Two international film piracy rings that operated from New York were broken up by the FBI, the federal agents taking no less than 13 persons into custody. US officials claim that the two groups are active since 1999 and that the damages associated with movie piracy amount to 6 billion dollars annually, although for 2005 the sum runs up to an estimated 18 billion dollars at a global level.

The modus operandi of the two rings starts with filming movies in theaters with a sneaked-in cam-corder. The films were duplicated on DVDs and sold with prices of even 20 dollars a copy, or distributed through peer-to-peer networks world wide. Officials from the US movie industry, represented by the MPAA claim that the two rings carried responsibility for pirating more than half of all bootlegs movies in the Unites States.

The 13 persons arrested stand charges of conspiracy, copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels and were due to be arraigned in a Manhattan federal court yesterday. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.