It was announced on Friday (September 13) that the new police intellectual property crime unit (PIPCU) has made a lightning start by carrying out its first raid and arresting two men in Birmingham and seizing thousands of suspected counterfeit box sets, including titles such as CSI and Game of Thrones, worth around £40,000.
Funded by the Intellectual Property Office, which is part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, PICPU is charged with tackling illegal downloads and counterfeit DVDs.
Commenting on the arrests, City of London police commissioner Adrian Leppard said that intellectual property crime is costing the economy hundreds of millions of pounds a year and placing thousands of jobs under threat.
He added that, left unchecked and free to feed on new technology, copyright theft could destroy some of the country’s most creative and productive industries.
Commissioner Leppard said that by launching PIPCU, the police are making a statement of intent and sending out a clear warning to organised crime that the UK has just become a more hostile place for those who seek to make criminal capital on the back of others’ honest endeavours.
The unit of 19 officers will focus particularly on online offences and will work alongside international agencies including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in the US.
City of London police said that around seven million people a month visit sites that offer illegal content in the UK, and globally it is estimated that illegally downloaded music, films and software cost the industry around £51bn, which is expected to triple by 2015.
Meanwhile, Lord Younger, the minister for intellectual property, said that such crime not only damages the UK economy, but substandard goods and services can pose real threats to consumers.