Drugs and rock'n'roll go up in smoke

RIGA - In protest against pirate music recordings, Latvia's state police and the music producers union burned over 10,000 illegal audio and video recordings on Sept. 4. This was the first time in Latvia that pirate recordings have being crushed and shredded.

The Second Riga Combined Heat and Power Plant also burned 142 kilograms of poppy stalks, which were confiscated a few years ago.

The head of the anti-drugs squad, Artis Ziders, said the poppy stalks are usually sold in batches of around 50 or 60 grams. The street value of one such dose is around 3 ($5) or 4 lats.

The police report that they are forced to hold on to confiscated drugs as evidence for many years until criminal cases have been closed and verdicts taken effect.

The power plant burned a total of 11,000 compact discs with illegal recordings of music and computer games, as well as 1,000 illegal video tapes and 6,000 audio cassettes. All were confiscated this year alone.

Employees at the plant said that the temperature in the burners is over 2,000 degrees, so not even much smoke will be left over from the CDs, tapes and poppy stems.

Previous anti-pirate events have included concerts, but organizers usually reject such events claiming that pulling people into the legal side is a trickier process than simply holding a pop concert.

The Ministry of Culture's copyright unit claims that depending on the source, pirate recordings make up 50 percent to 65 percent of Latvia's music market and 77 percent of the software market.