Turkish police seized 30 million pirating materials

Eyüp Serbest ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

Istanbul Police have seized more than 24 million pirate books over the last three years and 4 millions of DVDs and CDs of films, music and video games. CİHAN photo

The Istanbul Police have seized almost 30 million pirating materials over the last three years, with books and printing machines leading in the figures.

A total of 29,313,162 pieces of material were seized by the police. A big proportion of this figure is books and booklets, with more than 24 million. More than 4 million DVDs and CDs of films, music, video games and computer programs have also been seized.

“Pirating material producers know which movies will be watched, which books will be best sellers or which writers are popular,” a member of the Istanbul Police told daily Hürriyet, requesting to remain anonymous. “They won’t invest in what will not sell.”

There are a variety of books, from children stories to best sellers; from medicine books to textbooks.
The Istanbul Police Department rented two warehouses, paying 500,000 Turkish Liras a year to keep the materials, but both of them are already full.

The officer dubbed the warehouses as “Turkey’s largest library,” but no one gets to read them.
According to the legal procedures, the materials cannot be thrown away or recycled until jurisdiction is given. The pirated books are not legally allowed to be used in schools and libraries, either. The state, however, gets to keep the income after recycling the books.

The police have also confiscated 280 printing machines, whose prices are varied between 200,000 to 600,000 Euros.