Warez is a term commonly applied to software that has been stripped of its copy protection and made available on the internet for downloading. Those participating in the warez scene – the on-line trading of illegal software, games, films and music – have become a priority target for law enforcement.
The two most recent operations, Operation Fastlink in 2004, and Operation Site Down last month, resulted in a total of more than 200 search warrants executed in 15 countries, including the UK, France, Canada and Israel.
Hundreds of computers and illegal on-line distribution hubs were confiscated and more than $100 million in illegally-copied copyrighted software, games, movies, and music was removed from illicit distribution channels.
In the US, four people have now been charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and copyright infringement. Four others have been charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.
According to the Justice Department, the defendants were leading members in the warez scene, acting as leaders, crackers, suppliers, distribution site hosts or site administrators.
All were affiliated with organised warez groups that acted as the so-called “release” groups that are the original sources for a majority of the pirated works distributed and downloaded via the internet.
The Justice Department explained that once a warez release group prepares a stolen work for distribution, the material is distributed in minutes to secure, top-level warez servers throughout the world. From there, within a matter of hours, the pirated works are distributed globally, filtering down to peer-to-peer and other public file sharing networks accessible to anyone with internet access.
“Today’s charges strike at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain – a technologically-sophisticated, highly organised distribution network that provides most of the copyrighted software, movies, games, and music illegally distributed over the internet,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Richter. “Cases like these are part of the Department’s coordinated strategy to protect copyright owners from the on-line thieves who steal and then sell the products they work so hard to produce.”
