Videogame Pirate Gets Long Jail Sentence

Thanks to the San Jose Business Journal for its article discussing the sentencing of a notable videogame pirate to 50 months in prison after being found guilty on charges of "copyright infringement and... mail fraud." According to the piece: "[Sean Michael] Breen... admitted that he was a leader in the Internet-based piracy group known as Razor1911. Since the early 1990s, Razor1911 had sought to achieve a reputation in the underground Internet piracy community... as the leading distributor of cracked computer and console game software." A report at GameSpot has further details, noting Razor1911 "...acquired advance copies of [videogame] titles by posing as reviewers for fictitious game magazines and having them shipped to a derelict storefront address in Oakland."

Comments

...the cracker

[sethstorm]

First of all, I'd only care if he was selling off this stuff for organized crime.
Sure, it's "piracy", but the works across the internet are out there somewhere w/o
payment - whatever someone else does with it after that is a different matter.
Sure, there are dumbfucks out there that will plonk out $500 for an os that's
been bugged with activation, $3k for an ethernet sniffing device, or $10k for
an animation program. However, they(the dumbfucks who support bloated prices/code)
are hopefully far and few, and those who crack the protection are as common as
blades of grass, popping up as one gets cut down.

Next, I applaud the cracker for proving ad infinitum that DRM does not work at all.
If DRM worked, then we'd hear less about Johansen/Skylarov, but consumers have taken
it hostile to know that something else has taken over their system. As far as the system
goes, I am root, all processes bow down to me no matter how much was invested in
the code.

Last of all, the lawsuits come and go, they only prove to make the community stronger,
and finally conquer their enemies.

Re:...the cracker

[wasabii]

Who the fuck cares? This isn't about OSS quality being lower. Nothing you said gives you justification for pirating games. Either buy it, or don't play it. END OF STORY.

BITTORRENT

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is my download of pirates of the carribean getting more upload speed than download speed? I'm getting like 32 up and 2 down. You fucking leechers! Get off my machine I want to download the fucking movie.

moment of silence

[Anonymous Coward]

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I am saddened that a man who brought me so many games in my youth is behind bars. preach all you want about morality,society, economics, but I simply don't give a fuck if it is theft, I'll take what I want, society be damned.

(that said, I'm probly still a gamer buying 1 in 10 games i play because i get those other nine to keep be interested in it. and i wouldn't be a gamer at all if it weren't for this man, he kept me into pc games long enough for me to be able to afford to buy them, when i can.)