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How do you spot a pirate?

No doubt you will have a fair idea what genuine music product looks like – it’s a high quality product with good quality graphics and slicks, a plastic jewel case and a disc with silver on the back.  Genuine discs also have the name of the record company and display full copyright details and publishing information, for example, a list of credits, ownership, licensing information and the country of manufacture.  You may not be aware that they usually have a SID (source identification) code, which is a four character code that identifies the source of music and manufacture, imprinted onto the back side of the disc. However, you should note that the mere existence of the SID code does not guarantee that the music disc is legitimate, particularly in the case of Chinese manufactured discs.

 

Indicators of illegality

  • Incomplete or no copyright details or publishing information;
  • No record company logos;
  • Poor quality eg. graphics or graphics in only two colours, poor paper quality, poor quality labels on the disc or printing on one side only;
  • Differences in the disc artwork and packaging;
  • Incorrect spelling on disc or packaging;
  • Incomplete details of artist or title;
  • More than one artist's full album on a disc;
  • No plastic jewel case;
  • The disc is a CD-R or DVD-R, this can be detected by the colour of the disc:
    • DVD-R is commonly blue or purple colour
    • CD-R or DVD-R often displays a vivid rainbow effect if held up to light: and
    • CD-R or DVD-R normally contain a printed batch number on the inner ring.
  • Lower or higher than normal price;
  • Obliterated or no SID codes.

To download an easy guide to Spotting Pirate Product click here.

 

You should also be aware that certain countries have extremely high piracy rates, for example Indonesia (88% piracy rate), China (85% pirate rate), Russia (67% piracy rate), Greece (50% piracy rate), Brazil (40% piracy rate), Spain, South Korea and Mexico are designated priority countries for IFPI.  Therefore you should take extra precautions with regard to music originating from these jurisdictions.


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