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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."
Fuck you, all of you motherfucking LambdaMOOers you! Fuck you all!
I think I had some of their warez back in the day (considering posting anon now... fuck it). Still, I can see how the whole "posing as reviewers" thing could be crossing the line.
Sucks to be 'em. Still, seems kinda harsh - what's Ken Lay getting again?
I know I'm running a flame risk here, but I for one applaud this arrest. It's people like this that enable companies to rationalize(in lawyers terms anyway) DRM rights systems, which annoy the living crap out of people who actually pay for these things and like to support developers/artists/whatever
Now the fact that he got caught showed just how dumb he was. Trying to steal hardware like that always leaves too many traces around, and if the company has the money, it will influence law enforcement to do the investigation. I dunno if this will start a "scared straight" program with warezers, or maybe they'll just keep to their little gated communities now. Hopefully a high-profile case of a really prolific pirates will ensure that game companies don't need to go the way of the RIAA, at least not anymore than they have.
50 months? It's his lawyer's fault, easily. You can get away with murder in the U.S. if you have the right representation. We have a truly screwed up justice system.
If he were a Linux user, that list would consist of Tuxracer and... err... yeah.
It does make sense to be sending someone to jail for this.
I know of many people who have made huge use of his products though.
LAN party I held two weeks ago would have been much more dificult without the Razor hacked version of Steam (For Counter Strike) since we weren't able to keep the internet connection up.
redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
I can understand using a ROM for old games; stuff you can no longer find. I haven't done it myself (...honest) but I know plenty of people who have especially for games more than five years old, and it doesn't bother me. Lying, just to get a game a few days early in order to get a jump start on cracking it is pushing things very far.
I forgot how much the colors here tend to grate on the eyes.
Do you hate Jesus too?
To think of the people quoting about crimes such as murder getting less, it appears to be a
straight-out scapegoating of this guy. I just hope they dont pull a Novell and give some sob the
hardware. I dont think even OJ's lawyers could help here, since they'd be dealing with punks
such as the SIIA.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Holy shite!!!! Only fourteen years to bust the leader (and only the leader?) of ONE of the myraid cracking groups. And Razor is *still* releasing cracks. Looks like a fantastic use of taxpayers' money to me.
Second, this is really nothing to applaud or rejoice over. The arrest of one or two dozen pirates does not even scratch the tip of the iceberg. The authorities know it but they still bust a group or two every couple of years for PR purposes. It does not affect the so-called "warez scene" at all. All game were pirated before this happened and all have continued to be pirated afterwards.
Third. I am very surprised to read that Razor1911 sold copies. To the extent of my knowledge, they are (Because they are still alive and kicking)a veteran and respected group in the warez scene and the one big No-No is the selling of pirated materials. In fact, Razor1911's nfo file (an
And of course, stealing is wrong, I don't condone piracy, don't have sex unprotected, yadda yadda...
I find it hard to justify jailtime for offences relating to videogames. Hefty fines, sure. Community service, why not. But jail should be reserved for people that are a physical threat to the community. How much more is this person going to cost society during those 50 months?
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 $10k for
an animation program. However, they(the dumbfucks who support bloated prices/code)
are hopefully far and few, and those who crack the protection are as common as
blades of grass, popping up as one gets cut down.
Next, I applaud the cracker for proving ad infinitum that DRM does not work at all.
If DRM worked, then we'd hear less about Johansen/Skylarov, but consumers have taken
it hostile to know that something else has taken over their system. As far as the system
goes, I am root, all processes bow down to me no matter how much was invested in
the code.
Last of all, the lawsuits come and go, they only prove to make the community stronger,
and finally conquer their enemies.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
first post!!! you lame assholes... I can post first because my XBox is a american product and my pride in my great country and my great XBox accelerate everything...
If only they would make games for that bitch... IAve played Metroid Prime and it ruled... I hope M$ will buy those japanese bastards and port Metroid to my great american console system!!!
It's people like this that enable companies to rationalize(in lawyers terms anyway) DRM rights systems, which annoy the living crap out of people who actually pay for these things and like to support developers/artists/whatever
So, you've been modded +5 because you think that piracy is responsible for DRM. Right. Theft is responsible for higher prices in the shops, too. Alright.
But let me tell you something. If piracy and theft would stop to exist there would be...
1) less competition for people who produce crap. George Lucas could sell much more of his fucked up Star Wars versions if people wouldn't already have the pirated/theatrical versions.
2) DRM and high prices in shops certainly would continue to exist. (Piracy and theft were nice to justify greed but WTF?)
Like it or hate it. I have ~70 years to live and I won't waste time to spend money on greedy people or bullshit that I can get for cheap or for nothing (especially if it was produced in a foreign country).
Piracy is competition.
In the US, the following crimes are ranked from most severe to least.
1. Being a teenager and copying music illegally.
(distant 2nd)
2. Being part of un-organized crime and killing somebody
3. Being part of organized crime and sell pirated software
4. Being a president/politician/company and stealing money
5. Being part of organized crime and killing someone.
6. Being a lawyer that takes 50% of the settlement. Oh Wait, that is legal!
It seems the more severe and more 'illegal' the offense is, the weaker the punishment is...
1911 was always a mark of quality cracking in file.nfo
but soon as you fuck with Cisco it's off to the clink
"AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted"
Word, but who the fuck has heard?
It's time to take a trip to the suburbs
Let em see a nigga invasion
Point blank for the caucasian
Cock the hammer then crack a little smile
Take me to your house, pal
Got to the house, my pockets got fat, see
Crack the safe, got the money and the jewellry
Three weeks later, I'm at the P-A-D
Had a little fly ass bitch wit me
Sittin in the den, yo it couldn't be
(Whattup G?) Saw my face on TV
Damn (oh shit!) I didn't know I lucked out
Struck out, I gotta get the fuck out
Pack my bags and tried to hit the door when
the ol' bitch down the street must've turned me in
Cos the feds was out there ten deep
I got hassled and gaffled in the back seat
I think back when I was robbin' my own kind
The police didn't pay it no mind
But when I start robbin the white folks
Now I'm in the pen wit the soap-on-a-rope
I said it before and I'll still call it
Every motherfucker with a colour is most wanted
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I know Guybrush Threepwood always went around claiming to be a mighty pirate, but he really was pretty harmless. Oh well, guess the wait for the next Monkey Island game is going to be pretty long.
What's that you say? A different kind of videogame pirate was jailed, not Guybrush? Oh, my bad, I just read the headline and assumed the worst.
My sig will be released in 2015 third quarter. Rating pending.
Please people how many times must you be told that the jail was for stealing 600k worth of cisco hardware. Steal that much and you deserve jail time.
Karma's over rated. Speak your mind.
He might have received a shorter sentence, and we wouldn't want that for such a naughty person!
I'm not claiming he didn't break the law, nor am I suggesting that he shouldn't "do the time". I'm just pointing out inconsistencies in sentencing, and how criminal geeks often get longer terms than murderers. *sigh*
"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."
Mission accomplished.... dumbass.
The article claims that Razor "sold" over a half-million dollars of software - don't they mean "copied and gave away?" I've seen tons of Razor releases, but never heard about them making a penny off of it.
I know that the N.E.T. act makes it a federal crime to even _share_ illegal copies, but still, there's a difference, or at least there should be.
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.
In America, you can get four times that for being gay.
I like the yahoo games service myself, $14.95 ain't killing me even as a student. I have played Freelancer, Arcanum, and an American Tail Movie Book when I was really drunk and I have not even gone through the first free 2 weeks. I know you can't get the most choice new games but hey this is like a perpetual $10 Rack and I frankly don't mind.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I used to work as a tester at an independent game company. I think we had one copy at the office of each of the games we played on the LAN at lunchtime. Pirate 3DS Max copies and plugins were in use. Talking to a few people who also work at a variety of studios, I've found that this is apparently a normal course of events. Hell, the developers of Farcry got raided a week ago for pirate software. Bearing this in mind, who are developers to complain about piracy?*
*Note, I'm not condoning it, but I think they need to take the mote out of their own eye first
RIAA president gets hard long oiled stick in the behind.
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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.)
He stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of actual, physical Cisco hardware. Don't feel sorry for him--feel sorry for other software reversers who make no money from their wrongdoing but do it out of a sense of social justice and a desire for Robin Hood-like notoriety.
Repeat after me: endlessly copyable digital media is not the same as a physical, limited-available physical object like an SUV.
Would you have the same problem if a device were made that you could aim at an SUV and which would make a complete and perfect copy of it at little or no cost to the owner of that SUV?
Of course not. The SUV owner isn't deprived in the slightest.
Now run along...