Eight people have been arrested and thousands of DVDs confiscated after the RCMP raided an alleged Montreal piracy ring accused of scamming thousands of customers across North America.

Police seized thousands of DVDs and 200 DVD burners in two separate raids on Tuesday dubbed "Operation Copyright," a statement from the RCMP said Wednesday.

The network allegedly operated in Montreal and sold and distributed DVDs of popular television series, such as "The Six Million Dollar Man'' and "Ally McBeal," through a number of websites.

The RCMP say the counterfeit DVDs were sold as originals with the majority of customers based in the U.S.

The investigation was launched in February 2007 at the request of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, which had launched its own independent investigation into the alleged network.

The force said the suspects could face charges under the Copyright Act and the federal Criminal Code.

Under the Copyright Act, anyone who copies or reproduces a movie for the purpose of sale commits an offence.

The maximum fine under the federal Copyright Act is $1 million and five years in jail if the recorded movie is then used for commercial distribution.

However, possessing a DVD copied for personal use is not considered a criminal offence.

According to the American movie industry, Canadian bootleggers are costing the industry US$6 billion in lost revenue a year.

The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association says movie pirating in Canada accounted for 20 per cent of camcorded copies of DVDs worldwide.

In 2005, movie piracy cost the Canadian film industry US$225 million and the Canadian government US$34 million, according to a Motion Picture Association of America study.