11 nation crackdown on Internet piracy

Sgtshaft

"Today, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced a huge crackdown on 11 nations, with computer raids in United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. "Operation Site Down" busted "Warez" group leaders and members, from RiSCiSO, Myth, TDA, LND, Goodfellaz, Hoodlum, Vengeance, Centropy, Wasted Time to TUN, and others. Apparently, an FBI agent was working undercover, being a "Site Op" of 4 gbit "topsites" with more than 27TB of pirated material. Griffen, his "scene" nick, played a crucial role on the busts. More than 70 searches in the United States and 20 overseas were executed, in just 24 hours!

According to the FBI, those groups were responsible for stealing, cracking and distributing copies of well-known titles, such as Autodesk’s Autocad 2006, Adobe’s Photoshop, and the movies “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” FBI searches focused on "suppliers", the ones that provide the "first material" for warez release groups.

The Justice Department announced Thursday an 11-nation crackdown on large-scale Internet pirates who illegally distribute first-run movies, video games and other copyrighted materials.FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches starting Wednesday, arresting four people and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works, a Justice official said. Authorities also seized hundreds of computers in raids in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Among those arrested was Chirayu Patel of Fremont, Calif., on charges of violating federal copyright protection laws, said a law enforcement official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the official announcement.Patel is alleged to be a member of a "warez" group, a kind of underground Internet co-op that is set up to trade in copyrighted materials. Warez (pronounced "wares") groups are extraordinarily difficult to infiltrate because users talk only in encrypted chat rooms, their computer servers require passwords and many are located overseas, the FBI has said."

Easily_Irritated

Ah yea, sure we can't be having that stuff for free. They've got BILLIONAIRES to protect!! feckers!

Tommy said it well ^^

Orion

not Centropy - they're the good guys.

Where'd you read this?

Giblet

Funny, because Centropy just released more movies today.

Warez Rox!

Say War-ez, and be shot

Sgtshaft

Macros42 wrote:

not Centropy - they're the good guys.

Where'd you read this?

http://slyck.com/news.php?story=844

and

http://www.cdfreaks.com

pred racer

Irritated, what are you going to do now that you wont have to explain your name anymore????

Looks like they got alot of the good ones, does this mean Im going to have to wait for movies to come out on dvd to make "backups"

And because they busted these guys people will have to backup a mates copy of software and write the cd key on the front of it instead of downloading a cracked version...

Yep The world is now safe from those pirating cheats!!

Giblet

Nothings changed because of what happened.

IE. Nothing major happened here, as I said, centropy just had another release today.

Orion

LOL@Giblet

you don't mean Herbie do you?

Orion

The warrant, which was released yesterday, named "killaz, marvel/cartel, cin, sidar, dact, korax, bourbon, and burner."

Good luck with that one - I'm Macros42 - I'd love to see a warrant naming me like that

During the arrest, police seized his computers and burned DVD/CD discs

Why would the police burn disks?

the FBI has only announced the arrest of one individual

That's the whole operation borked so

juliuspret

Well they wanted to take on the big boys:

Myth, TDA, LND, Hoodlum, Vengeance.
They do LOTS of games and Myth is a major releaser of RIPS.

Honestly this wont do sh!t as loads of people out there will continue to deal in pirated software no matter how many stories like this are released.

hostyle

Sgtshaft wrote:

Apparently, an FBI agent was working undercover, being a "Site Op" of 4 gbit "topsites" with more than 27TB of pirated material. Griffen, his "scene" nick, played a crucial role on the busts.

Is that not entrapment?

Kali

hostyle wrote:

Is that not entrapment?

Its not entrapment unless you encourage the person in question to commit a crime... now if that site was run by the FBI and they prosecuted anyone who downloaded from it, then yes, but not in this case where they are going after the people who enable them to put content on the site.

Cake Fiend

I blame computer games.

Well, I'm glad the world's authorities are concentrating on the serious problems of the world, instead of trivial stuff like drug gangs, child exploitation, terrorism, etc.

hostyle

Kali wrote:

Its not entrapment unless you encourage the person in question to commit a crime... now if that site was run by the FBI and they prosecuted anyone who downloaded from it, then yes, but not in this case where they are going after the people who enable them to put content on the site.

You sure he didn't go "Hey doodz. I got me a 4Gbit server with a terabyte of storage. Want to upload warez to it?" ? I suppose not.

EDIT:

And er, if he didn't do that how did all that warez get onto his server? Did the FBI put it there? Surely if he was a Site Op(erator) he owned / paid for the server?

J-blk

Macros42 wrote:

Why would the police burn disks?

Hmmm... maybe so that they can "evaluate" the confiscated material at a later time?

JackKelly

I think it is safe to say, they will never be able to stop pirating.

weemcd

I'm gonna fight them off, an 11 nation army couldnt hold me back...






i'll get my coat

CyberGhost

WOW! FBI stopped some computer guys from distributing pirated software, the world is safe now! wooohooo!

More than 70 searches in the United States and 20 overseas were executed, in just 24 hours!

wow, it took them just 24 hours to click ctrl+F and type 90 words

sigh, the rich get richer, fatass lucas must be happy now