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| 4 charged in Oakland CD, DVD bootleg bust |
| June 20th, 2006 |
OAKLAND — The local underground bootlegging industry took a hit Monday morning when criminal charges were filed against four men suspected of selling pirated movies and burned CDs in East Oakland, police said.
The men were charged with failure to disclose origin of recording and counterfeiting of recorded works, police said. The latter is a felony.
Sidney Williams, 26, Darius Sneed, 37, Eljarod Lawson, 25, and Jordan Roberson, 26, set up ESP Designs, a computer repair shop, in a joint business venture at 10623 MacArthur Blvd., across the street from Walgreens. In addition to the computer equipment, police uncovered one of the biggest bootlegging shops in Northern California in a raid Thursday, recovering 17,000 burned CDs and 4,500 pirated DVDs. Initial estimates valued the stash at $100,000. Police have lowered that estimate to $48,000.
"There was more illegal activity going on than they had legal activity," said Roger Short, an investigator for the Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America.
The bootlegging operation was uncovered after the management at a Walgreens across the street made numerous complaints about bootleggers in front of its store, Short said. The investigation took two weeks.
Walgreens management declined to comment. Short led the investigation in conjunction with the Oakland Police Department, his former employer. Oakland has been identified as an area that has seen an increase in illegal sales of both DVDs and CDs, Short said. ESP Designs' Web site said its services included teaching people "how to burn back ups of personal DVDs or CDs." All of the store's burning equipment was confiscated.
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