Federal agents in Phoenix and elsewhere in the US raided schools and other targets in a national crackdown on pirated music CDs and movies.
Agents poured through data and records at a computer command center for the Deer Valley School District in the northwest Valley and blocked the office from the public. It was among other places in Arizona and "quite a few other states" where sealed search warrants were served, the FBI said.
The raids came on the same day that Justice Department officials in Washington announced the creation of a new Intellectual Property Task Force to step up copyright enforcement.
Some of the stolen copyrighted material being sought in the raids is suspected as having been distributed from overseas sources.
FBI agents raided the Deer Valley district's Administration Services Center, just south of Deer Valley High School in Glendale, at 6 a.m. and stayed most of the day. The site houses the district's information services and technology offices, essentially the "brains" of the district's computer system, said Timothy Tait, district spokesman.
The raids are reflective of a new effort by the Justice Department to treat copyright enforcement as a higher priority, something that motion-picture and music-industry officials have been urging.
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