Florida police crack down on counterfeit goods

Peer-to-peer Internet piracy first became popular during the days of Napster, but has now evolved into a much larger problem for copyright groups looking to keep stranglehold on revenue and content streams.

Lee County Sheriff's investigations worked alongside the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to seize almost $100,000 in counterfeit music CDs, movies and clothing. Local news media indicate police authorities confiscated 2,000 CDs, 2,000 movies and at least 500 fake clothing items.

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Police arrested three people and charged them with unlawful sale of counterfeit products, while the three claim they didn't know they were selling pirated material.

However, regional flea markets that sell pirated goods are fairly normal, according to a small group of people that don’t appear surprised a bust like this one occurred.

"A lot of stuff that is stolen... who knows where it came from winds up at flea markets. I'm here to capitalize on that because that's what America is all about," a local Southwest Florida resident told media.

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Both the RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have mostly ended an upopular campaign against individual file sharers -- the tradegroups are turning the screws on counterfeiters and ISPs.

Meanwhile, the latest effort has to transition more into national politics to help push new legislation and crackdowns on piracy rings from the inside. The current Obama administration has several former industry executives as part of his staff that has launched recent crackdowns against counterfeiting and piracy.

Not surprisingly, the Obama administration recently spoke down against piracy yet again while discussing copyright reform.

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The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency also has become involved in crackdowns against counterfeit and pirated goods -- which cost billions of dollars each year in lost revenue, according to copyright groups and manufacturers.

Recent operations including Operation Global Hoax help show new support towards anti-counterfeit and copyright infringement efforts.

The MPAA recently claimed P2P piracy costs American workers their jobs, but didn't offer solid evidence showing piracy had a recent impact.

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