Copying music onto CDR remains the fastest growing form of piracy. Blank CDRs are readily available and inexpensive. Many home PCs now come with integrated CDR burners. While CDR copies are very simple to spot, detecting CDR piracy is not so simple.

CDRs are often produced to order, from lists passed around in schools and businesses. Door-to-door "salesmen" often take orders for delivery the following week. Quantities being produced are therefore smaller and more easily concealed. The "underground" nature of CDR piracy makes it the biggest single physical piracy threat to the record industry.

Raids in 2003 were carried out in Drogheda, Inch, Kart City, Balbriggan, Clara, Fairyhouse, Windsor, Long Mile Road, Kildare and Mountrath markets.
Approximately 20,000 CDRs and 1,000 tapes were seized in 2003.

A total of 60 burners and 8 printer/scanner combination units were also seized in various house raids.

We continuously check car boot sales, Sunday markets, summer festivals and city streets for pirate sellers. Warrants are obtained wherever necessary. For certain summer festivals, we obtain warrants in advance. No music piracy has been observed on the Dublin streets this year.

IRMA now has the capability to search for and locate illegal sound files on the internet. Irish based websites are dealt with by IRMA directly. Approximately 250 infringing files were taken down in 2003.

All reports of piracy or suspected piracy should be forwarded to piracy@irma.ie

Or you can fill out our online piracy report form here.