$21,000 fine, work term for DVD pirate

A 23-year-old man has been fined $21,000 and sentenced to 300 hours' community work for pirating and selling DVDs.

The Mt Albert man, who received name suppression when he appeared in Auckland District Court this week, had been copying DVDs and selling them on an internet website.

He will pay $20,000 of his fine to the New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft as reparation for the cost of the eight-month investigation into his activities.

The federation was established by the Motion Picture Association in 2005 to protect the film industry in New Zealand from copyright theft.

- NZPA