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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBLIN 000621 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINR ECON ETRD KCRM EI
SUBJECT: DVD PIRACY: AN INCREASINGLY SERIOUS PROBLEM IN 
IRELAND 
 
REF: STATE 58065 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary: Despite strong domestic IPR legislation, 
DVD piracy is on the rise in Ireland, a problem that judicial 
leniency in IPR court cases has made difficult to combat. 
The counterfeit DVD market is now reportedly 1.5 times the 
size of the legitimate market, with counterfeiters earning 
euro 60 million annually, according to entertainment industry 
and police sources.  Crime families among the Travellers, an 
ethnic Irish community living mainly out of mobile homes, run 
the major DVD pirating operations in Ireland.  The police 
have been active in raiding counterfeiting operations and 
open-air DVD markets, but are frustrated by weak judicial 
penalties given to IPR violators, often just several hundred 
euro.  To combat burgeoning DVD piracy and to strengthen 
penalties, Justice Minister Michael McDowell on May 5 
unveiled a Government inter-departmental working group to 
liaise with the entertainment industry.  Representatives of 
U.S. studios wish to give the working group a chance to act 
against IPR violations before deciding whether to make a 
"Special 301" submission for Ireland.  Post intends to offer 
USG IPR training courses to Irish judges, whose tepid 
response to piracy runs counter to Irish aspirations for a 
vibrant domestic film industry and, more broadly, for a 
knowledge-based economy.  End summary. 
 
DVD Piracy on the Rise 
---------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  DVD piracy is an increasingly serious problem in 
Ireland, notwithstanding strong domestic IPR legislation, 
according to entertainment industry and police sources.  In 
terms of volume, the counterfeit DVD market is 1.5 times the 
size of the legitimate market, emboffs were told by the Irish 
National Federation Against Copyright Theft (INFACT), a lobby 
funded by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) Europe. 
INFACT also claimed that DVD pirates earn roughly euro 60 
million annually, at a cost of euro 115 million to the 
legitimate DVD industry.  Separately, the Irish police 
informed emboffs that they had seized 173,468 pirated DVDs in 
2005, an increase of 43,468 over 2004.  Already in 2006, 
police have confiscated roughly 40,000 pirated DVDs.  The 
police believe that DVDs have replaced clothing as the most 
popular counterfeit items in Ireland, due to the ease of 
manufacturing, the relatively small amount of storage space 
required, and high profitability. 
 
Travellers: The Major Pirates 
----------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Crime families among the Travellers, an ethnic 
Irish nomadic community living mainly out of mobile homes, 
run the major DVD pirating operations in Ireland, according 
to the police and INFACT.  Two Traveller families work in 
Ireland's northern border areas, a third family dominates the 
Midlands, and a fourth family runs the Tralee/Galway market 
in western Ireland.  The Dublin market is controlled not by 
one family, but rather several Traveller individuals.  INFACT 
estimates that roughly 500 pirates among the various families 
supply the Irish market.  Police told emboffs that the 
Travellers usually secure a master copy of a DVD or CD, often 
either from the United States or Thailand, and produce 
counterfeit copies in bulk.  They then sell the pirated items 
at over 600 open-air markets and smaller street-side venues, 
from car trunks, and, more recently, door-to-door.  Pirated 
DVDs sell for euro 5-10, as compared with the euro 20-25 
price of legitimate DVDs and daily DVD rentals of euro 4-5. 
 
 
 
Police Response 
--------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU)  The police conduct raids nearly every weekend in 
markets across Ireland, according to Detective Sergeant 
Martin Mooney of the National Bureau of Criminal 
Investigation (NBCI) anti-racketeering unit, which has lead 
responsibility for enforcing IPR law.  Mooney did not have 
year-end figures for 2005, but he told emboffs that his unit 
was involved in 1,000 raids in 2004, as opposed to 48 in 
¶2002.  He noted that his unit consisted of three sergeants, 
including himself, and nine guards - two more guards than 
last year, reflecting growing concern about IPR violations. 
The most common targets of police raids are the large 
Tullamore and Clara markets in the Midlands county of Offaly, 
where pirated goods with a market value between euro 250 and 
1,000 are regularly confiscated.  Mooney said that his unit 
coordinated regularly with local police, the Police Service 
of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and INFACT representatives to 
conduct surveillance, gather intelligence, and carry out 
 
DUBLIN 00000621  002 OF 003 
 
 
raids.  In the biggest bust of 2005, Mooney's unit raided a 
printing laboratory in County Meath, northeastern Ireland, 
arresting three individuals and seizing 15 computer towers, 
each containing 90 DVD burners with the capacity to produce 3 
million DVDs per year (versus total annual legitimate 
production of 8 million DVDs in Ireland).  In addition, they 
confiscated 8,000 pirated DVDs and 25 printers used to copy 
and print movie sleeves. 
 
Weak Judicial Action 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Whereas Ireland's Copyright and Related Rights Act 
2000 is considered model IPR legislation within the EU, the 
weak penalties levied by judges hamper enforcement efforts, 
said Mooney and INFACT.  On a summary conviction without 
jury, the law allows for the maximum fine of euro 1,900 for 
each infringing pirated copy, article, and device, or a 
maximum prison term of twelve months.  On a conviction before 
a jury, the Act permits a maximum fine of euro 127,000, 
and/or a maximum prison term of five years.  In practice 
however, judges typically impose sentences far below the 
maximum allowed.  In 2005 for example, the police pursued the 
prosecution of 150 individuals for IPR violations, 70 of whom 
were convicted, with the remaining cases ongoing.  The 
average fine imposed was euro 100-250, and Mooney was not 
aware of any conviction involving incarceration.  In one case 
in 2005, police seized euro 300,000 worth of pirated DVDs 
from two brothers.  Following arrest and conviction under the 
Copyright Act 2000, one brother, previously convicted and 
fined under the law, was fined euro 250, while the other 
brother, never before convicted under the Copyright Act 2000, 
was fined euro 300. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Irish judges apparently view DVD counterfeiters as 
doing little harm to society, emboffs were told by INFACT 
Director General Brian Finegan.  A part of the problem, he 
explained, was that Ireland had no separate court circuit to 
handle economic crime specifically.  Judges often heard cases 
of violent or narcotics-related crime the same day that they 
handled DVD piracy prosecutions, and they were thus inclined 
to mete out comparatively less serious penalties for 
sentenced counterfeiters.  Finegan noted the irony, however, 
that the street value of pirated DVDs in IPR court cases 
regularly exceeded the worth of narcotics involved in drug 
cases.  An upshot of inconsequential judicial fines, he 
added, was the large number of repeat offenders processed by 
police and the courts.  INFACT legal counsel Michael Hinkson 
explained further to emboffs that the bench's tradition of 
"sacred independence" and judicial activism limited the 
influence of industry and the Irish Government on the 
severity of the sentences. 
 
Government Response 
------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) On May 5, Minister of Justice, Equality, and Law 
Reform Michael McDowell announced the formation of an 
Inter-departmental Working Group (IWG) to address burgeoning 
DVD piracy.  The IWG will be chaired by Department of Justice 
Secretary General Sean Aylward and will include 
 
SIPDIS 
representatives from the following departments: Enterprise, 
Trade, and Employment; Social and Family Affairs; Arts, 
Sports, and Tourism; Environment, Heritage, and Local 
Government; Office of Revenue Commissioners; and, the police. 
 Minister McDowell noted in his announcement that DVD piracy 
was not a victimless offense, but rather a form of theft that 
threatened Ireland's 5,000 cinema industry workers and funded 
other sorts of organized crime, including drug trafficking. 
He added that the IWG would soon meet with, and take 
submissions from, affected industry groups on steps to combat 
DVD counterfeiting.  These discussions would focus in part on 
ensuring the severity of sentences related to piracy crimes. 
 
Industry Response 
----------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Recent months have seen stronger efforts by 
entertainment industry groups to overcome rivalries and to 
coordinate their government lobbying efforts, according to 
INFACT Director General Finegan.  The two major lobbies are 
INFACT, the local voice of the MPA and U.S. studios, and the 
Intellectual Property Alliance, an Irish organization 
representing local DVD retailers, including, most 
prominently, XtraVision, a Blockbuster subsidiary.  In April, 
INFACT and IPA created the Anti-Piracy Steering Committee 
with representatives from both organizations to act as an 
advisory body to the Government.  Minister McDowell's May 5 
announcement, in fact, came at an entertainment industry 
seminar hosted by the Anti-Piracy Steering Committee, which 
 
DUBLIN 00000621  003 OF 003 
 
 
decorated the venue with posters depicting children watching 
DVDs with men in hooded, terrorist garb.  On May 12, 
moreover, the Committee met with the IWG in the first of a 
series of discussions.  Finegan said that the Committee would 
press the IWG for supplemental IPR legislation that would 
include mandatory minimum sentences for IPR violators.  He 
added that whereas the MPA had considered making a Special 
301 submission on Ireland due to increasing DVD piracy, the 
MPA now wished to give the Working Group a chance to act 
against IPR violations (a view that MPA Europe 
representatives repeated to emboff at the May 5 seminar). 
 
Comment: Judicial Training Available? 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) In light of DVD piracy trends, Post intends to 
consider Irish judges as potential candidates for future IPR 
training courses of the sort offered in reftel.  We would 
appreciate knowing of any IPR training that is designed 
specifically for members of the judiciary. Judicial leniency 
is not unique to DVD piracy cases, but is a publicly lamented 
hallmark of the Irish bench, as seen in the relatively light 
sentences given to high-profile violent criminals.  In the 
case of DVD piracy, weak judicial penalties encourage those 
who would rip off not only U.S. studios, but also Irish 
film-makers, who have recently begun to attract international 
acclaim.  An Irish film, "Six Shooter," took this year's 
Oscar for best short film, and another film, "The Wind That 
Shakes the Barley," won the Palme d'Or at Cannes on May 28. 
The judiciary's tepid response to IPR violations runs counter 
to Ireland's aspirations for a more vibrant domestic film 
industry and, more broadly, for an economic future that 
hinges on knowledge, research, and creativity -- in short, 
intellectual content. 
KENNY