Police said Friday they have arrested three men on suspicion of selling illegal copies of such Hollywood films as "Dinosaur" and "Toy Story 2" on video CDs via Internet auctions in November and December.
Tadaaki Tsuya, 33, Hiroyuki Yoshioka, 39, and Kenji Yokoyama, 51, are suspected of selling VCDs to four bidders in violation of the Copyright Law, police said.
Officers seized about 800 VCDs from their homes, they said. According to investigations, the trio sold five copies of three U.S. films for a total of 17,000 yen to the four.
The three are suspected of buying VCDs from a video shop in Dalian, northeastern China, for about 250 yen per disk and selling them for about 4,000 yen apiece. Police believe they earned roughly 120,000 yen through the scheme.