Philly Man Pulls NY-Only Crime

Sarah and I always wonder how the video store near her apartment stays in business. The Hollywood Video down the street closed a long time ago, the West Coast Video location on 15th was last seen hosting a Scientology anti-psychiatry exhibit, nobody under 40 rents videos, et cetera.

Not everyone just downloads movies or catches them on TV, I know, but video stores are on the long road to extinction. Some owners might get desperate, like the FBI says one Philadelphia man allegedly did. Philly’s own Farid Gilani owned the recently-closed Flik’s Video in New York, and he’s in a bit of a pickle:

Mr. Gilani, 54, lives in Philadelphia. He has been charged with trademark counterfeiting in the second degree (manufacturing, distributing or selling goods with a retail value of more than $1,000 that bear a trademark the defendant knows to be counterfeit) and failure to disclose the origin of a recording in the first degree (involving at least 100 unauthorized audiovisual recordings). Both are felonies. [...]

Mr. Flicker, 38, who lives on the Upper West Side, said he had not filed any formal complaints, though he had followed the breakup of Flik’s. “I bumped into a guy who worked at the store,” Mr. Flicker said. “He told me he kind of thought they were using duplicate DVDs. He told me in the middle of the night he sold all his inventory to another video store in the city. Isn’t that amazing? Only in New York.”

Bootleg DVDs? Shady late-night business deals? Yes, yes: Only in New York! Whew.

A Shuttered Video Store, With Troubles Still Brewing [City Room]
Image by John Manoogian III, Creative Commons license

Ex-Supreme Complains About Pirated Music

Well! Apparently, “Baby Love” is widely pirated on KaZaa, because Mary Wilson, the only Supreme who never left the group, spoke before a state House committee yesterday about how pirated music is hurting her bottom line.

Her speech was interesting, since she admitted to buying a pirated Marvin Gaye tape on the street years ago, only it wasn’t actually Marvin Gaye. This piracy was so egregious they didn’t just steal Gaye’s music, they hired a low-rent Marvin Gaye impersonator to make a CD and sell it under Gaye’s name. Wait, that would cost more money.

Wilson also apparently has a new album coming out soon.

“There is no question in my mind, that the minute the product hits the retail market, counterfeiters will be there to copy and distribute the product I worked so hard on, without compensation to me.”

How much money could Mary Wilson possibly lose to counterfeiting? Sampling I could see, I guess, but her latest CD is only available at her website. She can’t possibly be making a fortune from it.

Oh, and the legislature is considering strengthening the penalties for counterfeiting, because our jails do not currently have enough non-violent criminals in them.

Update: Actual activism-type thing here!

Former ”Supremes” Member in Philadelphia to Speak Out Against Pirated Music [KYW 1060]

Drug Cops Catch Movie Pirates, Too!

A bunch of police officers spent time last night busting up a local bootlegging distribution center, set up in a rowhome in West Philly. This bust saves the movie companies from certain destruction. Fortunately, it will also allow them to release Daddy Day Camp on time.

Cops got a tip there was a bootlegging operation across the street from a drug house they just busted up. (Stop snitchin’!) The men are charged with counterfeiting, which is a felony somehow. This is an important bust, of course, because the violence long associated with the bootleg movie industry will hopefully finally come to an end.

The bootleg movies and CDs were allegedly worth $225,000, but since the movies included hundreds of copies of Who’s Your Caddy?, the defendants might be able to put up a good “personal use” defense. I could see going to that movie in the theater — but to actually purchase a grainy copy on DVD for repeated viewings? That’s too far-fetched for me.

Bootleg Bust Nets $225k in Merchandise [6 ABC]

Penn Kids Carrying On In Fine Tradition Of, Uh, Me

While the music industry appears to be loosening restrictions on DRM — MP3s have been widely traded online longer than most things — the movie industry is tightening its grip.

The Motion Picture Association of America recently released its Top 25 schools for movie sharing, and two local schools are on the list: Penn at #2 and Drexel at #22. It’s one giant West Philly vortex of filesharing.

I remember back in the early days of downloading movies during my freshman year at Penn. Ahh, memories. The list, by the way, is woefully undercounted — Penn is second with only 934 students sharing movies, while Drexel has 455. If you think that only 455 Drexel students or 934 Penn students are sharing movies, then insert your own cliche here.

The list was formed after Rep. Howard Berman, chair of the House committee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property, asked for it. (Apparently if you get lots of campaign contributions from Hollywood, you can also get them to do things for you.)

So, apparently, college kids trade movies! In other news, the sky is freaking blue.

MPAA names its Top 25 movie piracy schools [Ars Technica]
EMI to allow Apple to sell songs online [AP/Yahoo!]