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'Operation Site Down' Closes 8 Warez Servers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the no-tears-in-my-milk dept.

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."

5 of 578 comments (clear)

  1. USDOJ by poopdeville · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ...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.

    How is the USDOJ going to persue people in other countries? Extradition sounds too severe for bootlegging. Isn't this something each foreign law enforcement agency should deal with?

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    1. Re:USDOJ by CdBee · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Could be like the Dmitri Skylarov case (Russian eBook programmer whose software infringed on / broke Adobe DRM patents in the US but was legal in the Russian Federation)

      He was detained while visiting the USA for a conference. If so, those people better stay away, especially as the US now prevents planes crossing its airspace if they have persona non-grata people onboard

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  2. Just wondering... by TheRealSync · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...wouldn't the money be for these operations have been better spend closing down phishing sites?

    I'm just thinking it would be better going after the real criminals.

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    -- A good compromise leaves everyone mad. --Calvin and Hobbes
  3. Re:What a waste of money by Da+Fokka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wholeheartedly agree that software piracy is like the legendary Hydra: Chop off one head and three new ones will pop up. Therefore I don't believe prosecution of these individuals is particularly effective. However - at least in the Netherlands - the people arrested were selling the pirated software at huge profits.

  4. Re:It doesnt matter.... by Jaruzel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ah but are these 8 servers the 'hub' servers?

    I read somewhere that the warez community use a pyramid system to distribute software:

    Level 1. Hub Servers - Where the software gets uploaded from the original CDs (less than 10 servers worldwide)
    Level 2. Dump Servers - Where the software gets copied to for distribution (greater than 1000 servers worldwide)
    Level 3. Usenet - Where the 'savvy' people download it from
    Level 4. Peer2peer/BitTorrent - Where the ipod generation download it from. ;)

    So if they shut down the hub servers, yes they will be replaced by the pirates, but in the mean time the shockwave effect of losing these servers will slow down or even stall the illegal distribution (for a while anyways).

    -Jar.

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