The Rhode Island State Police arrested five people and seized 5,000 pirated CDs and DVDs and a number of vehicles in a sweep through Providence in late January.

Last September, the police raided a Providence flea market, seizing 10,000 bootlegged CDs and DVDs worth about $150,000.

Buckles, the former head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said urban and Latin music is overwhelmingly popular among pirates. who copy discs.

Illegal Latin CDs also are commonly produced using high-quality commercial press equipment, rather than the inexpensive computer drives frequently used to illegally copy urban-music CDs, the trade group said. That can make it difficult for consumers - and even retailers - to identify counterfeit CDs, which are sometimes sold at full price.

"Unless you really know the product, you would not be able to tell," Buckles said.

Other counterfeit CDs sometimes sell for as little as $3 each with poor-quality labels or include compilations that aren't available commercially. "You've got people who are out to get music cheap," Buckles said.

Part of the industry's new campaign will describe the consequences of buying inexpensive, illegal CDs rather than paying full price for legal copies. The trade group said lost sales affect the industry's ability to invest in new artists, and counterfeit discs often suffer from inferior quality.

"People can rationalize not paying for something, but the fact of the matter is they're stealing," Buckles said. "This (music) doesn't get created for free. The consumers are really getting cheated."

-- Projo.com staff and The Associated Press