Page 1 of Pirates are evil - FACT!

The Grauniad website

Online pirates revealed as robbers, not Robin Hoods

Tony Thompson, crime correspondent
Sunday April 25, 2004
The Observer

They are among the most sophisticated criminal syndicates on the planet, trading in a commodity worth hundreds of millions of pounds, and yet most of the members have never met one another. Operating under such names as WLW, Razor911 and ShadowRealm, they are part of the highly secretive `warez scene` - an online community of hi-tech criminals responsible for pirating 90 per cent of the world`s music, computer software and DVD movies.
But new light is now being shed on this shadowy world, following an undercover operation by Britain`s National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the FBI and the US Department of Justice. The operation, the largest multinational law enforcement effort ever directed at online piracy, last week targeted members of a warez (pronounced `wares`) community known as Fairlight.

Seven computers were seized in the UK last Wednesday and arrests were made in Belfast, Manchester and Sheffield. Police also recovered more than 100 CD copiers and numerous counterfeit driving licences and cloned credit cards.

Simultaneous raids took place in the US, Belgium, Hungary, Israel, Singapore, Sweden and several other countries resulting in almost 100 arrests in all.

Sources within the hacker community said the Fairlight members were arrested just as they were preparing to release copies of the newly released `shoot-em-up` video game Hitman 3. Other groups focus on films or music. Current targets include the Brad Pitt film, Troy, and the new Eminem album.

`This is true 21st-century crime,` said an NHTCU spokesman. `The participants are spread across the globe and even those in the same country may never meet; yet they are able to conspire to distribute counterfeited products anywhere in the world.`

The top warez groups such as Fairlight are hierarchical, structured organisations with leaders who control day-to-day operations, recruit new members and manage the group`s various computer archive sites.

Each member has a specialist role. At the top of the hierarchy are the `suppliers`. Their role is to obtain copyrighted software, video games, DVD movies and MP3 music files, ideally before those titles are available to the general public.

Many suppliers work in the entertainment industry. The material is passed on to the `crackers`, programmers who are able to strip a program down to its component parts and remove lines of computer code that prevent software being copied.

The `cracked` program is then put back together and sent off to a `dupe tester` to ensure it still works. If it passes the test, the program is passed on to a `courier` who handles distribution.

`These groups exist solely to engage in piracy and compete with each other to be the first to place a newly pirated work on the internet,` says the NHTCU. `They want the kudos, but they know that what they are doing is illegal, so they employ sophisticated technological measures to shield their activities.`

Warez members communicate with one another using internet relay chat, which uses private chat rooms that cannot be hacked into. Once there, they swap the web addresses of sites where the games and movies are available to be downloaded. Such sites are changed regularly, in order to stay one stop ahead of the authorities.

Once a group prepares a pirated work for distribution, the material is dispatched within minutes to secure, top-level warez servers and made available to a select clientele. From there, within a matter of hours, the pirated works are distributed throughout the world, ultimately ending up on public networks accessible to anyone.

Computer servers seized during last week`s operation are believed to collectively contain hundreds of thousands of copies of pirated works. One single machine taken during a raid in the US contained an estimated 65,000 pirated titles. According to the FBI, 90 per cent of pirated material available online originates from the warez community.
Beth Scott of the Business Software Alliance said: `Internet pirates are often considered harmless, but they are extremely successful in exploiting the anonymity of the web to market and distribute their goods. Their activities constitute a major threat to the economy as well as to individual consumers and the software industry itself.`

In September, six Britons alleged to be members of the now-defunct `DrinkOrDie` warez group will face trial at the Old Bailey. In the three years prior to being broken up, DrinkOrDie is estimated to have pirated more than $50 million worth of movies, software and music. Government investigators estimate there are some 30 major warez groups enlisting 1,500 people around the world.

Although originally a non-profit activity, some warez groups are now believed to be working purely for financial gain and their activities are attracting the attention of organised criminal gangs from outside the computer community. This in turn has increased the level of police interest.

Such is the pressure that last summer several key members of Fairlight said that they were going into retirement because the FBI was closing in on them.

Reminds me of the olden days, back when we were all supposed to feel so guilty that our pirated copies of The Lion King were funding terrorism. (Strangely enough, we never discovered who these `terrorists` were. Perhaps it was an `official secret` or something.)

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Sources within the hacker community said the Fairlight members were arrested just as they were preparing to release copies of the newly released `shoot-em-up` video game Hitman 3
I was wondering why I couldn`t get hold of that yet. >:( ;) :D

With the high price of CDs.and DVD`s in ripoff Britain, its a wonder anyone buys origionals :D

i expect those who got nicked with the credit cards (if they did at all) and `weapons` are more likely proper pirates with a very tenuous link to the release groups themselves...perhaps people who simply use the irc or ftp sites the groups use to download the warez, rather than being internal members of the groups themselves as the whole piracy for profit goes against the principle most of these groups....it does state as much in the article...

first it was the terrorism links, then organised crime, then child porn was thrown into the mix, now we have `weapons` and credit card fraud...i get the impression these subjects are tagged onto the piracy articles in a vain attempt to sway public opinion that the pirates are real baddies

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first it was the terrorism links, then organised crime, then child porn was thrown into the mix, now we have `weapons` and credit card fraud...i get the impression these subjects are tagged onto the piracy articles in a vain attempt to sway public opinion that the pirates are real baddies
They eat babies, allegedly.

Whilst I`m sure some people arrested were directly linked to organised crime, most are probably just there to distribute copyrighted stuff around the internet, which is nothing about making money.

From a moral perspective, my main beef is with anybody who sells pirated goods, as these people really are scum making money they have no right to make, and anyone who buys from them is really an idiot. This isn`t money going to anybody who actually deserves to get it and really does hurt the industry.

Free downloading of copyrighted material is, imho, a different argument as it is extremely debatable as to how much damage this really does to the industry. There is evidence that it can even fuel legitimate sales, but things really are not helped when someone says that because a song they own was illegally leeched 20,000 times then that has automatically cost them 20,000 x £3.99 or whatever the single would cost.

Editor
DVD REVIEWER

"There has to be a balance between telling the truth and reassurance"
Home Secretary David Blunkett

Some good points Bob. I agree, downloading one song which has probably all ready has it`s run in the charts probably doesn`t really affect anyone. Most people probably like the song, but wouldn`t want to buy the whole album.

Anyone who sells pirated goods in this country are scum though and people buying from them are mugs.

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Anyone who sells pirated goods in this country are scum though and people buying from them are mugs.

I hope you share the same opinion about drug dealers and drug users!

I frequently buy legitimate copies of films and music that I`ve downloaded and enjoyed, purely to get a superior quality, uncompressed edition. As far as I`m concerned, it`s an excellent form of quality control. Had DivX copies of Batman & Robin and The Avengers been doing the rounds in the late 90s, though, there`s no way that I`d have spent a single penny on those steaming turds. The music and film industry obviously do lose money through internet piracy but, a lot of the time, it`s money that they don`t really deserve to have. The simple answer is STOP MAKING RUBBISH PRODUCTS!