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'Operation Site Down' Closes 8 Warez Servers
JerkyBoy writes "The Entertainment Software Association today hailed efforts on the part of 'U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice's Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, U.S. Attorneys' offices nationwide, and participating foreign law enforcement officials' in the shutting down of at least 8 warez servers that specialized in the distribution of pirated games. With the code-name "Operation Site Down," close to 100 searches were conducted globally (U.S., Canada, Israel, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, and Australia) within a 24-hour period, resulting in the identification of 120 individuals who are likely to be pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice."
You'd think so. I do. But they are now extraditing an Australian in the Drink or Die warez group.
An interesting drama-type thing from the view of the criminals is The Scene; the first 9 episodes in a torrent are here. They seem slow to release though; one wonders how it can take 3-4 weeks to record 20 minutes of desktop screenshots...
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
I wonder when we'll start having people sent here to stand trial for something that wasn't really even a crime there?
They might be able to manage this, from the UK at least. Just claim the person has commited an extraditable crime - they don't even need to fake any evidence anymore - and, when the person enteres the US, arrest them for the real crime.
For what it's worth, things are even worse between EU countries. IIRC, there's not even a requirement that the act was a crime in the country you're being removed from. There are some limits, but not many. This is especially problematic as some contries have "hate speech" laws...
Those groups use very private ftp servers where only high-level courier groups have access. They get the warez and spread them to other places, like IRC. Then others get them from IRC and make torrents of them, spread those torrents on other IRC channels. Someone downloads a copy and creates a torrent for eg. the Pirate Bay and starts seeding.
What Joe Public sees on warez sites are the 4th/5th generation copies, or even later.
But this operation aimed to bring down the private FTP sites of the groups themselves, so probaly sites you or me would never have heard of and could never have gotten access to. But it does affect the availability of warez in general.
The US is now ... Now? You think this is new? Even online, it's not new. Read "The Hacker Crackdown" by Sterling about Operation Sundevil, circa 1994.
Best Slashdot Co
You can find "comments" from the scene people here along with a copy of two search warrants by the RCMP for two of the raids that occured in Edmonton, Canada. (Coral Cache of the above, just in case)
Some information about Site Down can be found here.
And whoever is saying that RCMP is targetting sceners, take a look at their Strategic Priorities... My bet is that, just as it happened in the States, they are being pressured by the CRTC (Canada's equivalent to MPAA and RIAA all in one), and with that new DMCA-like law, what could possibly stop them from raping every canadian file trader like they did (and continue to do) to the US'?
You didn't hear it from me!
A computer makes it possible to do, in half an hour, tasks which were completely unnecessary to do before.
Not warez servers, COURIER SERVERS
There is a big difference between taking down the redistribution servers and taking down what amounts to the 'warez' data warehouses.
They targeted the private servers the couriers for the big groups used. These servers are very fast, and very private. They exist solely for the purpose of spreading warez to the redistribution channels.
I think a drug dealing analogy is fitting. Think of the warez web sites and the kids selling dope on the corner. This bust didn't target the nickel and dime hustlers. This bust targeted the high ups who unload the shit from the boats by the 100 of Kilo's.
It won't matter at all though, except possibly to make some zero day releases a few days behind.
You're completely wrong-
South Africa does have a very high percentage of people with AIDS, but nowhere near 60%.
The number I found was 21.5%. Which is still amazingly high, but only about one third the total you mentioned.
No reason to lie.
I write video games for a living. You know how much piracy has affected me? Not at all. That's right, not one bit. I'm not arguing that what these guys didn't do was illegal, or shouldn't be punished, but I definitely don't think jail time fits the crime, nor are they going to come out as better people. Most of the people pirating all this software tend to be fairly young, and I would say its safe to say, they probably don't understand the consequences of what they are doing. I would say a more fitting punishment, one that might actually help, would be to put them to work at the video game companies they stole from as part of their punishment. Make them test a game, for free, for a period of 2 years or so. If they fail to honor the conditions of their "community service", then put them in jail. But I would guess that having the guys who pirate this software have to work on a game is much more effective than having bubba butt-rape them. In addition, it would provide a benefit to those of us who they "stole" from.