The number of pirated audio CDs and DVDs seized at Czech market places dropped by 44 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, according to the dnational office of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

This is attributed to a more active anti-piracy policy combined with the decreasing prices of CDs and DVDs.

Some 180,000 counterfeited CD ad DVDs were uncovered in the first half of the year compared with 320,000 in the same period last year, during 492 searches compared with 668 last year.

The IFPI office said customs officers and policemen prosecuted 2,000 vendors of pirate CDs and DVDs and seized 668,000 discs in the whole of last year – 100,000 less than in 2007.

Technological developments enabling easier Internet downloading of music was seen as another reason for the decrease in the number of counterfeit discs.

A fall in the number of street markets where pirated material is usually traded is another reason for a drop in seizures. Whereas in 2008 there were some 300 markets ¬– two thirds of them along the German and Austrian borders – the number is now about 240.

Story filed 24.08.09