3 Arrested, Pirated Tapes Seized in Raid : Videos: Officers confiscate 848 bogus films. The tip came from a movie industry group that is making a nationwide effort to stop illegal copying. : GLENDALE

Three people were arrested and 848 pirated videotapes were seized at a Glendale store last week as part of a nationwide campaign by the movie industry to curb the illegal duplication of popular films.

Acting on a tip from the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA), officers raided Indra Video, 517 S. Verdugo Road, Friday afternoon, Glendale Police said.

Arrested on video piracy charges were the store’s owner, Savang Vanavikornm, 45, and his wife, Oraphun, 44, both of Los Angeles, and store manager Thirapong Noypherm, 27, of Panorama City.

The raid was conducted after investigators rented suspicious tapes at the store, said Sgt. James Fitzgerald, the department’s bunco-forgery supervisor.

“The three that we rented appeared to have duplicated labels,” he said. “They were checked electronically and found to be pirated tapes.”

Fitzgerald said videotape labels often indicate whether the cassette is an authorized copy or a bootleg. On authorized tape labels, he explained, “the quality of printing is high, and the labels are smooth because they are silk-screened.”

“If you look at a bogus tape, the quality will be lower. It’s often atrocious, really unbelievably bad” because it is a photocopy.

He said suspicious tapes are sent to the MPAA, which has electronic tests to detect illegal copies.

Indra Video has been renting hit movies for $1.50 a day, a price that is below the industry average, police said.

The tapes seized Friday were only part of the store’s inventory, however, and the business remains open, Fitzgerald said.

The owner of Indra Video was consulting a lawyer early this week and was not available for comment, a store spokesman said.

If convicted of video piracy, the defendants could be sentenced to one year in jail and fined up to $25,000, authorities said. All three were released after posting $5,000 bail each.

MPAA spokeswoman Mary Callahan said Indra Video was raided by the FBI in 1985 and named in a civil suit filed by the association in 1988.

Callahan said the federal case was not prosecuted, but she said she did not know why. She said the civil suit was settled when the store owner agreed to pay $25,000 and surrender pirated cassettes and duplication equipment.

Pirated tapes are usually duplicated at a low cost so they can be sold or rented at below-average prices, Callahan said.

Illegal videotapes cost the industry up to $150 million a year, according to MPAA estimates.