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Bailiffs swooped on a Montreal photocopy business Wednesday and seized 2,200 illegally copied study guides and textbooks in one of the largest raids on copyright piracy in the country.

The raid was the third on U Compute, a Montreal-based photocopy and computer accessories shop located close to Concordia University. Along with the copied textbooks, the bailiffs seized 2,100 digital portable document format (PDF) data files from U Compute's computers, and number of image files of textbook pages.

The bailiffs were acting on an Anton Pillar order sought by Access Copyright, an industry group dedicated to protecting copyright of print writers. An Anton Pillar order provides the right to search premises without prior warning. It is designed to prevent the destruction of incriminating evidence, such as the illegal use of copyrighted material.

Access Copyright estimates that the U Compute seizure represents $250,000 in lost revenue to booksellers, publishers and authors.

It was the third such raid against U Compute, which has twice before paid fines of $5,000 and immediately returned to business, Access Copyright executive director Fred Wardle told Globetechnology.com

"It's strike three for this particular copy shop," Mr. Wardle said. "We are pleased that the court has taken this step as it confirms that repeated violations of court orders that are designed to protect the rights of authors and publishers will not be taken lightly."

The shop stands to be fined $500 to $20,000 for each infringed title, said Access Copyright lawyer Roani Levy.

"There were 2,200 finished textbooks seized," she said, "but they probably contained only about 25 individual titles."

All of the piracy business was done by cash only and the owner kept no records, Mr. Wardle said, which made it difficult for Access Copyright to estimate the extent of the piracy.

Ms. Levy said the shop worked on a print-on-demand basis, printing and binding copies of textbooks only when students ordered them. They could also be bound well enough to last the whole school year, she said.

Under that system, the shop could charge $25 for a $125 textbook.

The most popular titles were textbooks in engineering, medicine and economics, he said.

Access Copyright maintains a massive database of copyright books, and conducts "sweeps" twice a year of university-area stores and other places suspected of trafficking in copyright material.

But it's still an uphill battle, Mr. Wardle said.

"Monitoring is difficult. The firewalls go up, and you can't get into the universities' computer system without their permission."

He said that there is also considerable traffic in purely digital versions of textbooks, shared on peer-to-peer networks, like music and movies are swapped on networks such as Kazaa.

Ms. Levy said that depending on the fine set by a court in a civil suit, the copy shop could face a fine of as much as $500,000.

Access Copyright is a non-profit agency representing an international repertoire of published works along with more than 5,600 Canadian creators and 529 Canadian publishers.