By Keith Newman
Customs and police have put the onus for detection of counterfeit goods on copyright holders and industry groups.
This is despite increasing concern about the growth of illegally-copied software, games, music CDs and DVDs.
Police Assistant Commissioner Neville Trendle said establishing special units for piracy would go against the community
policing model.
Mr Trendle said the Copyright Act was complex and civil action was often more useful.
The police had some in-house specialist expertise but the general burden on resources meant piracy by itself was not considered a high priority.
Up until now, police had not been seeking big penalties but the more activities hedged toward organised crime the greater the need would be to involve criminal law.
Mr Trendle said a seven-year maximum jail sentence was probably needed as a deterrent under any copyright law changes.
A bill now being drafted would lift the penalty for piracy from a three-month jail term to five years, on top of the existing $150,000 maximum fine.
