16 replies to this topic

[BoSZ]

wo men have been convicted for piracy over peer-to-peer networks in the first case of its kind in the US. The pair, William Trowbridge from New York and Michael Chicoine of Texas, were running central hubs in a piracy community running over the Direct Connection P2P system. They had admitted infringing copyright by illegally sharing music, films and software.

The convictions of Trowbridge and Chicoine were the result of "Operation Digital Gridlock". The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000

The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. On the organization's Web page, the group has posted a message that reads, in part, "Peer-to-peer technology is engaged in a constant battle with those who fear change and innovation. The United States Government has recently joined the wrong side of this fight."

Users access the site by downloading Direct Connect software and then connecting to the Underground Network. There is no fee to join the network and members are provided with access to a list of hub sites on the network. The DoJ stressed that NeoModus, which develops the Direct Connect P2P software, is not a target of the investigation.

Trowbridge operated a hub called "Movie Room" from 2002 to 2004, and Chicoine operated a hub named "Achenon's Alley TM." The sites offered music, movies, software and computer games.

The two faced the charges following FBI raids last August, carried out as part of Operation Digital Gridlock, which is aimed at fighting copyright theft over P2P. The men are due to be sentenced on April 29.

During the August press conference, US Attorney General John Ashcroft said search warrants were executed in Texas, New York and Wisconsin in raids on five residences and an Internet service provider. During the raids, federal agents seized computers, software and computer-related equipment.

Ashcroft said the raids "disrupted an extensive peer-to-peer network suspected of enabling users to traffic illegally in music, films, software and published works."

"As today's pleas demonstrate, those who steal copyrighted material will be caught, even when they use the tools of technology to commit their crimes," Ashcroft said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon. "The Department of Justice is committed to pursuing and bringing to justice those who commit intellectual property theft." The FBI, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, is conducting the ongoing investigation. The DoJ says theft through the illegal reproduction and distribution of movies, software, games and music is estimated to annually cost U.S. industries $19 billion worldwide

[SilentWarrior]

There was an excellent article I read in a Wired magazine some months ago that was all about Piracy of media. I believe that normal people like me...who, dare I say, download music etc. from p2ps, ftps, or whatever...are not a real threat to the US government or publishers which is why the government is strickly hunting down the top source and the people who are putting up copyrighted material. If you cut off the "head" of the underground networks than the people under it loose the source and thus this is the most successful way for the U.S. Government to combat Piracy.

[eiteljoh]

Not only happening on the internet, folks. I was recently in Vietnam, and doing a bit of shopping at a CD/DVD store (which was obviously ripped material), and the police raided it. I figured, OK, I'll go down the street to the other store, and voila, they were raiding that one too. All 6 were being raided at the same time.

No doubt they were doing this because of pressure put on them by the US govt. Same goes for China, etc. Pretty soon there will be no safe-havens. (

[SilentWarrior]

sad thing is...in some of those less developed countries like you said...selling pirated goods is the only way people can support themselves and make some money. The US government should be spending time and resources to find alternative methods of preventing piracy, such as improving the under developed nations. The people dont do it for fun, they sell it cause they need money... get them a real job Much easier said than done, though.

[boyCradle]

You are correct, the less develop contries have more priracy problems because it is their way to sustain themselves. It is even more alarming than those peer-to-peer piracy. here in the Philippines A piated music CD costs only around US$1 per copy and a pirated DVD around US$2 or less. buying them are so so much cheaper than owning a personal computer and downloading them yourself and the pirated DVD is chaper than seeing the latest movie at the theater. and don't say that the quality od these DVD are not good. I have actually seen a pirated Spider-Man 2 and tthe movie has crisp video quality. The are even movies that have been in pirated stores even before they could be seen in theaters.

[krap]

i don't think they will ever win the battle against piracy as it is free. and i think they can't promote legal music download sites. the ads would go something like this:

Dont download this album a month before it's released from winmx!
Get it later for $10 from iTunes!!

[T100]

The scene has been around even before the Internet. They managed to hunt down several prominent groups like razor 1911 but they failed to rip it out totally. New groups keep coming and new things like DivX Rip, CHM ebooks and even TV shows rips and DVDISOs are emerging as the new force of the scene. They will never manage to eradicate it when the people engaging in such sharing activities are not motivated by money, but just that they want to share. Take FTP as an example. Some once forecast that after BT, there will be not use for FTP for sharing. But actually, FTP is getting more and more popular as people with VDSL connection are now able to build a Serv-U FTP server with decent upload speed. Such leagues are gaining popularity and it is more “discreet” then P2P programs like BT. I don’t really think piracy will hurt business because if people are not able to get certain mp3s, they won’t buy it either, for Mp3s are not essential for life…

[krap]

sometimes i like free mp3s i have downloaded from p2p programs so i buy the album from the shop. So maybe p2p is even good in some cases

[Deaths Aprentice]

This sucks, bad :S.

Soon I'm going to actually have to buy my music .
And DVD's, and games, and all my other warez, heh.

I don't think the FBI can stop it all though, it's waaay to big for that

[thablkpanda]

Deaths Aprentice, on Feb 2 2005, 10:53 AM, said:

This sucks, bad :S.

Soon I'm going to actually have to buy my music .
And DVD's, and games, and all my other warez, heh.

I don't think the FBI can stop it all though, it's waaay to big for that

I just HOPE they don't stop it all. I do what someone else up there said, I didn't catch the name, but I DL a couple (two) tracks of a CD that was newly released, and THEN I go out and buy the CD. Almost always. I use it like a trial version. And I also try to use it sparingly. I'm not trying to be some kind of big playa' in the P2P industry, I'm just an average american trying to save some time, and money, and that's sick of buying CDs that I found out I really didn't like once I got home

Tha Blk Panda