FBI Launches Sting Against Top Warez Sites

[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.

http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/image...ews_source.gif Source: http://slyck.com/news.php?story=844[/news]

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Originally Posted by RealitY

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

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

:blink: :blink:

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

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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

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Originally Posted by tarzan

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

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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

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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?

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Originally Posted by Hanz™

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

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

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Originally Posted by Hanz™

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

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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...

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Originally Posted by rossco

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Originally Posted by Hanz™

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

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

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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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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...

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

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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?

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

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Originally Posted by RealitY

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RealitY

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

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

:blink: :blink:

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yea did you notice the music they played over the ep

hes from the fbi :noes:

I'm not worried at all. The whole nature of the internet is about file sharing. It's completly agnostic.You have a whole bunch of "smart people" thiinking of ways to trump the system and an exponentially smaller group of "smart people" working for companies trying to stop it. If you can't beat them join them is what I say. It can be compared to the 1984 Sony lawsuit concerning VHS. Now Hollywood makes billions off of rentals. They need to come up with a way to make money off of downloading that is convienient and cheap for the consumer instead of spending millions on sueing everybody. All they're doing is alienating thier customers. I personally will buy the movies if they are good. Downloading is just a preview.

Code:

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[ This is a professional nfo from the FBI ]
[ Think its a joke then ya your wrong    ]
[ We would like to inform you all that    ]
[ As time comes more will be busted and  ]
[ You might as well sell ure LT slaves    ]
[ Your CC/PayPal have been logged for all ]
[ the so called "COLO" racers. Good Luck  ]
[ 14 Arrested. 12 Are Being Monitored    ]
-------------------------------------------
[ On another note we would like to help  ]
[ Get you guys some confidence so hurry  ]
[ Up and get a release of that Batman    ]
[ Movie, or are you guys scared. BLP is  ]
[ being monitored.                        ]
-------------------------------------------

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Quote:

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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.

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Isn't that on the shady side of entrapment?

:shuriken:

As opposed to going out and catching people who do real crimes like child molestation and robbery.

now that the FBI has shown what it is capable of, i think that many downloader will propably stop downloading :cry: :P

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Originally Posted by MagicNakor

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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.

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Isn't that on the shady side of entrapment?

:shuriken:

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Oh right so you think the warez guys are gonna be able to sue the FBI for entrapment, come on - if they the warez guys are proved guilty entrapment is out of the question.

It's funny when I first got online, warez was all I had to find cracks and programs. But we have so many more choices now. Verifieds from sites like ours, news group's, nzb,p2p,the list is endless. It's rare I visit a warez site now. Too many trojans ! :(

I still visit crack sites...
But you have to be so wary of everything...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Griffen

Code:

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[ This is a professional nfo from the FBI ]
[ Think its a joke then ya your wrong    ]
[ We would like to inform you all that    ]
[ As time comes more will be busted and  ]
[ You might as well sell ure LT slaves    ]
[ Your CC/PayPal have been logged for all ]
[ the so called "COLO" racers. Good Luck  ]
[ 14 Arrested. 12 Are Being Monitored    ]
-------------------------------------------
[ On another note we would like to help  ]
[ Get you guys some confidence so hurry  ]
[ Up and get a release of that Batman    ]
[ Movie, or are you guys scared. BLP is  ]
[ being monitored.                        ]
-------------------------------------------

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lol thats cute.. :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RealitY

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RealitY

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

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

:blink: :blink:

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Quote:

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as many of you know, there were a series of arrests in
the real 'scene' last week. Ever since our first episode, people have
wondered if we work for Sony, for the RIAA, the MPAA, the FBI, or any
number of other letter combinations. Episode 9 apparently re-ignited
some of these suspicions, so I wanted to take a moment to address some
of the concerns that have been expressed to us.

First off, as we have stated numerous times, The Scene is purely
fictitious, and the sole point of it is to entertain. We have no hidden
agendas, and no desire to frighten or intimidate people - much less have
them arrested. I write all of the scripts myself; I choose the character
names (including "gryffin") and I create all the plots and storylines on
my own with no outside input of any kind.

Just as there are shows about the mafia, cops, and big corporations,
we've created a drama about movie piracy. We're not saying that piracy
is right or wrong; we're just telling a story in way that is as
authentic as possible - and we go out of our way to make sure that
nothing in the show could ever get anyone in trouble.

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this really hit the gaming scene hard, barely any games have pred

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Originally Posted by archaic

this really hit the gaming scene hard, barely any games have pred

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:huh:

No new games means no new scenereleases.


Only 2 groups stopped since the last FBI actions.

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Originally Posted by {I}{K}{E}

Quote:

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Originally Posted by archaic

this really hit the gaming scene hard, barely any games have pred

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:huh:

No new games means no new scenereleases.


Only 2 groups stopped since the last FBI actions.

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Which two are those? :sad1: