Bulldozer crushes 400,000 pirated CDs in Cambodia

Phnom Penh, Jan 6 : Cambodian authorities used a bulldozer to crush 400,000 CDs and DVDs in a crackdown on piracy, national media reported Wednesday.

Police drove the machine over the pile of counterfeit discs that were stacked on the road outside Wat Phnom, the capital's landmark Buddhist temple.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper reported that the discs were either pirated copies of local music and films, or foreign pornographic movies. Most were confiscated from shops in and around Phnom Penh.

Kong Kantara, an under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Culture, told the newspaper that the authorities have stepped up efforts to combat piracy of intellectual property.

"In 2008 we destroyed only 100,000 CDs and DVDs, but (in 2009) we cooperated closely with the Ministry of Interior to raid every pirating place that steals content from film companies," he said.

"We did not arrest offenders, but we fined them according to the copyright law because they pirated the CDs and DVDs from the (rightful) owners," Kong Kantara added.

Under Cambodian law vendors who sell counterfeit discs face fines of around USD 2 per disc if they are caught. The authorities said they plan to expand the crackdown across the country.

Movie and music piracy is commonplace in Cambodia, and many shops openly sell copies of both foreign and local movies and CDs for between USD 1 and 2 apiece.