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Pirates beware – angels are out to get you.

Following New York’s lead and the urging of the MPAA and the RIAA, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has declared that piracy “substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county’s citizens, its businesses and its visitors.”

The five-member Board of Supervisors of the City of Angels likened piracy to other troublesome activities and as such, preserves the right to secure a property for up to a year for violating ordinance 13.90.010. The ordinance also empowers local authorities to bring a civil action to “temporarily restrain, preliminarily enjoin, and/or permanently enjoin the person or persons intentionally conducting, or knowingly maintaining or permitting the public nuisance from further conducting, maintaining, or permitting such a public nuisance.”

The authority to declare a property that has been allowed to become a center of drugs, gangs, prostitution, and gambling as a ‘public nuisance’ has long been in the purview of local governments in the United States and California. 

The LA County Board is adding a new category to the list: music and video piracy.  Aside from having their properties closed, owners who deliberately sanction such activities can also be fined $1,000 for each counterfeited work produced on the property. 

Via [Wired]

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