Slashdot Mirror
Operation Fastlink Cracks Down on Warez
An anonymous reader writes "Beginning yesterday morning, law enforcement from 10 countries and the United States conducted over 120 searches worldwide to dismantle some of the most well-known and prolific online piracy organizations.
Among the groups targeted by Operation Fastlink are well-known organizations such as Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class and Project X, all of which specialized in pirating computer games, and music release groups such as APC. The enforcement action announced today is expected to dismantle many of these international warez syndicates and significantly impact the illicit operations of others."
You mean I can no longer spend 5 days downloading a poorly cracked game that I can't play online? That's a real shame.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
We don't have the right to distributed pirated works online. How does this story fit in this category?
You must be new here.
I've never heard of any of these "well known" groups.
I guess this must mean that we've already solved all those pesky problems with rape, murder, assault and those other violent crimes, not to mention terrorism and the ongoing drug war, so now we can move onto things like busting 1337 W4R3Z D00DZ.
Because information wants to be free. Please report to the Slashdot reprogramming center.
Wow, whether it is people selling pipes that might be used to smoke marijuana, or kiddiez running "FTP my w4r3z!!!!" sites, Ashcroft won't back down from a hard fight.
Ashcroft doesn't dance, smoke or drink. I think he has too much time on his hands.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Calling someone with a four digit Slashdot ID new.
It seems you're quite new to slashdot?
You should have looked at his UID # before submitting
Trolling is a art,
i can't believe they could use the phrase 'international warez syndicates' with a straight face.
we have to start using VPNs, boys!
Christ most of those warez servers are slow enough as is...
It could take HOURS for new groups to deal with the hole created by the loss of these groups. The humanity.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
CD key for WAREZ monkeys
http://www.narvakitchens.com/quake3cdkey.jpg
Knowing those release groups as well I do, I predict they will plead NO-CD and CRACK their way out of prison within 3 days after their sentences go gold!
I mean, this people are part of the Axis of Evil, right?
Yes, go do the bidding of your corporate pimps and protect their profit margins. When you get the chance, how bout keepin an eye open for Osama?
Where am I supposed to get my games and Operating systems from NOW? Am I supposed to go out and by them like a normal person? But, I am better than them.
>>We don't have the right to distributed pirated works online.
>You do in Canada.
If we have rights to them, they're not pirated, now are they?
Because it's Your Rights Online - Or Lack Thereof! And we should have the rights to distribute whatever we want. "Pirated" has no meaning, unless we're talking about hooks and eye patches.
So who is the United States serving? It can't be the citizens of its country, since the writeup indicates that the US no longer counts as a country: "enforcement from 10 countries and the United States...".
I'd rather be lucky than good.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Thank god they created that echelon project so we could all be safe from those terrorists that are attacking the mpaa and riaa.
lol.
Wait a minute, Operation Fastlink isn't a P2P program?
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Make sure you Feds bust those guys! All that software and for free? Thats not possible. And I hear they even give you the source code for the applications!!
> 10 countries and the United States
I thought the United States counted as a country too.
How much do you want to bet, some of these searches are going to be conducted under the guise of the Patriot Act. You know, the section that allows for searches without notifying the people they are being searched. How hard will it be to link the pirated software getting into the hands of the Evil Terrorists. Or maybe since the games being pirated have "terrorists" in it, Fuhrer Ashcroft has determined this to be a threat to homeland security AHHHHHHHHHHH I hate this administration more and more each day
I usually get it handed out with my mod points. Yeah, I only use crack when I moderate. Oh, you said cracks.
Yes... 14 year old uber-geeks cracking games and software in mom's basement... yes, that something deserving the title "synicate".
Nice to see the government(s) spending money going after such terrifying villians instead of your friendly neighbourhood rapists, child molestors and murderers, eh?
Maybe they should introduce the groups and solve both problems.
- MbM
Damn right! It's not the government's business to enfore laws... oh wait a second...
Well how dare they prevent me from getting a free copy of Halo, that's detrimental to my well-being... ummmm...
Nevermind, I'm just an idiot that wants everything for free.
Well, Suprnova.org is still up, so they couldn't have been that sucessful in dismantling the distribution of pirated material.
Its probably that "Axis of Evil - (turbo remix) 4.mp3"
Everyone has heard of that one.
10 year old geek (probably YOU):
Mom, can I have $120,000 so I can
learn autocad and 3d studio and
visual basic and oracle and....?
Mom: No that's too expensive dear
How long before we can afford it?
Mom: after we win the lottery maybe.
Firefox &
That's unfair I think. To say that the police should only focus on serious crime until serious crime disappears doesn't really seem logical. You get a diminishing returns. For example, put two detectives on a murder case and you'll do better than if you put one. Put 7,000,000 detectives on a murder case, and it probably won't be solved more quickly, at least enough so as to justify the cost and effort.
Put seven million detectives on a murder case, and you'll likely find that one of them is the murderer.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
I personally *love* to blow shit up. And I have 200 gallons of diesel and several tons of nitrate fertiliser, because I run a farm.
Actually, information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
OK, so what are doing wrong here?
The phrase you want is "preaching to the choir".
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
First you start trading warez on-line, then the next thing you know you're hooking up with other FPS gamers to play your pirated booty at pirate frag parties where you drink alcahol and the next thing you know you're smoking pot and taking halucangenics and turning on tracer effects in the games... So now your trading stolen software, trading in illegal drugs... then your girlfriend dumps you (if you even had one) and the only date you can get is the prostitute down the street that takes pirated windows software as payment...
It's a slippery slope...
Seriously though, the only way to stop software piracy is drop the price to $19.99 for everything.
The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers!
What do you mean? An African or European box?
(Sorry, could't resist responding to the cadence of your question!)
In Soviet Russia Cracks get YOU! ...sorry. :)
Too bad I don't have mod points...and even if I did, the max score is 5. *sigh* Such intelligence is inspiring.
Jason Lotito
Among the groups targeted by Operation Fastlink are well-known organizations such as Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class and Project X, all of which specialized in pirating computer games, and music release groups such as APC.
Place your bets, everybody. I know which one I'd bet my money on. WTF was the DOJ thinking?
It's a very dark ride.
Since we're reappropriating terms with long-standing meaning and context, why not warp the biggest and baddest one of them all, and just call it "content murder".
"Intellectual Genocide"
P2P IS THE ARTIST HOLOCAUST!
Heyyyyy... Maybe if I built an army of straw men! I'd be invincible!