Three hundred boxes of recordable DVD-R media, containing 180,000 units and 1,335 boxes of CD-R media containing 801.000 blanks were seized in containers arriving from China. The shipment weight was estimated at 17 tons, and authorities put the value of the goods at around $2.6 million. The container contents were declared as "abrasive discs", in order to pay lower import duties, authorities claim.

However, the news here is that what could be a simple case of tax evasion and smuggling has been presented as a win in the fight against music and movie piracy. So, in a strange case of "guilty before proven innocent", most of the local media in Argentina presented the news as near-proof that the shipment was going to end up in the streets, being sold as pirated music CDs and movie DVDs. For instance, one local paper reads "according to a study by CAPIF -the local chamber representing record companies and music producers- the illegal market of music in Argentina reaches 60 per cent of the whole of material that circulates".

Smuggling of goods and undervaluation of imports with an intention to evade payment of duty and other "tricks" related to avoiding payments was at some point a very common practice down here - perhaps too common, to the point of hurting jobs - suffice to say that even a local Presidential candidate was once involved as a business executive in a scandal and judicial investigation surrounding playing tricks with the import-export regulations in order to earn government subsidies and tax breaks ad-infinitum. Fortunately, undervaluation of imports has been increasingly fought, and in fact, the new authorities at the customs highlighted that this shipment seizure was only possible because of its new "risk matrix" system in place which apparently alerts them of suspect shipments.

This scribbler, however, thinks that this seizure was unfortunately used by the media to associate it with CAPIF's fear based campaign to curb piracy - CAPIF being the equivalent of the American RIAA. If you read the news reports you can conclude that "blank recordable media" equals piracy. I read this story on several local newspapers, and not a single piece of proof was presented to show that these discs were imported by a ring of music cd or movie counterfeiters. In fact, without further proof, one could conclude that the chances of those blanks ending on the streets as piracy was about the same as blank media legitimaly imported, and then purchased locally on wholesalers and burned as illegal copies by local pirates. Don't get me wrong: street piracy is a real problem in Buenos Aires, and it's being fought by the local police, but other times it happens in plain sight of the authorities.

In Buenos Aires, you can see some people selling Music, Movies and Games CDs in the street...
Sometimes for as low as £1 a piece

My problem starts when the media spreads the wrong message claiming - or implying without further proof - that blank recordable media equals piracy. The "need to impose a copyright levy on blank media used by pirates" often follows soon after that meme is imposed on the gullible masses. In other words, saying that seized blanks were going to be used to burn pirate music without further proof, is similar to stating that a shipment of syringes seized due to undervaluation or smuggling to avoid duty is proof those would have been used by heroin addicts. µ

More in spanish here, and a translated version here. µ

See Also
Tax the iPod!
Germans battle over copyright 'tax' on PCs
Canadian copyright levy on blank CD-R media
AU music activist lashes out assault on blank media levy
Spain adds levy to blank discs
Customs joke
UK tax scam: The £30 billion money-go-round
Hong Kong Customs Seize Smuggled Mig-29 Russian Combat Jet
KGB Used Clairvoyants as Agents — Report