Cleared of circulating pirated DVDs, porn movies

A Nationalist Party anthem CD and pornographic films were the only items among a huge stash of pirated DVDs and music which could not be declared as fake by law, a magistrate said yesterday.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli was listing the evidence against three men who were acquitted of circulating counterfeit films and music CDs when it emerged that items confiscated by the police included pornogra-phy and Nationalist Party anthems.

The items were confiscated by the police in a raid on a market stall in March 2003 at the former Sunday market in Valletta.

The stall licensee, Martin Cachia, 52 and two 17-year-old’s who are now 25 (who cannot be named because they were minors at the time of the alleged crime) were charged with reproducing trademarks, breaching intellectual property law and circulating pornographic material.

Taking the witness stand, court appointed expert Martin Bajada presented a report after analysing samples taken from 1,640 music compact discs, 1,027, DVD’s, 1,298 DVD games, 10 CD games and 12 allegedly pornographic DVDs.

He said that from the samples presented, everything was non-compliant except the Nationalist Party anthem CD and the pornographic films. Being non-compliant meant that the items did not conform to the strict standards adhered to by the original producer and were copied.

The magistrate said that the police did not prove their case because the men should have been charged with copyright infringement and not breaching intellectual property rights.

Furthermore, no evidence was presented to prove that all the items were in fact owned by the producing companies which made the official complaint to the police to investigate the piracy.

As regards circulating pornography, the films were never proven to be pornographic, after the court expert’s report defined them as “adult”, the magistrate said.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for the men.