home Entertainment said piracy in any of its forms effectively burns video stores and other legitimate businesses.
“It’s an illegal activity that puts yourself and your family at risk of unwittingly buying or downloading pornography and associating with criminals,” said Hynes.
According to Hynes, consumers need to know that police raids on movie thieves in Australia find pornography, which could easily end up in the hands of minors. Raids also find stolen goods and weapons, and reveal millions of dollars of untaxed income and welfare fraud.
“The latest estimate on the cost of DVD piracy to Australian video stores is about $61 million,” said Hynes.
According to AVRRA, DVD piracy fleeces more than $230 million from the Australian film production and distribution industry – including video stores, cinemas, legitimate DVD manufacturers, film distributors and production companies. It puts an estimated 50,000 jobs at risk.