Section 420.05. Seizure and forfeiture of equipment used in the production of unauthorized recordings

1. Any police officer of  this  state  may  seize  any  equipment,  or
  components,  used  in  the  manufacture  or  production  of unauthorized
  recordings and may seize any vehicle or other means  of  transportation,
  other  than a vehicle or means of transportation used by any person as a
  common carrier in the transaction of business as  such  common  carrier,
  used  in  the  distribution  of  such  unauthorized  recordings and such
  equipment or vehicle or other means of transportation shall  be  subject
  to forfeiture as provided in this section.
    2. The seized property shall be delivered by the police officer having
  made  the  seizure to the custody of the district attorney of the county
  wherein the seizure was made, except that in the  cities  of  New  York,
  Yonkers  and  Buffalo,  the  seized  property  shall be delivered to the
  custody of the police department of such cities, together with a  report
  of all the facts and circumstances of the seizure.
    3. It shall be the duty of the district attorney of the county wherein
  the seizure was made, if elsewhere than in the city of New York, Yonkers
  or  Buffalo, and where the seizure is made in either such city, it shall
  be the duty of the corporation counsel of the city, to inquire into  the
  facts  of the seizure so reported to him and if it appears probable that
  a forfeiture has been  incurred  for  the  determination  of  which  the
  institution  of  proceedings in the supreme court is necessary, to cause
  the proper proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted, at any time after
  thirty days from the  date  of  seizure,  to  declare  such  forfeiture,
  unless,   upon   inquiry  and  examination  such  district  attorney  or
  corporation counsel decides that such  proceedings  cannot  probably  be
  sustained  or  that  the ends of public justice do not require that they
  should be instituted or prosecuted, in which case, the district attorney
  or corporation counsel shall cause such seized property to  be  returned
  to the owner thereof.
    4.  Notice  of  the  institution of the forfeiture proceeding shall be
  served either:
    (a) personally on the owners of the seized property; or
    (b) by registered mail to  the  owners'  last  known  address  and  by
  publication  of  the  notice  once  a week for two successive weeks in a
  newspaper published or circulated in the county wherein the seizure  was
  made.
    5.  Forfeiture  shall  not be adjudged where the owners established by
  preponderance of the evidence that:
    (a) the use of such seized property was not intentional on the part of
  any owner; or
    (b) said seized property was used by any person other  than  an  owner
  thereof,  while such seized property was unlawfully in the possession of
  a person who acquired possession thereof in violation  of  the  criminal
  laws of the United States, or of any state.
    6.  The  district  attorney or the police department having custody of
  the seized property, after such judicial  determination  of  forfeiture,
  shall,  by  a  public  notice of at least five days, sell such forfeited
  property at public sale. The  net  proceeds  of  any  such  sale,  after
  deduction  of  the  lawful  expenses  incurred,  shall  be paid into the
  general fund of the county wherein the seizure was made except that  the
  net  proceeds  of the sale of property seized in the cities of New York,
  Yonkers and Buffalo shall be paid into the respective general  funds  of
  such cities.
    7.  Whenever any person interested in any property which is seized and
  declared forfeited under the provisions of this  section  files  with  a
  justice  of  the  supreme  court  a  petition  for  the recovery of such

  forfeited property, the justice of the supreme court  may  restore  said
  forfeited property upon such terms and conditions as he deems reasonable
  and  just,  if  the  petitioner  establishes  either  of the affirmative
  defenses  set  forth  in  subdivision  five of this section and that the
  petitioner was without personal or actual knowledge  of  the  forfeiture
  proceeding.  If  the  petition  be filed after the sale of the forfeited
  property, any judgment in favor of the petitioner shall  be  limited  to
  the  net  proceeds  of such sale, after deduction of the lawful expenses
  and costs incurred  by  the  district  attorney,  police  department  or
  corporation counsel.
    8.  No suit or action under this section for wrongful seizure shall be
  instituted unless such suit or action  is  commenced  within  two  years
  after the time when the property was seized.