Third Operation Remaster Guilty Plea
On May 25, 2006, the third and final defendant in the Operation Remaster prosecution pleaded guilty to five federal criminal counts yesterday afternoon. The defendants in the Operation Remaster case were arrested after law enforcement seized approximately 494,000 pirated music, software, and movie CDs, and DVDs, and more than 5,500 stampers from locations in California and Texas. (A single stamper can be used to manufacture 50,000 to 80,000 counterfeit CDs of a single copyrighted work.) According to the Justice Department, many of the pirated CDs contained counterfeit FBI Anti-Piracy Seals, record label trademarks, silk-screened artwork, and inserts to make them appear legitimate. The copyright and trademark violations mostly involved musical works by Latin artists. As part of his plea agreement, the defendant agreed to forfeit the counterfeit CDs, stampers, masters, and inserts as well as his interest in equipment used to commit the violations, including a replication machine, a DVD copier, a CD label machine, an offset printer, two overwrapping machines, and two shrink wrapping machines.
Operation Remaster is an undercover law enforcement operation conducted by the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) Task Force and the FBI. The operation is targeting large-scale illegal replicators of copyrighted music and software.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the following five counts:
(1) Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement and to Traffic in Counterfeit Goods and Labels, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ¤ 371;
(2) Criminal Copyright Infringement and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of 17 U.S.C. ¤ 506(a)(1)(A), and 18 U.S.C. ¤¤ 2319(b)(1) and 2;
(3) Trafficking in Counterfeit Labels and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ¤¤ 2318(a), 2318(c)(3), and 2;
(4) Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ¤¤ 2320(a) and 2; and
(5) Counterfeiting a Department Seal (the FBI anti-piracy seal used on pirated music
Defendant Zhai is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge James Ware on November 13, 2006, at 1:30 p.m. Wen and He--two other defendants in the investigation--are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte on October 16, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. Click here for more information.