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2001-12-13, 11:11 PM
FBI Cracks Down on Software Piracy
By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agents seized computers in 27 U.S. cities Tuesday morning to gain evidence against hackers in an international software piracy ring.
Police in five countries also served warrants against people accused of stealing software, U.S. Customs Service officials said. They alleged the people targeted in the raids stole and distributed all types of media, including Microsoft Windows operating systems, computer games and high-quality copies of new movies like ``Harry Potter (news - web sites)'' and ``Monsters, Inc.''
``This is not a sport,'' Commerce undersecretary Phil Bond said. ``This is a serious crime. These people should do some hard time.''
The raids, dubbed ``Operation Buccaneer,'' were directed at 62 people in Australia, Finland, England, Norway and the United States. The agents said they have leads in 20 other countries.
While no one has been arrested yet in the United States, officials said police in England have five people in custody. Some in the United States are cooperating with police, agents said.
They include corporate executives, employees and students of major universities like Duke and Purdue, technology company employees and some government workers, the agents said. They alleged that some of the most critical members are insiders who steal products from their own companies and hand it over to the pirates.
``Our targets are not your stereotypical teenage hacker,'' Customs assistant commissioner John Varrone said.
All will face federal copyright infringement charges, officials said.
Investigators served 56 search warrants and expect to grab about 130 computers.
Customs agent Allan Doody said each computer has between one to two terabytes of stolen software. A terabyte is equal to a thousand gigabytes. A printed directory on just one computer would span 4,200 pages.
The software industry says it loses an estimated $12 billion per year due to piracy.
``Software piracy undermines the stability of the burgeoning e-commerce industry and it is a direct threat to innovative companies that help strengthen the U.S. economy,'' Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam said.
In Operation Buccaneer, officials targeted one of the oldest pirate rings - known as ``warez'' groups - called ``DrinkOrDie.'' Founded in Moscow in 1993, DrinkOrDie became famous among software hackers for claiming it released a copy of Microsoft Windows 95 two weeks before Microsoft began selling it.
``They are a notorious elite Internet pirate organization,'' said Bob Kruger of the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group. ``I doubt there's much that's out there that people want that (DrinkOrDie) can't provide.''
DrinkOrDie now has two leaders, one in the United States and another in Australia, officials said. There are 1500 warez members nationwide, officials estimate, and eight to 10 major groups.
``Our strategy in the investigation was to disrupt the warez community as a whole by targeting (DrinkOrDie),'' Doody said.
The agents didn't identify any of the members by their real names, but revealed some of the codenames - like ``Dezzy'' and ``Hackrat'' - that they use on the Internet.
Doody called ``ForceKill,'' one of the alleged members of DrinkOrDie, ``one of the premier software crackers in the world.''
While officials said the hackers typically don't make money from their efforts, others sell CD-ROMs filled with the pirated programs.
Officials said the seized computers contained all types of software, from high-end animation and modeling software that sells for over $10,000 each to all types of movies. Doody said one computer held more than 5,000 individual movie titles.
The highly organized process of eliminating copy-protection schemes, compressing and distributing software takes no more than three days to complete with most products.
``There is currently nothing that the software industry as done in terms of copy protecting their programs that has not been defeated by DrinkOrDie,'' Doody said.
-
On the Net: U.S. Customs Service: http://www.customs.ustreas.gov
Business Software Alliance: http://www.bsa.org
CNET也有報導喔~~
http://taiwan.cnet.com/news/ec/story/0,2000022589,20029021,00.htm
Kimo也有~~
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/2001/12/13/international/ctnews/2907409.html
贊助商連結
By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agents seized computers in 27 U.S. cities Tuesday morning to gain evidence against hackers in an international software piracy ring.
Police in five countries also served warrants against people accused of stealing software, U.S. Customs Service officials said. They alleged the people targeted in the raids stole and distributed all types of media, including Microsoft Windows operating systems, computer games and high-quality copies of new movies like ``Harry Potter (news - web sites)'' and ``Monsters, Inc.''
``This is not a sport,'' Commerce undersecretary Phil Bond said. ``This is a serious crime. These people should do some hard time.''
The raids, dubbed ``Operation Buccaneer,'' were directed at 62 people in Australia, Finland, England, Norway and the United States. The agents said they have leads in 20 other countries.
While no one has been arrested yet in the United States, officials said police in England have five people in custody. Some in the United States are cooperating with police, agents said.
They include corporate executives, employees and students of major universities like Duke and Purdue, technology company employees and some government workers, the agents said. They alleged that some of the most critical members are insiders who steal products from their own companies and hand it over to the pirates.
``Our targets are not your stereotypical teenage hacker,'' Customs assistant commissioner John Varrone said.
All will face federal copyright infringement charges, officials said.
Investigators served 56 search warrants and expect to grab about 130 computers.
Customs agent Allan Doody said each computer has between one to two terabytes of stolen software. A terabyte is equal to a thousand gigabytes. A printed directory on just one computer would span 4,200 pages.
The software industry says it loses an estimated $12 billion per year due to piracy.
``Software piracy undermines the stability of the burgeoning e-commerce industry and it is a direct threat to innovative companies that help strengthen the U.S. economy,'' Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam said.
In Operation Buccaneer, officials targeted one of the oldest pirate rings - known as ``warez'' groups - called ``DrinkOrDie.'' Founded in Moscow in 1993, DrinkOrDie became famous among software hackers for claiming it released a copy of Microsoft Windows 95 two weeks before Microsoft began selling it.
``They are a notorious elite Internet pirate organization,'' said Bob Kruger of the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group. ``I doubt there's much that's out there that people want that (DrinkOrDie) can't provide.''
DrinkOrDie now has two leaders, one in the United States and another in Australia, officials said. There are 1500 warez members nationwide, officials estimate, and eight to 10 major groups.
``Our strategy in the investigation was to disrupt the warez community as a whole by targeting (DrinkOrDie),'' Doody said.
The agents didn't identify any of the members by their real names, but revealed some of the codenames - like ``Dezzy'' and ``Hackrat'' - that they use on the Internet.
Doody called ``ForceKill,'' one of the alleged members of DrinkOrDie, ``one of the premier software crackers in the world.''
While officials said the hackers typically don't make money from their efforts, others sell CD-ROMs filled with the pirated programs.
Officials said the seized computers contained all types of software, from high-end animation and modeling software that sells for over $10,000 each to all types of movies. Doody said one computer held more than 5,000 individual movie titles.
The highly organized process of eliminating copy-protection schemes, compressing and distributing software takes no more than three days to complete with most products.
``There is currently nothing that the software industry as done in terms of copy protecting their programs that has not been defeated by DrinkOrDie,'' Doody said.
-
On the Net: U.S. Customs Service: http://www.customs.ustreas.gov
Business Software Alliance: http://www.bsa.org
CNET也有報導喔~~
http://taiwan.cnet.com/news/ec/story/0,2000022589,20029021,00.htm
Kimo也有~~
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/2001/12/13/international/ctnews/2907409.html
贊助商連結