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Chicago Man Accused of Running Counterfeit DVD Lab

Posted on: Saturday, 27 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 27--A Chicago man was accused this week of running a counterfeit DVD lab in his basement, the latest attempt by the movie industry to quash video piracy in Illinois.

Cook County Sheriff's Police raided the home of Efren Garcia at 3527 West 59th Place in southwest Chicago. They found Garcia in the process of bootlegging current movie releases, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Police seized 20 CD burners, four computers and other equipment commonly associated with an illegal DVD lab. Also seized were 3,000 counterfeit DVDs, including recent theatrical releases like Hustle & Flow, The Dukes of Hazzard and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.

Garcia, who couldn't be reached for comment, was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of audio/visual recordings.

Twenty CD burners would be considered a small to medium-sized counterfeit lab, said Gayle Osterberg, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America. The 3,000 counterfeit DVDs, however, would be considered a large inventory, she said.

Garcia was one of three DVD vendors arrested earlier this week who operate out of the Robbins Flea Market in southwest suburban Robbins.

Songhua Zhu, of Springfield, Va., and Yirong Yang of Deerfield were each charged with three misdemeanor counts of counterfeiting and one felony count of unlawful use of audio/visual recordings. Cook County Sheriff's police seized 243 and 190 movies respectively from the two.

Both were also accused of selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton and Coach purses.

The investigation started a month ago after a private detective hired by the Motion Picture Association tipped off police. A tip from the association also led Chicago Police to arrest 11 people earlier this month for selling pirated movies at a West Side flea market.

The Motion Picture Association is on an anti-theft crusade, claiming that counterfeiting and Internet piracy cost the industry around $3.5 billion in 2004.

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LVMHF, MC, CDI, COH,

Source: Chicago Tribune

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