World Cup 98 Pirates Nailed

On a tip from Electronic Arts and its Turkish distributor, Aral Ithalat Ltd., a ring of counterfeits was busted by customs authorities with over six thousand video game products worth over US$300,000 coming into Turkey from Malaysia.

Among the illegal products taken, several copies of EA's games were found beside copies of the highly popular World Cup '98.

The Istanbul police prosecutor has charged the importing company, and the importers could face up to five years of prison, a ban of up to three years on doing business in the region, and stiff fines.

Chris Chapin, Electronic Arts' director of intellectual property enforcement, said, "Thanks to the fine efforts of Turkish Customs, we were able to prevent distribution into Turkey of thousands of counterfeit products worth several hundred thousand dollars. We are grateful for the assistance of the Turkish authorities in carrying out these actions. We plan to target the source exports from Malaysia next and hope authorities there will be as responsive to this theft of Electronic Arts' property as the Turkish authorities were."

Recent raids in the country have turned up another 800 illegally copied CDs at retail shops and other shopping centers.