John Sankus, the leader of the warez group DrinkOrDie faces up
to five years' imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000 after
yesterday pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit
criminal copyright infringement.
In November, the US Justice Department, the FBI and several
international police forces raided the homes of members of
DrinkOrDie, a group which stripped software of its copy protections
and made it available for downloading from the internet. Software
which been treated in this way is often known as warez.
In his plea, Sankus, aged 28, admitted that he had caused
between $2.5 million and $5 million in damages by allowing the
distribution of illegal software, games and movies on-line.
The operation against the DrinkOrDie group took 15 months and a
total of 70 search warrants resulted in arrests in the US, the UK,
Australia, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
