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'Operation Site Down' Closes 8 Warez Servers 578

Posted by timothy 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."
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'Operation Site Down' Closes 8 Warez Servers More

'Operation Site Down' Closes 8 Warez Servers

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  • Happy Trails (Score:2, Funny)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) *
    ...resulting in the identification of 120 individuals who are likely to be pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice.

    And you know, warez puppies are traded like cigarettes in lock-up.

    This prison rape is brought to you courtesy of the fine folks at Electronic Arts.

    Muahahahaha >:-)

    - Greg

    • Wow... (Score:3, Funny)

      by sgant ( 178166 )
      8 sites...that's got to be like every single warez site in the country!

      Wonder how many millions were spent on this "massive" take down.

    • Re:Happy Trails (Score:5, Insightful)

      by taxevader ( 612422 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:56AM (#13041212)
      Ha Ha. Why is rape always considered funny when talking about criminals? Are they not people with rights like everyone else NOT to get raped? It seems to me like an anti-male thing. Its funny when men are raped. Its funny when they get kicked in the nuts in some mindless US sitcom. Actually, no. Its not funny. Try cracking a joke about women being raped. Or a woman being kicked in her genitals (which most would see as sexual assault). You'll be lynched, and righly so. So why the double standard?

      • Oh come on people! (Score:4, Funny)

        by repressitol ( 702845 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @10:50AM (#13043012)
        Doesn't any one see the irony of this being posted by "taxevader"?

        I think someone is just getting a little nervous.

      • Re:Happy Trails (Score:3, Insightful)

        by delcielo ( 217760 )
        I think the prison-rape humor springs from a feeling that the U.S. prison system doesn't punish criminals enough. There is a sense that the prisoners are getting 3 meals a day, exercise time, free education frequently, etc. and are not really being punished beyond their separation from friends and family. The thought then goes that anything unfortunate that happens to them in prison is "just desserts."

        It's flawed, obviously, and nobody is seriously going to say that rape is a good thing; but I think that

  • It doesnt matter.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jonbusby ( 880488 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @05:52AM (#13040604) Homepage
    It still doesnt matter. Everyone is still going to do it. Like shutting down napster... like that was going to change anything! Someone just developed a method to get round the law.

    • Re:It doesnt matter.... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I was reading a statistic in that in South Africa in yesterdays paper, 1 out of 3 10 year old girls are having sex. Most forced rape. 60% of that country has AIDS. Its said that if you have sex with a virgin, you will be cured.

      So, they could start trying to arrest people raping little girls...it still doesn't matter. Everyone is still going to do it. Its like shutting down napster...like that was going to change anything! Someone just developed a method to get round the law.

      Its funny how every wides
      • yes yes yes yes yes..... no.... I think theres still a huge difference between raping a girl and downloading software. I think ... your wrong.
      • You're completely wrong-

        South Africa does have a very high percentage of people with AIDS, but nowhere near 60%.

        The number I found was 21.5% [aids.org.za]. Which is still amazingly high, but only about one third the total you mentioned.
    • It still doesnt matter. Everyone is still going to do it. Like shutting down napster... like that was going to change anything! Someone just developed a method to get round the law.

      And I'm sure that gangs will say the same thing about killing people. It seems like such a highly sound argument.

    • Re:It doesnt matter.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by shawn(at)fsu ( 447153 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:40AM (#13040813) Homepage
      My thoughts exactly. Gee wilikers 8 whole servers. How many Warez servers are there out there? How many pop up when one goes down. But thats okay man they just shut down 8 of them. Don't pat yourslef on the back to hard yet guys.

      Should be a Real American Hero commercial.

      • Re:It doesnt matter.... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Jaruzel ( 804522 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:51AM (#13040859) Homepage Journal
        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.

    • But it had a HUGE effect... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by J Barnes ( 838165 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:05AM (#13040936) Homepage
      Actually, I believe that shutting down napster did have an effect. There was a good long period of time where Napster was the utopia of music. It was like the world's largest music store, and best of all, everything was freely available at the click of a mouse.

      Almost everyone I knew had used napster at one time or another to download a song, and there were many people who'd amassed hard drives full of copyrighted music. Because napster was so easy to use, it had almost become a cultural thing and I think a lot of people skimmed by the fact that what they were doing was illegal. These people then started to hear reports in the news about how the RIAA was going after people, and maybe that gave a few of them pause, but file trading didn't really abate that much.

      I think it wasn't until Napster shut down that it finally clicked for a lot of people out there. They finally realized that it was illegal, and in spite of any moral ambiguities about stealing from wealthy corporations, it was something that was going to be prosecuted as a crime.

      There may be just as much piracy now as there was in the day of napster, but I think the majority of the casual users that tried napster then are not participating now over PtP networks anymore.

      iTunes has made it just as easy to get a song or album, and they've made it just as easy to pay for it, providing a viable and legitimate alternative to piracy. The Yahoo music and "napster to go" offerings further increase the options for legitimate and easy digital music offerings.

      If napster hadn't been shut down, I don't think the casual users out there would have gotten the wakeup call they did. Furthermore, if napster hadn't been such a success, I don't think software companies out there would have bothered to develop legal digital music sales solutions to the degree we see today.

      It's a bit odd, but I think the legal music trade industry of today owes a lot to the illegal music trade of napster.
    • They already have... it's called IRC ;)

  • "Operation Site Down" (Score:5, Funny)

    by MattGWU ( 86623 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @05:53AM (#13040608)
    Are they even trying with these operational code names anymore?

    If you'll excuse me, I need to begin "Operation Orange Juice Drinking" before the scheduled commencement of "Operation Work Going".

  • USDOJ (Score:5, Interesting)

    by poopdeville ( 841677 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @05:55AM (#13040616)
    ...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?

    • Re:USDOJ (Score:5, Interesting)

      by CdBee ( 742846 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:01AM (#13040643)
      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

      • Re:USDOJ (Score:2, Insightful)

        by imthesponge ( 621107 )
        Searching it brings up the fact that he was not only detained, but arrested and forbidden to return to Russia for 6 months.

        How can they justify charging someone when the "crime" was committed in a jurisdiction where it is legal?

        • Ask Jon Lech "DVD-Jon" Johansson.

          Reverse engineering DVD:CSS wasn't illegal under Norwegian law but he was dragged through the courts, found innocent, then retried on appeal and found innocent again.

          The software houses exist to make money, not to have morals. I don't blame DVD-Jon for doubling his efforts to free media from DRM - I'd want to lash back too, if I'd been treated like that.
      • He was detained while visiting the USA for a conference.

        What you forget to mention (and I believe it was an honest mistake ;)) is that he was giving a presentation called "eBook's Security -- Theory and Practice" in Las Vegas, and wasn't charged with creating the software, but distributing it while in America.

    • Re:USDOJ (Score:5, Informative)

      by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:10AM (#13040678)
      Extradition sounds too severe for bootlegging.

      You'd think so. I do. But they are now extraditing an Australian in the Drink or Die [wikipedia.org] warez group.

    • Re:USDOJ (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      How is the USDOJ going to persue people in other countries?

      They're not. It's just another example of the usual presumptuous USA centered, and dare I say deliberately inflamatory remarks that accompany stories more and more often on /. No judge will even consider wasting his time entertaining extradition orders. I'd be surprised to see more than 2 or 3 convictions at the end of the whole affair. Are these even criminal charges? They should not be in any cililised country.

      Ouside America we have better thing
    • Okay, if you run a warez site and get arrested, that's what you deserve. However I'ld like to know whether all of the sites are as 'illegal' as the ESA claims; it's not uncommon that law enforcement makes mistakes in assessing copyright status of works.

      There is an US theory that anything that happens on the Internet can be proscecuted in the US... I don't think that a French judge will extradict a Frenchman maintaining a French website to the US for proscecution. Besides, what indentification of individual

  • First, this is definitely offtopic: I do not like the colors used for this post! The good thing is slashdot is "free".

    Back to the point: The proprietors of those warez sites should consider Barbados or Switzerland. Over there, the law will take quite a time to get them and the moment they sense "danger", they can morph into an entity completely different.

    • and yes when the RIAA/MPAA comes knocking on the door of the hosting provider in Barbados the hosting provider is going to stand up for your rights to break american laws rather than shut your site down because the RIAA/MPAA threatens to shut down their whole business. Whether they actually do have the power to do that, who knows (money talks) but the ISP is most likely pretty small and has more to think about than your warez site.
  • Great, now where am I going to go to find ads for my penis-enhancement products?

  • Worry (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Renraku ( 518261 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:06AM (#13040655) Homepage
    The thing that worries me isn't that the warez sites are being closed down, but who's closing them down.

    Notice that the article pretty much says that the US took the lead. Now, I wonder why they might be doing that? How much money does the government receive from various association? Hmm, I think a lot.

    Now said associations are pressing their rent-a-congressmen into action against people in foreign countries.

    I wonder when we'll start having people sent here to stand trial for something that wasn't really even a crime there? Better yet, when will we be able to take their belongings and their families belongings when they end up in a form-letter-lawsuit from one of said associations?

    The US is now a bunch of jack-booted thugs leaning against a wall in an alley behind some massive corporate entity. Cigarettes rolled up in its sleeve just waiting for one of the suits to come and ask for a favor.

    • Re:Worry (Score:4, Informative)

      by makomk ( 752139 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:40AM (#13040812) Journal
      I wonder when we'll start having people sent here to stand trial for something that wasn't really even a crime there?

      They might be able to manage this, from the UK at least. Just claim the person has commited an extraditable crime - they don't even need to fake any evidence anymore - and, when the person enteres the US, arrest them for the real crime.

      For what it's worth, things are even worse between EU countries. IIRC, there's not even a requirement that the act was a crime in the country you're being removed from. There are some limits, but not many. This is especially problematic as some contries have "hate speech" laws...
    • Because the sites are breaking Federal Laws, and the DoJ is charged with enforcing those laws?

      The US is now ... Now? You think this is new? Even online, it's not new. Read "The Hacker Crackdown" by Sterling about Operation Sundevil, circa 1994.

    • Re:Worry (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Geoffreyerffoeg ( 729040 )
      How much money does the government receive from various association? Hmm, I think a lot.

      It's like the old saying, "We have the best government money can buy."

  • Just wondering... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheRealSync ( 701599 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:07AM (#13040661)
    ...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.

    • Re:Just wondering... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DigitumDei ( 578031 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:22AM (#13040729) Homepage Journal
      Phishing hurts individuals.

      Warez hurts corporations.

      Okay so oversimplified maybe, but obviously many banks and other phishing targets are not putting as much pressure (AKA "donations") on the government as big brand game companies.
      • au contraire monsieur! Corporations are individuals!

        be careful, you're going to hurt someone's feelings.
        • Wow, really?

          Time for me to steal Microsoft's identity and go on a permanent bender, buying everyone drinks, going on vacation, snorting blow off hookers asses, while the corporation, it's grounds and corporate offices in disarray, sits in a dingy police station trying to explain to the cops that the guy pretending to be a multinational downtown in the strip club is really not one.

    • ...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.

      Of course not, **AA are the *real* victims here. If the interests of those phishing victims were so important, they'd surely have more lobbying power.

  • What a waste of money (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro@g m a i l . com> on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:09AM (#13040672) Journal
    So us tax payers have helped catch 120 dangerous criminals in a global anti criminal investigation that most likely cost hundreds of thousands if not millions to organise and see through , and will cost countless millions more in prosecution hearings .
    The vast majority of these individuals were most likely not even profiting off of this (if any , the details are not that clear) .
    The world is now a safer place , we can rest easy in our beds as EAs multi billion dollar profits don't take an insignificant dent from these hooligans .
    One for justice , one for liberty
    Um sarcasm aside , 12 sites and 120 people is not even a tiny dent , 12 new sites will spring up today , and 12 tomorrow whilst hundreds of thousands if not millions of others download warez.
    Hit the route of the problem , over pricing and then you may get somewhere.

    • Re:What a waste of money (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Da Fokka ( 94074 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:22AM (#13040728) Homepage
      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.

    • Waco (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Conspiracy program about Waco on last night.

      One thing they mentioned in that which may be relevent to this is that the FBI hit waco with so many feds/helicopters/tanks was to show how well they were doing and to go to committee to ask for more money.

      A fund raiser as it were. I wonder if this is the same thing?
      • Conspiracy program about Waco on last night.

        One thing they mentioned in that which may be relevent to this is that the FBI hit waco with so many feds/helicopters/tanks was to show how well they were doing and to go to committee to ask for more money.

        A fund raiser as it were. I wonder if this is the same thing?

        Someone please mod parent up "interesting". It's a possiblity worth thinking about - does anyone know when these guys gat their funding reviewed? I'd personally go with the "govt. agencies

    • The way you started, I thought you were going to make a much more important point. Who cares if the government is spending all this money on propping up software prices? Well, I guess I do, but I care a hell of a lot more that the government is not spending that same money and devoting those same resources to dealing with real criminals who actually kill people. That seems like the real travesty here. No matter which side you're on with respect to software piracy, it just shouldn't be a higher priority

    • Hit the route of the problem , over pricing and then you may get somewhere.

      It's a little difficult to compete with $0.00

      Would lowering prices reduce some pirating? Sure. Would it reduce even most pirating? I doubt it very much, and I doubt you can post any statistics to prove otherwise.
      • You can't kill all of it without draconian measures, which will create more of a problem than they solve.
        Games for me are what , about an hours wages ., No skin off my back so I buy a lot of them each year.
        However my hours wages are nearly the same as most peoples wages for a day , this is why they are overpriced(actualy getting on to a previous post here) .
        Talking to a freind of mine in romainia who constantly infringes a lot of copyrights , perhaps it is not right nor moral though when the games there a

  • Lots of searches (Score:5, Funny)

    by duvel ( 173522 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:13AM (#13040695) Homepage
    The Entertainment Software Association today hailed efforts on the part of 'U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, ....... Close to 100 searches were conducted globally within a 24-hour period.

    Speedy Gonzales ?

    How come they only shut down 8 servers if they're conducting searches in 11 countries?

  • That's it? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Bad to the Ben ( 871357 )
    That's all they got? 120 people across all those nations? Those kind of figures won't even slow warez down. When I was in school there were probably ten people in my IT classes that were heavily into warez. That was in class, in one school, in one state of Australia. And yet across nearly a dozen nations they bagged only 120? Calling this a major victory is like saying World War Two was won by wiping out one squad of SS troops. They got a long way to go before they even start making waves, particular with

  • The Scene (Score:4, Informative)

    by shish ( 588640 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:23AM (#13040736) Homepage
    An interesting drama-type thing from the view of the criminals is The Scene [welcometothescene.com]; the first 9 episodes in a torrent are here [legaltorrents.com]. They seem slow to release though; one wonders how it can take 3-4 weeks to record 20 minutes of desktop screenshots...

  • Wow! (Score:5, Funny)

    by connah0047 ( 850585 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:24AM (#13040746)
    Wow! A whole 8 warez servers? NOW which of the other 1.6 million will I choose from?!

    • Not warez servers, COURIER SERVERS (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Not warez servers, COURIER SERVERS

      There is a big difference between taking down the redistribution servers and taking down what amounts to the 'warez' data warehouses.

      They targeted the private servers the couriers for the big groups used. These servers are very fast, and very private. They exist solely for the purpose of spreading warez to the redistribution channels.

      I think a drug dealing analogy is fitting. Think of the warez web sites and the kids selling dope on the corner. This bust didn't target

  • Prison rape jokes (Score:2, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 )
    Why are they supposed to be funny? Why are there prison rape jokes? Is it supposed to be creative? What goes through the heads of these people? "Hmm, I'm a fool let me think of a prison rape joke". Write to your G damn senator instead.

    If everyone knows prison rape is happening .. why doesnt anyone give a shit?

    Maybe there are some monsters who "deserve" the treatment ... but there is no way MOST people deserve it. Imagine if someone who did heinous acts with your loved ones gets to go to prison and "have f
    • Those jokes are not funny at all and they never were. Why not go ahead and "joke" about people being killed in prison or contracting HIV ? Not that funny any more ? Thought so.
    • Jokes are often an expression of societies deepest fears. They are a way of coping with a bad situation. Therefore it is not only expected that there are many so called 'sick' jokes out there, it is to be encouraged.

      Not laughing at the awful reality of this world is a ticket to paralysing neurosis. This might explain why the 'politically correct' are full of talk but without any real power. They are so concerned about the wrongs in the world that they can't find the energy to right them.

      So I will continue
    • Most people sent to prison, such as theives are sent for reform not to extract vengeance upon them.

      First of all, no, we put people in prison to punish them nowadays. Prosecutors talk about justice and demand that we protect our families by putting the criminal somewhere far away, and, equally important, unpleasant. The whole idea of redemption by putting in prison came from the Quakers, who couldn't physically harm you for religious reasons, so the best they could do was to put you in a locked room an

  • Carrot and Stick (Score:4, Funny)

    by Freexe ( 717562 ) <serrkr@tznvy.pbz> on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:30AM (#13040775) Homepage
    Okay already, enough stick. Can we please have some carrots now?

  • Speedy Gonzalez Rides Again (Score:5, Funny)

    by petrus4 ( 213815 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:31AM (#13040779) Homepage Journal
    We bring you yet another valiant exploit on the part of America's demoniac Attorney General, as part of the Bush administration's continuing war on peace, happiness, and anything else worth preserving in the world.

    At a recent interview, Speedy's mood was triumphant.

    "As our beloved Leader has often said, we are unflagging in our commitment to extend death, misery, and tyranny to every corner of the globe.

    Wherever happiness exists, wherever human beings may have been under the illusion that they may be safe, wherever justice may have existed in the past, we will travel, and we will unleash our fury upon the most innocent.

    The President has vowed that he will not rest until all that was previously good in the world has been erradicated, until the environment, human self-determination, and the cause of anyone to feel or seek joy have all been completely destroyed. The prisons will swell with the innocent and the unjustly accused, rivers the world over will run red with blood, and all lands anywhere in the world other than our own will be made desolate, while we enrich ourselves and ensure that our immediate loved ones alone will have any sense of safety.

    We will sweep aside all opposition in our path until we have fulfilled this mission.

    Onward!"

  • 120 Out Of How Many Millions? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EzInKy ( 115248 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:39AM (#13040811)
    Does this remind anyone else of the raids on speakeasies in the twenties? These "get tough" tactics are likely to be as effective in stopping file sharing as Prohibition was in stopping drinking. When laws exist that make the majority of the population criminals, and I've seen estimates that more people download copyrighted files in the US alone than voted in the last Presidential election, then it is time to try the lawmakers...not the people.

  • Enjoy Guantanamo Bay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by speights_pride! ( 898232 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:41AM (#13040817)
    Here in New Zealand the police were also contacted but upon learned it just was a bunch of geeks with some computers they said "Nah we can't be bothered". Instead they raided the local gang and recovered two cannabis plants.
    • Really? because I heard that in some crazy police forces they spend allot of time concentrating on things like murder, rape, assault and burglary. Sometimes they even waste time going around looking for so called 'gangs' that are only trying to have gun battles in the streets. As long as there are no cannabis plants around I think society might just be safe!

  • What about this one? (Score:3, Funny)

    by rbarreira ( 836272 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @06:51AM (#13040860) Homepage
    Has this pirate [optushome.com.au] been caught already?

  • Osama bin Warez (Score:5, Funny)

    by kkovach ( 267551 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:00AM (#13040912)
    "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."

    Damn! If only Osama had been running a Warez server!

  • Some more information (Score:5, Informative)

    by c0ldfusi0n ( 736058 ) <admin@c0ldfu[ ]n.org ['si0' in gap]> on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:06AM (#13040941) Homepage
    You can find "comments" from the scene people here [yello.ws] along with a copy of two search warrants by the RCMP for two of the raids that occured in Edmonton, Canada. (Coral Cache of the above [nyud.net], just in case)

    Some information about Site Down can be found here [usdoj.gov].

    And whoever is saying that RCMP is targetting sceners, take a look at their Strategic Priorities [rcmp-grc.gc.ca]... My bet is that, just as it happened in the States, they are being pressured by the CRTC [crtc.gc.ca] (Canada's equivalent to MPAA and RIAA all in one), and with that new DMCA-like law [slashdot.org], what could possibly stop them from raping every canadian file trader like they did (and continue to do) to the US'?

    You didn't hear it from me!

  • That's nice... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:14AM (#13040987) Journal
    They shut down some sites to the (supposed) benefit of a handful of corporate entities. How about doing something useful, like aggressively shutting down phishing sites. You know, where criminals are trying to steal thousands of dollars from as many victims as possible? I know, I know, stopping kiddies from playing games that they couldn't have bought otherwise is important, and you politicians have to try and keep some of the lobbying pressure off of you from Copyright Barons. However if you want to help the population - you know, the actual people that elected you, not the corporate entities that now get to steer you - try concentrating on phishing, spam and worms. Oh, and figuring out a way to make Microsoft bear some actual liability for the multitude of security problems they have introduced which has affected millions of people a hundred times over would be a step in the right direction too.

    Dan East

  • code-name "Operation Site Down" (Score:5, Funny)

    by syntap ( 242090 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:15AM (#13040998)
    We may have a naming conflict here... I thought that was the code-name for any /. post that links another site?

  • Inflationary figuring... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bmo ( 77928 ) on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:23AM (#13041043)
    "Piracy costs the entertainment software industry billions of dollars each year, harming businesses and their employees who work on the development and distribution of game products, "

    Oh cry me a river.

    That's only the case if you assume that every copy=one real customer lost. Back when I was into the warez scene, I had intalled and deleted hundreds of games/utils/applications. Some within minutes after muttering "this is bogus".

    If someone had totalled up the number of applications, utils, and games, there is no way I could have even afforded 10 percent of that. (I actually did buy what I liked, but to put me on the figurative hook for half-hour glances at packages, well, that's dumb).

    I assume that my experience is not unique.

    All that is totally ignoring the _fact_ that various companies who shall remain nameless depended on warez to gain marketshare *cough* autocad *cough* Windows.

    Thank Gh0d for Open Source. Everything is legit now, and kicking back some cash gives a warm fuzzy feeling, rather than the feeling of being ripped off. It's been that way for almost a decade now, and I like it.

    --
    BMO

  • My 2 Cents...whatever...right? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Just my 2 cents...I probably don't know what I'm talking about but whatever...

    Regarding : only 8 sites were shut down but
    thousands will spring up

    This is not napster, where thousands COULD spring up as replacements, these were I'm guessing TOP sites. Where minimum requirements were lots of HD space (in the Terrabytes), and a fat pipe T3 and OC3's. So thousands of replacement sites will not just spring up and NO the release groups will not have your cablemodem site you run out of your house as a HQ.

    Regar

  • Advertising Campaign (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LogicX ( 8327 ) * <slashdot@nosPam.logicx.us> on Tuesday July 12, 2005 @07:41AM (#13041136) Homepage Journal
    Its about time they had a victory from their 'Don't Copy That Floppy' [fpux.com] (17MB) Advertising Campaign.

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