This particular DVD factory boasted 79 burners and several thousand counterfeit discs of new titles including the latest 007 adventure Quantum of Solace, released less than a month ago.

A senior official with the Federation Against Copyright Theft said the knock-off DVDs, which sell at £3 apiece, are part of a "persistent and lucrative criminal trade".

Never was a truer word said. And the problem appears to be getting worse. Just a few short months ago, FACT assisted the Metropolitan Police in uncovering an operation distributing counterfeit discs in Islington. More than 50,000 DVDs with an estimated street value of £150,000 were seized. It is indeed a lucrative trade, and a brisk one.

Paranoia is growing over the ability of ordinary citizens to create and distribute bogus DVDs. And as the credit crunch bites deeper, so the major Hollywood studios will fight tooth and claw to protect their interests.

No-one is immune. Scribblers like yours truly hand over mobile phones at official previews to reduce the risk of covert copying. Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the people who vote for the Oscars – have seen a reduction in the number of screeners they traditionally receive in the run-up to the awards season. And in the US, a DVD sharing site was shut down following a legal challenge by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Generally this has gone on behind the scenes so that Joe Public remains unaware of the scale of the action. Now, however, punters are increasingly treated to the sight of security staff armed with night vision equipment designed to deter camcording in British cinemas. What's more, as the crackdown intensifies, cinemas are rewarded for using this specialist kit to spot offenders. A spokesman for the UK's Film Distributors' Association urged cinemas to keep the night vision devices on site "and to employ them as much as possible on very vulnerable dates in the release calendar".

Who can blame them? Next up is a bigger concentration on illegal downloading – the logical follow-on for criminals aiming to stay one step ahead of the law. Some pirates who fail to understand or accept the concept of intellectual property rights consider internet theft to be less of a crime. Last year, there were said to be 127 million examples of digital piracy. It makes for grim reading. And it's getting worse. Gone are the days when a trip to the cinema involved a ride on the bus, a Coca-Cola, a bucket of popcorn and a riotous afternoon with like-minded pals. Nowadays, it's akin to breaking in to GCHQ. What happened to having fun at the pictures? When did it all become so serious? Call me nostalgic, but I long for the good old days of stern ladies bearing torches. Sadly, with the onset of technology, those days have gone forever.