Record piracy falls in '97
Seizures of pirated cassettes dropped by almost 57%, compared to the first six months of 1997, according to the RIAA. Despite the drop in seizures, authorities still hauled in 194,979 illegal cassettes.
Compact disc seizures dropped by 8.6%, to 820,000 during the first half of this year. The RIAA attributes the decline and diminished availability of bootleg CDs in a large degree to "Operation Goldmine," which has resulted in indictments and arrests of more than a dozen copyright pirates.
Other results of the past year's efforts are visible in the nation's largest cities, according to the RIAA's executive vice president and director of anti-piracy Steve D'Onofrio. "You don't find street vendors in major urban markets anymore," D'Onofrio said.
"The RIAA's aggressive enforcement measures over the years against counterfeit cassette pirates have paid off. The reality of spending years in jail and paying large fines is deterring piratical activity," D'Onofrio said.
D'Onofrio also noted that the recent increase in legitimate Hispanic recordings is in part due to the success in shutting down the traffic in illegal materials. At the same time that Hispanic music saw a 26% increase in legal sales, seizures of illegal material went up 25%, D'Onofrio said.
