Police to destroy 100 tons of pirated CDs outside Moscow

Police were to destroy an unprecedented amount of pirated compact disks - some 100 metric tons - outside Moscow on Tuesday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The Interior Ministry's economic security department said 10 trucks would carry the confiscated merchandise to a military training range and dump them into a pit, where bulldozers would crush them, ITAR-Tass reported.

The operation coincided with a visit by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who has said he would press Russian authorities to crack down harder on the theft of intellectual property.

In spite of international pressure, those making pirated CDs in Russia are going strong. In some cases, they work in collaboration with optical disc manufacturers located on the territory of cash-starved defense factories. While police are swift to announce raids, new knockoffs of the latest CDs, videos or DVDs can be bought at Moscow stores for a few dollars (euros).

AP