NewCardDude
06-15-2004, 03:11 PM
Rowan Philp
Johannesburg
SOUTH Africans who buy pirated CDs and DVDs may be unwittingly sponsoring international terrorism.
A new report by Interpol - prepared for the US House Committee on International Relations - states that counterfeit goods and intellectual property piracy was "becoming the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups".
Neil Jacobsohn, spokesman for the SA Federation Against Copyright Theft, said South Africa had been placed on an international "watch list" as a major piracy target - and that there was "a distinct possibility" that money from local purchases of illicit CDs and DVDs was reaching groups such as al-Qaeda and Hizbollah.
Jacobsohn is group marketing director of Johnnic Communications, which owns the Sunday Times.
A further submission in the report - by the global anti-piracy group Recording Industry Association of America - claimed direct evidence that two illicit CD factories in Pakistan were funded by Indian multiple bombing suspect Dawood Ibrahim, designated a "global terrorist" by the US last year.
Jacobsohn said the revelation was "of particular concern" to South Africans because Pakistan had rapidly replaced Malaysia as the largest source of pirated goods here this year.
Meanwhile, a Gauteng court convicted three Pakistani nationals on piracy charges this week after they were caught with more than 5 000 DVDs at Johannesburg International Airport.
Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht, spokesman for Interpol in SA, said she was not aware of any specific links between local piracy sales and a foreign terror group.
However, Jacobsohn said: "We have clear evidence that [foreign] organised criminal syndicates are behind this in South Africa. The individual street sellers... are being used by serious criminals." Piracy was becoming the funding source of choice for foreign gangs because "it is now more lucrative than drugs".
Fred Potgieter, managing director of the federation, said at least 40% of all DVDs in SA were pirated copies.
Johannesburg
SOUTH Africans who buy pirated CDs and DVDs may be unwittingly sponsoring international terrorism.
A new report by Interpol - prepared for the US House Committee on International Relations - states that counterfeit goods and intellectual property piracy was "becoming the preferred method of funding for a number of terrorist groups".
Neil Jacobsohn, spokesman for the SA Federation Against Copyright Theft, said South Africa had been placed on an international "watch list" as a major piracy target - and that there was "a distinct possibility" that money from local purchases of illicit CDs and DVDs was reaching groups such as al-Qaeda and Hizbollah.
Jacobsohn is group marketing director of Johnnic Communications, which owns the Sunday Times.
A further submission in the report - by the global anti-piracy group Recording Industry Association of America - claimed direct evidence that two illicit CD factories in Pakistan were funded by Indian multiple bombing suspect Dawood Ibrahim, designated a "global terrorist" by the US last year.
Jacobsohn said the revelation was "of particular concern" to South Africans because Pakistan had rapidly replaced Malaysia as the largest source of pirated goods here this year.
Meanwhile, a Gauteng court convicted three Pakistani nationals on piracy charges this week after they were caught with more than 5 000 DVDs at Johannesburg International Airport.
Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht, spokesman for Interpol in SA, said she was not aware of any specific links between local piracy sales and a foreign terror group.
However, Jacobsohn said: "We have clear evidence that [foreign] organised criminal syndicates are behind this in South Africa. The individual street sellers... are being used by serious criminals." Piracy was becoming the funding source of choice for foreign gangs because "it is now more lucrative than drugs".
Fred Potgieter, managing director of the federation, said at least 40% of all DVDs in SA were pirated copies.