Four people have been arrested in Alicante in connection with the illegal recording of new feature films in local cinemas

Four people have been arrested in Alicante in connection with the illegal recording of new feature films in local cinemas. Police say the recordings were made at off-peak times and have described the operation as the largest of its type in Europe against the making of pirate recording in cinemas.The case broke when one of the group was caught recording a film with high definition equipment in an Alicante cinema, and police say the group then uploaded the recordings made to the internet, using servers in France and Germany.Police carried out searches in two homes in Alicante and Callosa de Segura, and impounded computing and copying equipment, as well as documents which showed the income obtained from advertising on the internet web pages.It is estimated that the losses to the film makers involved could be more than 70 million € given that the four are believed to have recorded hundreds of films many of which were downloaded as many as 10,000 times.