FBI Launches Sting Against Top Warez Sites

[Hanz™]

[news=http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8263/jailforsharing2pz.jpg]FBI Launches Sting Against Top Warez Sites
June 30, 2005
Thomas Mennecke

Everything has a beginning on the Internet. The material found on BitTorrent, eDonkey2000 and even the Newsgroups have their origins. Many times, movies - especially prereleased ones - originate from "Top Sites." Top sites are the tip of the piracy iceberg, where material typically trickles down to more common forms of exchange. Yesterday, the FBI arrested Chirayu Patel who ran a top site server.

The FBI had been posing for a considerable amount of time as server operators, inviting people to upload and download material. Once a solid relationship had been established between the FBI and top warez sites, the trap had been set. It was only a matter of time until the FBI had collected enough evidence to make an arrest. While the FBI has only announced the arrest of one individual, it is expected that more information will be released today implicating additional people.

According to Restless.ugtech.net, who broke this news event, the FBI ran a server name "Chud" and "Lad". They were administered by an undercover agent named "Griffen." The warrant, which was released yesterday, named "killaz, marvel/cartel, cin, sidar, dact, korax, bourbon, and burner." When more information is released today, more specific information on these individuals will be available.

Chirayu Patel, aka "Dact" was arrested 9 AM yesterday. During the arrest, police seized his computers and burned DVD/CD discs. More troubling, he was told the police were working with the FBI to "round up people that were on a FBI run site." The story concludes, "ITS TIME FOR EVERYONE BIG TO GO HIDE."

According to the Mercury News, two FBI servers and two warez server contained 27 terabytes of information. Such pirated material as the movies "Star Wars", "Batman Begins" existed, while software valued at almost $400,000 also was seized.

Source: http://slyck.com/news.php?story=844[/news]

[RealitY]

They were administered by an undercover agent named "Griffen."

How bizzare as the last episode of The Scene had a character named Gryffin in it...

[tarzan]

bizzare as the last episode of The Scene had a character named Gryffin in it

i'm calling shinanagans on that.
I have seen the chud group listed on ircspy
never downloaded from them thank god.
all this means is that the current groups that havent been infiltrated will tighten thier security up tighter than my bosses ass when i ask for a raise

[Hanz™]

bizzare as the last episode of The Scene had a character named Gryffin in it

i'm calling shinanagans on that.
I have seen the chud group listed on ircspy
never downloaded from them thank god.
all this means is that the current groups that havent been infiltrated will tighten thier security up tighter than my bosses ass when i ask for a raise

We are talking about top groups here. You must have heard of Centropy before?
And anyway Centropy should techically have been more secure than lots of the other groups, as they went "internal"...

More Information:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/June/05_crm_353.htm
http://www.digitalprowess.com/bust/

BTW I am so sure I posted this before you, or do moderators get to post the latest news only?

[tesco]

BTW I am so sure I posted this before you, or do moderators get to post the latest news only?

Yes you posted this 2 hours before him but it was stuck in the moderation queue.

[RealitY]

BTW I am so sure I posted this before you, or do moderators get to post the latest news only?

Your post was in moderation at the time I posted and was simply over looked and when rossco noticed it and that it was prior to mine I told him to remove mine for yours while he was in the moderation panel...

[Hanz™]

BTW I am so sure I posted this before you, or do moderators get to post the latest news only?

Yes you posted this 2 hours before him but it was stuck in the moderation queue.

Hehe a second ago I thought I had gone mad when I saw that it now said that I had posted the news (and thought that I was just reading it wrong when I had made my previous allegation)...
Thanks.

[Peerzy]

Just to clear things up the group in question is fine. The person who was arrested was the one who's name was on the legal documentation of the renting of the servers, the group in question (A DVDR group) will still be releasing.

[Hanz™]

Just to clear things up the group in question is fine. The person who was arrested was the one who's name was on the legal documentation of the renting of the servers, the group in question (A DVDR group) will still be releasing.

Yeah but I think there will be something of a change in security and feelings over there.
As it should have been a little close to home...

How bizzare as the last episode of The Scene had a character named Gryffin in it...

Not neccesarily a coincidence either as remember that article in wired about that guy who worked as a scout for the FBI - I seem to remember that guy as being in Jun Group and having connections with pirates (he is on a lot of topsites he says - that is how he managed to use the topsites to advertise "Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink") aka. friends that he would not want to lose, maybe it was a subliminal message on purpose - of course that could have just been made up to promote Jun Group?

[LoOpiNg]

scary thoughts as they even go to such measures to catch filesharers..