FBI hits leading warez sites

By Steve Malone

Posted on 1 Jul 2005 at 12:15

The digital piracy industry received another blow this week as law enforcement agents from 11 countries took part in a series of swoops on 'warez' sites throughout the world. Led by the FBI Cyber Division over 90 searches were made worldwide and a number of arrests have been made.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced the crackdown and said that 'Operation Site Down' aimed to disrupt and dismantle many of the organisations behind the illegal distribution of copyright material. It claims to have taken down eight of the major warez networks in the world.

Among the sites that received a visit were, RiSCISO, Myth, TDA, LND, Goodfellaz, Hoodlum, Vengeance, Centropy, Wasted Time, Paranoid, Corrupt, Gamerz, AdmitONE, Hellbound, KGS, BBX, KHG, NOX, NFR, CDZ, TUN, and BHP. The people behind the sites are alleged to be behind the cracking of the copy protection and the distribution of hundreds of well-known movies and software including AutoCAD 2006, Adobe Photoshop, and the movies 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' and 'Mr and Mrs Smith'.

The DoJ says that over 70 searches and four arrests took place in the US. Other raids with more arrests occurred in 10 other countries including the UK, Canada, Israel, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Australia.

The aim of Operation Site Down is to hit the 'first-providers' who provide the original copies of cracked copyright material and the 'release groups' - the network of warez servers which provide the downloads for people around the world. The DoJ says that typically once a work hits these sites it is distributed around the world via P2P networks and by striking at the sources, the flow of material will dry up.

The DoJ promises that this is just the beginning. It says that more than 120 leading members of the organised online piracy underground were identified by the investigation to date, and as the investigations continue, additional targets will be identified and pursued.

'By dismantling these networks, the Department is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain - a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of the illegal digital content now available online,' said US Attorney General Gonzales.