Serbia publicly destroys pirated discs

The Serbian government Thursday destroyed 347,456 pirated discs, turning them into powder that would be recycled.

Government ministers and reporters attended Serbia's first public wrecking of the 10 tons of seized discs in a recycling factory in Belgrade, the BETA news agency said.

Culture Minister Dragan Kojadinovic said this was a "historic moment" but "only a drop in the sea" of discs produced and sold on black markets in the country.

The illegal computer, video and music discs have been sold in huge quantities in Serbia, which the United States considers one of the world's biggest markets for pirated products.

Branko Stamenkovic, district court prosecutor, said this was a "big effort in the struggle against pirates." But he expressed dissatisfaction with a proposal to place Serbia-Montenegro on an American monitoring list.

The proposal was recently sent to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S consortium to protect copyrights in the fields of motion pictures, music and software.

This entry was posted by rodoyf, on Friday, March 24, 2006. You can leave your response.