Earlier this morning the El Segundo Police Department and the El Segundo District Attorney's Office served search warrants against Digital Video Technology 3000 Inc (DVT), a DVD replicator. DVT was suspected of illegally replicating DVDs, violating copyright and piracy laws. rnrn
The evidence which led to the search warrant was amassed by an in-house task force within Anabolic Video Productions, Inc. and Diabolic Video Productions, Inc. When sufficient evidence was gathered, Anabolic and Diabolic alerted law enforcement officials of El Segundo who quickly issued a search warrant. rnrn
With a team of police officers and detectives, the premises of DVT were searched and the contents inside were inventoried as evidence. rnrn
Not only were Anabolic and Diabolic DVDs allegedly pirated, there were also allegedly pirated copies of DVDs from Metro, Big Top, Vivid, DVPC, and Playboy. Officials from Metro and Playboy were alerted and later arrived at the scene to inventory and inspect the outcome of the raid.rnrn
In the past Metro used DVT for their replication needs. According to Frank Goldfisher, Metro's DVD coordinator, when Metro severed their relationship with DVT, there were difficulties gaining back their masters. rnrn
"We went through a deal with them where we paid them a final check to gain back all of our masters and we made a list of every master we thought they had. They said that out of the 300 masters we thought they had they stated that they only had a little less than 200. We went back and forth with them on this subject, and then finally we came to the conclusion that we just wanted the whole transaction to end. We paid them, we got back as many of our masters as we could, but then we regained the rest of them yesterday," Goldfisher told AVN.com.rnrn
Flesh Peddlers 11 and Girly Girls #7 were among the many Metro comps allegedly being pirated and one Metro feature, Valley Heat was also being allegedly pirated.rnrn
"Unfortunately, there is no way to tell (the difference between DVT's allegedly pirated DVDs and the genuine product). This is the replication company we used. So in fact, they provided us finished product, so the finished product they were selling illegally will be flawless," said Goldfisher. "I feel very betrayed by the situation. We're very unhappy that they pirated our materials and were attempting to sell them."rnrn
"The police officers said it was going to be very difficult to prosecute this situation because DVT has already taken the stand that all of these companies owed them money and so they were just trying to recoup all of their losses. So civilly this would be an easy case to take care of, but criminally the district attorney might have a tough time with it," Goldfisher said. rnrn
"I'd like to thank Anabolic for being on top of this situation and being a true team player and calling us and helping us regain our product," Goldfisher said. rnrn
Anabolic and Diabolic have developed their own taskforce to actively pursue criminal and civil legal action against suspected violators. Both companies are currently involved in lawsuits relating to violations of the copyright and trademark of Anabolic and Diabolic DVDs.rnrn
In a press release issued by Anabolic, Christopher Alexander, president of Anabolic, expressed his gratitude to local law enforcement officers for their professionalism and their swift reaction to the allegedly illegal pirators of their DVDs.
