International piracy crackdown

International piracy crackdown
International piracy crackdown operation, codenamed Operation Fastlink, was launched yesterday in several countries including United States, Sweden, Germany, Israel, Hungary, Denmark and France. The operation was aimed against major piracy groups, including Fairlight, APC and Project X.

Over 120 searches were executed in 11 countries and over 100 individuals have been identified and over 200 computers have been seized by the investigation to date. The groups that were targeted were amongst the major release groups (i.e. the teams that actually break the copy protections in software items in first place, get the screener copies of movies and make DVDR releases out of them, etc) of pirated computer games, software and movies. Computer seizures have included 30 private FTP servers.



Even though the P2P networks have made pirated software items more accessible to general public, the role of piracy groups hasn't changed over the last 20 years and they are still the original sources of most pirated material in the world that eventually finds its way from private FTP servers and IRC channels to public P2P networks.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 22 Apr 2004 13:55
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  • 22 comments

  • Toiletman

    I know I know, if you have nothing useful to say then don't say anything at all. I know piracy is illegal and is considered "bad". But how many of us really consider it "bad"? It's bad for the money hoarding bastards that they are, but bad for us? No.

    Look, I know this probably infringes the rules and I openly accept moderator's edits to this post, but here I go ;)

    These pirates allow us to try games/movies before we buy them. Sometimes magazine reviews don't really tell us the truth. I mean look at the biased reviews in GameSpy. Well really, no game/movie review is always correct because it's based on your own opinion. So you'll probably be asking: But what about game demoes?

    Half the game demoes contain the best part of the games and when you actually buy that game from, let's say BestBuy, rip open the package and install it and play, let's face it, most of the time you get disappointed or pissed off because either it's not that great or it's a pile of shit. And then you can't return it back for the money that you paid for because of some anti piracy tactic so that pirates don't just burn the game and give it back.

    Which leads us back to this story. It's going to be a cycle. Like I mentioned in one of my other posts, it's useless to resist the future. Move along with the future, don't live in the past.

    22.4.2004 19:49 #1

  • LordZuul

    Okay... its nice to see in a time where we are unsure if its safe to use the airways, the trains or to gather in public places, government offices and tall buildings, that the DOJ has the time to institute a worldwide raid against the terrorist that face off against the likes of RIAA and the software giants!

    22.4.2004 20:59 #2

  • rakych

    YOu know this is soooooooo crazy. The powers that be are intent on cracking down on those people who buy videos and want to copy them in case something happens to the original, yet I can go out my door and find people selling illegal copies on the street in broad day light and nothing is done. I see guys selling pirated cd's, tapes, dvds, clothes, and nothing is done, yet we chase Mr. Buy the Movie simply because he wants to protect his investment. When was the law changed that whatever I spend my money on I no longer have control of it and I can do with it as I wish?

    23.4.2004 06:59 #3

  • fartpoop

    its a never endin issue, they wanna crack down on piracy issues within the music industry which i think is kinda fair regardless of the fact there these musicians sitting on millions of dollars as we speak, and software developers that make millions of dollars off software thats garbage when you can get better software for free that do a better job than one that is purchased.
    the goverment spends millions of dollars to stop these kind of problems but will never understand theres always the next person in line ready to drop the next best thing.

    24.4.2004 07:09 #4

  • noshow

    you know thanks to download load site like $$$$ is bring back what was known to my genration as a 45, after tey stopped makeing them there was not a single song that you could buy, know you can buy them heheh worst thing is the song on the other side was better and became a bigger hit the what you bought, good example is bunny @ clude the other side was honey it sold more that the song you bought and that happened alot. pirates MAKE THE MONEY MOGELS CHANGE keep it up

    24.4.2004 18:14 #5

  • Hunter007

    There's one thing that the RIAA and all groups like it have to understand: they CAN'T stop pirating groups! Every time they shut a set of pirates, another one will just take their place. I'm not for or against pirated games, but just as an observation I don't think anyone will be able to stop hackers, crackers, software pirates etc. All they are doing is giving them an extra thrill. If they think that there's a possibility that they can get caught it will just be more excitement for them.

    Just my two cents!

    25.4.2004 10:23 #6

  • seamonkey

    ahh.. i have to throw my $.02 here.. hehe...

    i think of it this way...

    the industry does not lose money on people like us. we just want to try a new program or listen to a new song to see if we like it with out dropping 100s of dollars.. also, it opens up the knowledge pool too! how many of us can afford to go and buy 3d studio max?? or autocad 2002? not many...
    so it seems if you don't have the money to buy it, how can you learn it? you can't unless you can find an evaluation copy (if they make one) or your own 'eval' copy..

    hell, if its good, i'll buy it! i've purchased DVD Decrypter (made donation) and to ifoeditor. because they were great programs..

    so with that said, no the industry does not lose money off of people like us... cuz we wouldn't have purchased the software to start with so you can't count us in as part of the statistics...

    peace
    seamonkey420

    knowledge is power, spread the power

    25.4.2004 22:15 #7

  • c02099891

    Hunter007 is right. I have been in the computer related field for a long time, and there is always someone out there to step into the boots of an ousted pirate. It may be just me, but one thing I have noticed is that the piracy groups are a lot more upfront then they used to be. Some taking on the "in your face" attitude with the authorities. With this attitude something is bound to happen. This is all a cycle, out with the old in with the new.

    26.4.2004 05:52 #8

  • Rodgers

    My MY...all these countries banding together to eliminate piracy. Ha! Too bad these countries did not take an active interest in taking care of the terrorism. I am willing to bet that Piracy prevails. It has been said already, someone is always in the wings waiting to discover their new talents and accept the challenge.
    Best to all!
    Rodgers

    26.4.2004 06:16 #9

  • teslaman

    Everyone debates the same old thing from either side. Look the simple fact is, wanting something for free has always exsisted since money was invented. Just because we can get free stuff legaly or illigaly at a fast pace does not merit more and more attention. The fact of the matter is money sucks. You either have it or you don't. Me I don't. So I get my stuff free. When I get money I will contribute. Although reluctantly. I would much rather pay the artist directly, than blow 20 bucks on some stupid money grubbing company, and a government that does everything to screw me over to cover their ass. I would even walk right up to the artist and hand them their money in cash. But unfortunatly I can't do that. Cause then I would also have to pay everyone that helped with the songs (besides the company) and that would be alot of work. MONEY is the problem we have to fix, either get rid of it or get someone to re-write the books so NO ONE gets screwed. As long as money is around in its current form there will be pirating in some form or another. I remeber when P2P was not around, you know what people did, they just rented the movie, game, or cd and just kept it. They would have hundreds of dollars in fines. Well guess what we all have hundreds of dollars in fines, but just like those old fines, WE AREN'T PAYING THEM. I used napster when it was free, then Morpheus, Kazaa, and now I am on another one. This is the country of what.... oh yes FREEDOM. Hey if cults don't have to pay taxes and live in the US of freakin A then I am gunna download whatever I want for free. And yes the government would rather spends billions more to stop all of us and blam us for the extra cost. Gee the music industry lost money, no, really? WELL YA they are wasting it coming after us. Everyone pay close attention to this next part ok. The world is screwed up. I think we can all agree on that. But has it become so screwed up that we cannot resolve such a simple issue. Just my pesonnal opinion but we are not alone in the universe. Do you think anyone would wanna visit us when we hunt each other down and mess up each others lives over ENTERTAINMENT. Everyone and I DO mean everyone, is just going to have to realize that money, inflation, greed all of it just isn't gunna cut it anymore. Unless we really wan't to blow each other to bits, we had better understand whats really important. Which would be everything besides money......wait that might not even compute to those walstreet folks out there. Yes there is life on earth, no this is not the matrix, everyting is not numbers. Well I think that just sent half the nation commatose. Anyways, things are free whether someone paid for it or not. It costs nothing to produce a cd, movie or game. We just like to take some numbers slap em on paper or computer and say they mean something. Here is a real kicker for you, as americans we waste everyting from toasters to cars because something newer came out. Now if I go to the land fills and pull out 1,000 cell phones 3,000 computers and a handfull of toasters, what may I ask did I do. Well you could say I stole trash from the people that own the land fills. But if you say that I am gunna just straight up smack you. YOU CAN'T STEAL TRASH. Its trash alright, nobody owns trash, if they did it wouldn't be trash. I don't care what the law says. If the law said any pet owned in a state for more than twelve days had to be beheaded would anyone in their right mind believe it. OK so what do I have.... well you guessed it FREE, PAID for stuff. See everything has a problem somewhere in it. Its just the people with lots of money that have to bring it up. OH boo hoo we are a multi billion dollar company who is losing millions, you are hurting the artists, oh woe is us. OK for one if I had billions and lost millions I would not be complaining. Second if I had that much money I would be giving it away left and right, hence the artists would not be losing money. Yeah yeah I know 99 percent of their money is all in stocks so its not touchable unless they cash and all that crap. SO in closing let me see if I can get this straight for all of you. A big company has a bunch of numbers (not cold hard cash) they lose some numbers, they complain and lose more numbers fixing the initial number loss. Then they take our actual money that we had a hard enough time earning cause their big numbers make everything expensive. And use our money to put a DVD player in every room of their building. Yep ok money sucks free stuff rules, and this was to freakin long. Thanks for reading.

    1.9.2004 01:25 #10

  • indienemo

    When i download games, I download any I think might be worth trying, i dont get games i would face wasting money on in the shops. ill download a game (ie halo) tried, it liked it, couldnt play the pirated version online so i bought the original copies. companies should put better protection on their products, because they are so easy to rip/copy people do it! cut out the means to do it and the problem will disspaear!

    1.9.2004 03:45 #11

  • teslaman

    Well in theory yes that would fix it, but there isn't and will never be a way to encrypt data that is not reversible. One company (won't name names) spent millions on that idea and in the end all a person had to do was use a permanent marker to cover over the copyright part. Security can always be breached, one just has to try hard enough. Like I said people love getting stuff free and they will do anything to get it.

    1.9.2004 14:19 #12

  • indienemo

    Yeah but in theory you could have the install file on the disc within a winrar .rar file... each file could have a unique password. To open that file, to stop people sending their file and their password around, you can only get the password once, and it is linked to your IP address, so that if someone else from a diffrerent IP address tries to register it, it could either just not install, or perhaps spike their PC (although that is probably illegal)..

    2.9.2004 00:54 #13

  • teslaman

    Yes but like I said you can hack around that kinda stuff. Me personally I can't but I have seen it done where some of those one time deals get bypassed. Even if you had the file so that only ip address that were coded in could access the one time password box and if either one were incorrect the file became unusable or safe deleted its self (or both), someone would find a way around it get your file out and disperse it freely. The only way to keep your file safe is to put it to disk and tose it in fort knox along with the gold. Cause if it is available on the internet to anyone, even to just close friends, chances are if its worth it people will get it.

    2.9.2004 02:37 #14

  • Rodgers

    In my opinion, regardless of what scheme is used to protect a program, if it is coded it can be disassembled and the code changed. Not by me, I don't have those skills, but there are plenty of expert Hackers that can rip it apart in the twinkling of an eye.
    Best to All!
    Rodgers

    2.9.2004 11:14 #15

  • signal

    i have a solution....dont steal it and you wont have to deal with the hassel.

    2.9.2004 20:03 #16

  • teslaman

    Well just to let ya know I have less hassel downloading the stuff I want then using gas time and money to get it. As far as stealing well no, maybe every once in a while I download something I find I don't want so I delete it. That is the same as buying it and returning it because my satisfaction was not met. Everything else that I download that I want to keep I burn to disc until I have the money to buy the real thing. Then I just use my downloaded version as a backup. So no I don't steal. So QYB. Sorry just tired of that old argument. But really.

    2.9.2004 21:31 #17

  • signal

    about time someone was willing to be honost about what they are doing. i know that i can come off harsh, but i have a good reason for it. I was really into the piracy world and i had revelation that what i was doing was wrong. as you may read in some other discussions, i to have been guilty. i strongly support anti piracy. i dont even like copied music cds that much unless they are legal ones. sry if your offfended, but i will continue with my argument until my point is understood.

    unknown_signal

    5.9.2004 16:30 #18

  • teslaman

    Yeah but the way I do it isn't piracy, no one losses money, its just easier for me. Now true I am sure not to many do it the way I do, but I just think to say that we should do away with the possiblity all together is wrong. To me thats like saying dl tv shows is piracy. Yes the commercials are edited out but if you have a DVR then you can also edit out the commercials. And the ratings wouldn't change cause if I had the channel the show was on its a 99 percent chance I would have taped it. Simply put, technology is getting to advanced to keep slapping tons of laws onto. Entertainment should have always been a free enterprise.

    6.9.2004 00:11 #19

  • signal

    well taping tv shows are diffrent becouse they are editied for tc, well some of them. i totally agree with you... whats going on though, is that people are abusing the rights they have with the things they have. dvr are for recording live tv..that is right, but one must keep in mind that they are also copyrighted by law. it is an honor system. dvr's can also be used to Backup you personal data for private home viewing. i support all that one hundred percent. But i also support thr RIAA to a degree by them wanting to put an end to stealing. Their tatics may not be the best, but this stealing needs to stop. People think that it dosnet have an effect on the economy, but it really does. If people will only realize the the taking the music of the web for free dosnet help the selling of Cds, but only for the prices to go higher, then they would have a second thought. i think people are right that CDs are over priced, but that does not justify stealing. you know what i mean.

    unknown_signal

    11.9.2004 21:19 #20

  • teslaman

    I agree stealing is wrong. But I don't think there should be charge for any form of entertainment, and no one should be paid for it either. Any form of paid entertainment is not helping anyone. If we took the money spent on one movie and used it to help people in need it would go a long way. Same if you took all the money wasted in one day on sports players. To tell you the whole truth, I may use downloading the way it was intended, but frankly I hope that the free distribution of all the content being distributed, brings all these money hungry, money wasting companies to there knees and beheads them. And if that crashes our economy then we deserve it. I have grown to realize that every country on this planet is just as bad as the next. The U.S. was founded because we slaughtered its native inhabitants. That alone makes me wish I were dead. So quite frankly none of this, "Oh my god we are losing money, time to waste more getting it back" concerns me one bit. I am sorry if that sounds anti whatever, but it is the truth. None of this stupid crap with money, matters one bit. No matter what country you come from, or is an issue in. I say, if it brings corrupt men with power and money crashing down I am all for it. You can't stop true freedom without killing. So unless our governmet desides to start killing everyone who shares, there will be no end to it. Rebellion is only sin when it is commited against God, not other men. So let the rebellion and the revolution live and grow. LONG LIVE TRUE FREEDOM.

    17.12.2004 15:57 #21

  • zorb43

    Originally posted by Rodgers: In my opinion, regardless of what scheme is used to protect a program, if it is coded it can be disassembled and the code changed. Not by me, I don't have those skills, but there are plenty of expert Hackers that can rip it apart in the twinkling of an eye.
    Best to All!
    Rodgers     They can probably make a self destructing code whereby somehow the copying of the program or movie will fry the persons burner if they don't put in the correct passcode;or maybe like on Mission Impossible they can make it where the media it is written to will self destruct in some way if it it improperly accessed.

    22.12.2007 13:04 #22

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