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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 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.
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.