Major Piracy Ring Busted !

[Treebeard]

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5514.cfm

Police in Poland have broken up a piracy ring which consisted of at least 100 hackers. The group has been accused of selling pirates movies and music and has also been accused of hacking academic computer systems all over the world to store the material. Police spokeswoman Agata Salatka said, “They broke into the biggest systems they could find and set up 'warehouses' to store pirated games, films and music. They distributed the goods through the Internet, and also supplied bazaars with the latest hits -- even before their official premieres,”. This is one of Poland’s biggest piracy related busts. Salatka also said they had detained the ring leaders but wouldn’t give any details on them but did state that evidence was gathered on at least 100 people.

Poland has had much praise from anti-piracy groups worldwide in recent years. The country has tightened its copyright laws and its law enforcement is still challenging the piracy that flourished in the 1990’s. Despite this action, pirated movies, music, software and games are still being sold at bazaars in cities around the country.

International police blame eastern European manufacturing centers for contributing a huge part of the estimated $29 billion of pirated material in the year 2003 alone. In this raid, Polish police say that all suspects are over 18 years of age, some still only secondary school students. This is the latest raid in an on going International crack down on piracy.

[BJ_M]

all suspects are over 18 years of age, some still only secondary school students

I guess these guys must of failed a few grades ..

[ROBERT BLACK]

A store at the Pacific mall here in Toronto was busted a few days ago. They were selling DVD-R CAMS of Shrek 2.

[kirpen]

EW: FBI seizes computers, equipment in first-ever copyright action against P2P network

Web Posted: 08/25/2004 04:43 PM CDT

CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The FBI seized computers, software and equipment today in San Antonio and across the nation as part of an investigation into illegal sharing of copyrighted movies, music and games over an Internet "peer-to-peer" network, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced.

Search warrants were executed at residences and an Internet service provider in locations in Texas, New York and Wisconsin as part of the first federal criminal copyright action taken against a P2P network, in which users can access files directly from computers of others in the network.

The warrants sought evidence about the operators of five "hubs" of the "Underground Network," an organization of about 7,000 users who, prosecutors charge, repeatedly violate federal copyright laws by swapping feature films, music, software and computer games.

"The message is simply this: P2P or peer-to-peer does not stand for 'permission to pilfer,'" Ashcroft told reporters at a Justice Department news conference.

Unlike file-sharing networks popular with tens of millions of Internet users worldwide, the smaller network targeted by the Justice Department was managed by centralized "hub" computers that restricted participation. Technical experts said it operated similarly to the former Napster service, which the entertainment industry shut down in July 2000.

Industry groups say Internet piracy of intellectual property is a huge and growing problem. Ashcroft estimated $19 billion is the total cost to creative artists, management firms, distribution companies, theaters, and all the employees connected with them.

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the Justice Department initiative, dubbed "Operation Digital Gridlock," should "puncture the myth that illegal activity on the Internet is safe because it is not traceable."

Charges and arrests are likely to follow after the evidence is examined, investigators said. The maximum penalty for criminal copyright infringement is a fine of $250,000 and five years in prison.

The search warrants were executed at homes in San Antonio and Bellaire, Texas; Johnson City and Fulton, N.Y.; and Waukesha, Wis. Another search was conducted at the office of The Planet, a Dallas-based Internet service provider. Authorities said The Planet is not a target of the probe.

The individuals involved in the search warrants operate some of the Underground Network's hubs, which act as a central point for people granted membership to exchange copyrighted files. Ashcroft said the hubs can store digital data each day equivalent to 60,000 full-length movies or 10 million songs.

The five hubs are called Movieroom, Project X/The Asylum, Achenon's Alley, Digital Underground and Silent Echoes, according to an FBI affidavit filed in support of one search warrant.

Agents used covert computers to infiltrate the network and obtain for free huge amounts of copyrighted material, including such movies as "Kill Bill Vol. I," "The Last Samurai" and "Bruce Almighty." The agents downloaded music by artists ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Barry White as well as popular games and software.

In a related development, the Recording Industry Association of America continued its legal campaign to halt illegal downloading of music by filing another 744 copyright infringement lawsuits Wednesday against individuals using such P2P networks as eDonkey, Kazaa, Limewire and Grokster.

"There will always be a degree of piracy, both on the street and online," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "But without a strong measure of deterrence, piracy will overwhelm and choke the creation and distribution of music."

The Justice Department also is preparing to announce the results of a nationwide campaign against the purveyors of e-mail "spam" that involves more than 100 arrests, search warrants, subpoenas and other law enforcement actions, said industry and law enforcement officials.

Many cases in "Operation Slam Spam" involve "phishing," which are e-mails that appear to be from financial institutions and other legitimate businesses but are actually fraudulent. They are used to induce people to provide credit card numbers and other personal information.

Other cases in the crackdown involve pornography and use of spam, or unsolicited e-mails, to infect computers with viruses that can obtain personal data or be used by a hacker to further spread the virus.

Congress last year passed a law making fraudulent and deceptive e-mail practices a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Industry groups say spam e-mail accounts for almost three-quarters of the e-mail in the United States and costs consumers and businesses as much as $10 billion a year.

[adam]

Alot of people will probably bash the MPAA, RIAA, and the feds for these raids but I say GOOD!

How frickin retarded do you have to be to run a piracy ring? These fools sit there and FXP millions of dollars worth of crap all day long just because they can. These people deserve whatever they got coming.

[indolikaa]

"There will always be a degree of piracy, both on the street and online," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "But without a strong measure of deterrence, piracy will overwhelm and choke the creation and distribution of music."

Oops.

[proxyx99]

Sorry but I'm missing the numbers here. It's all about "estimated" "potentially" "could" "would" and "might". But no actual numbers. And they say that authors may stop writing Why? "choked by pirates" and still no numbers.
When the DEA busts drug ring they say: we've got in custody so many guys posessing ..... lbs worth .... (so much) on the street. In the RIAA/MPAA language catching 2 guys with 1 lb of cocaine would be: "we've have busted a national operation, (and could have arrested a lot more) with a substantial amount of drugs (potentially being a truckload or even more) that could have tremendously impacted our economy and even choked it to death with the total bill to the taxpayer .... (here put some numbers in billions of dollars). I'm getting suspicious. This is not far from the actual language being used.

[GizmoTheGremlin]

Let me enlighten you with a little RIAA economics 101.

(How much money the RIAA wants) - (How much they've got) = (How much pirates owe them)

This gives you a lump some, which then has to be divided amongst each pirate. So you can imagine in this case it would be millions.

[jaxxboss]

Let me enlighten you with a little RIAA economics 101.

(How much money the RIAA wants - (How much they've got) = (How much pirates owe them)

This gives you a lump some, which then has to be divided amongst each pirate. So you can imagine in this case it would be millions.

When you subtract a gazillion from a gazillion then it equals zero.

[GizmoTheGremlin]

When you subtract a gazillion from a gazillion then it equals zero.

What about the RIAA makes you think they would be happy with only a gazillion???

[jntaylor63]

This is the real Piracy that the MPAA / RIAA should be going after! When this groups operate and out put at a "factory" level that's gotta stop. (But I sure that people in Poland can't drop 20.00 bucks on Music / Movies; yet that's a problem that these alpha-groups don't want to see. )

However, all this crap that hurts the rights of honest consumers (Induce Act for starters) has to stop. Joe Shmo in his wildest free time couldn't touch whats going on overseas. If I own it, its mine to do with as I see fit. As long as I don't give any copies away or copy what I don't own; get off my ass.

[menes777]

I have to agree with Gizmo, they setup a chart of what they want to get in terms of profit and when they don't get it must be the pirates (or terrorists) that made them lose those millions.

Nevermind the figures that show it's another cause entirely. Let's blame the pirates. Sort of like blaming the prostitutes for a high divorce rate. They are easy to target and they can't fight back. Food for thought.

[GizmoTheGremlin]

I stand by that belief. but I have to admit, I was being a bit of a smart a$$. It's a bad habit of mine.

As bad as the RIAA is, these guys are still definately criminals. I'm glad they were busted. I just wish that it was limited to criminal charges, and the fines be paid to the state (or country). I don't think that the RIAA should get such a big kick back everytime someone is busted.

And for god sake, leave the kiddies alone!

[ViRaL1]

If I had to guess I'd say the RIAA and MPAA base their numbers for 'lost profits' on the total amount of product they manufacture. After all, why would they bother pressing 100 million copies of a new CD if it was only going to sell 75 million? Every single unit should be bought off the shelf. If that's not happening, it MUST be piracy. Nevermind the fact that they'll sign any crap act that will agree to be paid 1/10 of a cent for each CD sold (minus of course all the production, promotion and legal fees they're responsible for since the RIAA is so nice as to ALLOW them to make a CD).

[menes777]

Does anyone know the competition for the RIAA?

[DereX888]

menes777

Does anyone know the competition for the RIAA?

Your local friendly neighbourhood bazaar 'pirate'

[Nilfennasion]

A few examples of companies that directly compete with the RIAA:

www.moonfog.com
www.peaceville.com
www.nuclearblast.com
www.centurymedia.com

There are many, many more, but the basic point is that the competition is there, but they need much more support in order to make the RIAA understand how much they have pissed off consumers like my good self.