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A father and his two sons who made up to £7m from a pirate DVD scam have been jailed at Southwark Crown Court.
Sami Sheikh, 28, and brother Rafi, 26, of North Chingford, east London, were each jailed for six years.
They were earlier found guilty of conspiring to break copyright laws, trademark laws and acquire criminal property between 2003 and 2006.
Khalid Sheikh, 53, who lived with his sons, was convicted of the copyright plot and jailed for four years.
Benefit claims
A fourth man, Xin Li, 34, of Victoria Road, Walthamstow, east London, was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment, after being found guilty of concealing criminal property.
During the trial the court heard the gang ran a "sophisticated" operation and imported equipment from the Far East to copy new films like Ice Age 2, the Da Vinci Code and Iron Man to the "best industry standards possible".
The gang, which employed "largely illegal Chinese immigrants", produced hundreds of thousands of DVDs in "factories" housed in several semi-detached houses across London.
The DVDs were then sold on the street for as little as £3.
The father and sons, who claimed benefits, also produced pornographic and bestiality films to such an extent that some sex film shops were driven out of business, the court heard.
source: bbc.com

Brüno star Sacha Baron Cohen has been threatened by a terrorist organisation that he ridiculed in the hit satire.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a coalition of Palestinian militias in the West Bank, released a statement saying it was 'very upset' at how it is portrayed in the film.
The group is responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and shootings and has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and United States.
'The movie was part of a conspiracy against the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,' a spokesman told Jerusalem-based journalist Aaron Klein.
'We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man.'
In the film, Baron Cohen's Austrian character, an outrageous gay fashionista, attempts to get himself kidnapped during a meeting with Ayman Abu Aita, who is identified in the film as the leader of the Martyrs' Brigades.
Brüno is shown telling Mr Abu Aita: 'I want to be famous. I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me. Al-Qaeda is so 2001.'
Family man: Sacha Baron Cohen with fiancèe Isla Fisher
Before Mr Abu Aita can respond, Brüno suggests that he remove his moustache, explaining: 'Because your king Osama looks like a kind of dirty wizard or homeless Santa.'
A spokesman for 37-year-old Baron Cohen refused to comment on the threat.
Mr Klein, the WorldNet reporter who received the statement from the Martyrs' Brigades, said today: 'These are terrorists who are fundamentalist Islamists. They are against feminism, gay rights and abortion.
'Once I asked them what would they do if they found out one of their members was a homosexual. They said they would cut off his head.'
Mr Abu Aita himself has threatened to sue Baron Cohen. He claims he was tricked into appearing in the film and has insisted that he is no longer involved in the Martyrs' Brigades.
Baron Cohen is reported to have received death threats in America and Kazakhstan after his previous box office hit, Borat. source: mail.com

Conventional wisdom has it that the first animals evolved in the ocean.

Now researchers studying ancient rock samples in South China have found that the first animal fossils are preserved in ancient lake deposits, not in marine sediments as commonly assumed.

These new findings not only raise questions as to where the earliest animals were living, but what factors drove animals to evolve in the first place.

For some 3 billion years, single-celled life forms such as bacteria dominated the planet. Then, roughly 600 million years ago, the first multi-cellular animals appeared on the scene, diversifying rapidly.

The oldest known animal fossils in the world are preserved in South China's Doushantuo Formation. These fossil beds have no adult specimens - instead, many of the fossils appear to be microscopic embryos.

"Our first unusual finding in this region was the abundance of a clay mineral called smectite," said researcher Tom Bristow, now at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "In rocks of this age, smectite is normally transformed into other types of clay. The smectite in these South China rocks, however, underwent no such transformation and have a special chemistry that, for the smectite to form, requires specific conditions in the water - conditions commonly found in salty, alkaline lakes."

The researchers collected hundreds of rock samples from several locations in South China. All their analyses suggest these rocks were not marine sediments.

"Moreover, we found smectite in only some locations in South China, and not uniformly as one would expect for marine deposits," Bristow said. "Taken together, several lines of evidence indicated to us that these early animals lived in a lake environment."

HONOLULU – State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.

They hoped to stem a recent surge in the number of inquiries about Obama's birthplace.

"I ... have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen," Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a brief statement. "I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago."

So-called "birthers" — who claim Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was actually born outside the United States — have grown more vocal recently on blogs and television news shows. source: yahoo news

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has launched a stinging attack on Astana team-mate Lance Armstrong.
The 26-year-old Spaniard won his second Tour title in Paris on Sunday, with American Armstrong finishing third.
"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is zero," Contador told a news conference in Madrid.
"He is a great rider but it is another thing on a personal level, where I have never had great admiration for him and I never will."
The 26-year-old Spaniard was the strongest rider in the mountains and in the time trials and eventually beat Andy Schleck into second place by four minutes 11 seconds, with Armstrong third at 5:24 back and Briton Bradley Wiggins in fourth, 6:01 adrift.
There were regular reports of tension between Armstrong and Contador throughout the event, with the 37-year-old seven-time champion - making his first appearance in the race since 2005 - often criticising his Astana team-mate's strategy.
We need duels in sport, like Rafael Nadal v Roger Federer or Bernard Hinault v Greg LeMond
Tour organiser Christian Prudhomme
Contador admitted relations between the two were strained throughout.
"The situation was tense and delicate because the relationship between myself and Lance extended to the rest of the staff," he said.
"On this Tour, the days in the hotel were harder than the those on the road."
Contador, who missed last year's Tour after Astana were not invited because of their past doping record, refused to be drawn on his future but it seems unlikely to lie with Astana. source: bbc.com

India's launch of a nuclear-powered submarine is a threat to regional peace and security, Pakistan has said.
"Pakistan will take appropriate steps to safeguard its security without entering an arms race," foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said.
The submarine, unveiled at a ceremony on Sunday, will be able to launch missiles at targets 700km away.
At Sunday's launch, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India had no aggressive designs on anyone.
India has become only the sixth country in the world to build its own nuclear-powered submarine - until now only the US, Russia, France, Britain and China had the capability to do so.
'Jeopardising security'
But the move has prompted concern over the border.
"The continued induction of new lethal weapon systems by India is detrimental to regional peace and stability," Mr Basit said.
"Pakistan believes the maintenance of strategic balance is essential for peace and security in the region."
Pakistan navy spokesman, Captain Abid Majeed Butt, told Dawn News television that the launch of the submarine was a "destabilising step".
He said it would "jeopardise the security paradigm of the entire Indian Ocean region" - and warned of a possible nuclear arms race in the region.
At the launch ceremony Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was necessary to keep pace with technological advancements worldwide.
He added that the sea was becoming increasingly relevant to India's security concerns. source: bbc.com

By Sebastian Usher
BBC News
A Saudi man who boasted about his sexual conquests on an Arabic TV station has tearfully apologised, as calls mounted for him to be punished.
Mazen Abdul Jawad talked about his sexual conquests, starting with a neighbour when he was 14, and how he picks up women in the kingdom.
Saudi media say officials are considering whether to charge him.
Pre-marital sex is illegal in Saudi Arabia and Mr Abdul Jawad could face imprisonment or flogging.
Discreet society Saudi Arabia is not only the most conservative society in the Arab world, it is also the most discreet.
If people break its strict Islamic code they face punishment - lashes or imprisonment for drinking or non-marital sex.

These rules are flouted by locals as well as expatriates, but almost everyone who breaks the rules keeps quiet about it and hopes they won't be found out.
So it is unusual for a Saudi man to appear on TV freely discussing the ways in which he has transgressed the Saudi code.
Mr Abdul Jawad agreed to be interviewed for the Red Lines show on the popular Lebanese TV station, LBC.
The show deals with taboos in the Arab world.
Bluetooth dating
Mr Abdul Jawad talked openly about his sexual conquests, starting when he was 14.
He also described how he used the Bluetooth function on his mobile to meet Saudi women.
Religious authorities have tried to ban such devices for this very reason.
Complaints have now been filed against Mr Abdul Jawad in his local court and online Saudi forums are full of denunciations of his behaviour.
He says he is considering suing LBC for misrepresenting his views.