Justice Dept. Raids Online Piracy Networks

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Justice Dept. Raids Online Piracy Networks
32 minutes ago

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators have raided 120 sites across the globe to break up online piracy networks that distribute copyrighted music, movies and software, the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) said on Thursday.

The investigation, carried out in 27 U.S. states and 10 foreign countries, targeted covert "warez" groups that distribute computer games and other works before they are officially released, the Justice Department said.

More than 200 computers have been seized so far and nearly 100 individuals have been identified, the Justice Department said.

Warez groups, consisting of tech-savvy hackers and industry insiders, compete with each other to post pirated works on secret computer servers.

From there, the works quickly spread across the Internet and become available to millions through file-sharing networks like Kazaa and Morpheus.

Server computers seized in the raids contained hundreds of thousands of illegally copied works, the Justice Department said.

Foreign searches were conducted in Great Britain, Germany, France, Israel, Singapore, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary and Sweden, the Justice Department said.

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Source
Edited 'Source' for HT (LOL, never could spell some words)

yeah i saw that as i watched the number of ppl trying to hack into my system grow....not as much concern about that is there?

uh....
first criminalize it
2nd kick their asses
...that's the way it works in germany

...but DrinkOrDie will be really really missed :(

Hey Hey,

I've only got one comment about all of this, but before I get to it I'm going to nitpick. It's Source mox, not Sourse :) hehe... Anyways on to my coment.

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Server computers seized in the raids contained hundreds of thousands of illegally copied works, the Justice Department said.

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Hundreds of thousands of illegally copied works? I'm going to have to wonder. I could prolly name 300.. .at most even 500 pieces of software that you have to purchase. I know there are more..... but is it really up to the point that you'd find 100s of thousands. I suppose if you add mp3s, however. I know someone with 3000Mp3s and that's over 10gb... say you had 100 thousand mp3s (after all it says hundreds of thousands)... That's over 300GB. I know many people have that kind of space these days, but again, like I said.. it says 100s of thousands... I'd take that to mean at least 300,000 that's almost a terrabyte of m3ps. I don't think i could name 300,000 songs, I doubt with movies, mp3s and software... that I coudl come close to 300,000 titles, although I doubt I could do 100,000 titles.... why do I think that the Justice Department is upping that number by "hundreds of thousands" just to make it seem like it was a justified expense. Honestly if this was all software, then I have no problem. If it was movies, considering how over priced they are these days.. I have a bit of a problem... but if it's about music.... that's the biggest waste of resources ever.... I just hope software makes up a good portion of the files.... and all I can say is I'm glad I'm not American... I'd be raising a huge stink demanding they justify themselves spending the money to pull of the raids.

Peace,
HT

yes, HTRegz, you are right.
i think they just added all D.o.D. releases, but if i'm right they did teir wolrk long toime before 2001
and oinly did software...no music, or whatever...
so maybe they caTCHED only a distributing site.

I think that we probably have to divide by the number of servers as well? So if they seize 100 servers with 3000 items on each they have their 300,000.

We would look on that as massive duplicate counting, but in the eyes of the law I suppose there are 100 (or whatever) criminals with 3000 offences each to be taken into consideration.

I believe that is the way it works over here, each item is a separate offence?

Cheers

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The U.S. Customs Department has estimated that warez groups, consisting of tech-savvy hackers and industry insiders, are responsible for 95 percent of all pirated material available online.

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Were is the other 5% coming from?? Where do they get these BS figures

There are lies, dambed lies and statistics.. (was it Twain who said that)

media organisations LUV Statistics..

When it comes to statistics and media.. they will compare apples with oranges, and tel you from that information the crime rate is increasing..

I just like my latest geek stat..

there are 10 types of ppl in the world:
Those who count in trinary
those who don't
and those who couldn't careless what tinary is.


oh the other 5%.. well had they said that it was 1005 ppl would have assumed that the piaracy problem was solved..

it is called the a$$ cover margin..

cheers

HTRegz
i don't know if they have increased their numbers to make it more interesting but i got some friends that enjoy spending their free time administrating some of these kinds of servers and they can range from 4 terrabyte an up so depending on how hardcore groups they got the numbers can be correct.

They were here in the netherlands too..

Pictures speak louder than words..

http://utwente.noinfo.nl/
http://mjrider.student.utwente.nl/gallery/politie

what about video ?? sorry about the format http://www.rtl.nl/system/media/wvx/a....xml/wm364.wvx


And I heard some rumours about the Fairlight group being among the taken..

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I've only got one comment about all of this, but before I get to it I'm going to nitpick. It's Source mox, not Sourse hehe... Anyways on to my coment.

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You didn't realise that Col. Moxnix would have already deployed a sniper to the clocktower?

It is "comment" not "coment" :D ..........and I do have the "sauce" to say that.....,

Or are you involved with "Comet Cursors".................................... :eek:

The thing that interests me about this whole affair is that it is aimed at "professional" pirating. This is very clearly covered by laws over here in England, and, I would imagine, the rest of Europe.

The RIAA nonsense to date seems to have been stage managed by a shower of retards with a sawn off twelve gauge? If people won't pay for a song, then they will do without, or they will form a little cartel, or unofficial CD library, and swap tracks that way?..............it cannot be traced.....it is physical.

I am totally unconvinced that individuals who swap music actually do harm to the industry, perversely, it may do some good? If you hear one good track maybe two, you might want to buy one of the CDs of your own?.........

It is many years since I worked in the recording industry, but "ownership" (possession) was important then.....not some poor quality ripped off recording?

I agree that there are copyright regulations, and so there should be, or there would be nothing produced.

It seems to me that perhaps someone has spotted the difference between a technical infringement, and a genuine crime? It would be the price of obtaining international co-operation?

Just my thoughts

Cheers

Source

New stats for you all to ponder.

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More than two-hundred computers worldwide have been seized, including thirty servers used as storage and distribution centres for the material. One server alone is said to have more than sixty-five-thousand titles on it.

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The film, music and software industries have long been pushing for law enforcement agencies to take a tough stance against internet piracy. They say that without copyright protection and enforcement, the artists and distributors behind the work could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

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