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Three New Zealanders have been arrested for copying and selling movies as part of an Asia Pacific-wide anti-piracy operation.
About 1500 DVDs were seized from two Auckland homes and a Hamilton property in Operation Takedown, organised by the Motion Picture Association's Hong Kong office.
The MPA's New Zealand arm, the NZ Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFACT), acted on tips from the public to nab the alleged pirates.
Executive director Tony Eaton said some pirates earned between $80,000 and $150,000 a year.
"It's big figures and we're trying to educate but I don't think people have actually picked up how big it is.
"It's an extremely profitable result. It doesn't cost much to set up a computer and a burning operation but now with police assistance and the judiciary assisting, giving more serious fines ... people should take it at their peril that for every action there's a consequence."
The arrests, made in June and July, uncovered mainly recently released movies such as The Dark Knight.
All cases are before the courts with the Hamilton man facing four charges under the Copyright Act and 27 charges under the the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act.
Mr Eaton said although the sting was specifically part of the wider Operation Takedown investigation, NZFACT investigated piracy "on a day-to-day basis".
About 30 arrests had been made since the organisation started three years ago. It currently has another seven cases in which it will put evidence before the police who will get a search warrant for a property and then possibly make an arrest.
The biggest penalty imposed on a pirate so far has been two years' imprisonment and fines of up to $20,000. But the maximum penalty for piracy under the Copyright Act is five years' imprisonment.
Mr Eaton said in about 90 per cent of the cases, movies were copied by taking a camcorder into a cinema and filming. Pirates would then load the film on to a computer and burn it.
Movies were often sent via the internet to customers, Mr Eaton said, but pirates sometimes also scouted customers by sending out emails to companies offering their movies.
People paid upwards of $2 for a copied movie but the quality was usually poor, Mr Eaton said.
The purchasers are not currently being targeted.
"We're targeting the commercial sellers at this moment in time, there's more than enough work for us on that alone."
Operation Takedown saw 461 suspected pirates arrested, 56 camcorders caught in the act and seizures of more than 7.5 million pirated discs and 1000 disc burners.
Nearly 600 raids were undertaken by enforcement authorities in 12 countries across the Asia Pacific.
