According to this press release issued by the Attorney-General’s department on Friday, a search warrant was executed at the premises of a 21-year-old Sydney man, who was arrested on charges of commercial copyright infringement. The accused is alleged to have made a bootleg copy (‘cam’) of The Simpsons Movie with intent to distribute commercially.
Curiously, the press release includes a sober warning — one more frequently associated with CrimeStoppers reports of serial killers and armed robbers:
If any member of the public has any information related to [some homicidal maniac], they should contact the Australian Federal Police or their local State police.
In this instance, the raid followed a tip-off from the perplexingly-capitalised Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft. This organisation is basically a lobby group funded by international movie studios, including Fox, Paramount, Village Roadshow, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. It will be interesting to follow this case at trial, as it represents the first high-profile prosecution under the new criminal offences provisions that were introduced by the Copyright Amendment Act 2006 (Cth).
