FBI offensive - Fairlight story continues
 

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/June/05_crm_353.htm

Just a small quote to those of you who are too lazy to read all the article:

Comments?

More information about the story from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4640439.stm
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121675,00.asp

also, a related story to this one is that last Monday, "the Supreme Court ruled companies that make software which enable free music and movie trading can be held liable for users' illegal activities ¡ª if encouraging theft was their intent. ". About 784 people using peer-to-peer have already been sued because of this.

More information about this can be found here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8375955/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4640415.stm
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68007,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

Information on what happened with the "scene bust" can be found here (in .nfo files):
http://s5.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2RADCUSNEOWIB2U0X5EKOT0OQP
Can't mirror it unfortunately, rapidshare is down and can't upload attachments :(

To be honest, I think that FBI is just trying to scare people off and although they managed to do a major hit, it's nearly impossible to stop people from sharing files or performing reverse engineering on programs

i already read this some days ago and i have to say that i am really sad that they busted some of the real good releasing groups..... but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and the scene should better protect themselves e.g. no new peeps without good references and invitation ? just my 2¢

they seem to be really cracking down as of late. One of the common threads that I find seem to be those that are looking for the episode 3 of star wars. Those sites seem to be getting banged on the most. I just went to see it to avoid the hassle. I try to be extra careful about needed apps so that tracing is kept to a minimum.

Let's see what the world's best agency is talking about:

1. Criminal Division and FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Louis M. Reigel today announced another far-reaching and aggressive international enforcement action against criminal organizations involved in the illegal online distribution of copyrighted material.

Scene groups (FBI seems to be proud while mentioning so many known scene brands) are not criminal organizations in a legal sense. They violate DMCA and fall under computer crimes which is far different from criminal organizations. US Army continously rides other countries, violates foreign law, kills thousands of people and occupy teritories. Is it a criminal organization too or maybe they do not fall under any law?

2. More than 120 leading members of the organized online piracy underground were identified by the investigation to date.

Maybe they are talking about streets drugs dealers. Forecasted amount of real scene leaders (both PC and console) can be estimated around 10. FBI needs fame so they know how to multiply.

3. The theft of this property strikes at the heart of America's economy.

Summarize all US losses caused by piracy in 2004. Can you do it? How? By multiplying forecasted amount of existing pirated copies by real market price (movies, software)? That method is being used by most of the world's anti-piracy companies and the police but is it really reliable? How many of you would buy pirated games you actually own if there is no pirated copy at all? Assume each of us have 10 games or films or audio on average. How many would we bought if we are forced to? I suppose 1, maximum 2. Some of us would not have bought any title at all. So let's divide "estimated piracy" by 2 (feds always double it (at least) to make the piracy louder) and then substract ~90% of the "estimated losses" in US. Next let's summarize all the incomings of top 10 movies or top 10 games or top 10 songs in US. Compare the size. Does loss amount constitute "the heart of America's economy"? Compare the loss to NASA budget, Microsoft, Intel, Macrovision or Adobe annual income and answer yourself.

4. 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.

To steal anything you have to take (unauthorized) someone's else property. Some of scene groups buy the original copy in order to crack it. The one who steals is the first and next ones who receives it after the cracker (usually site-op). FBI experts did not notice the difference between violating DMCA and stealing.

5. Conservative estimates of the value of pirated works seized in yesterday's action exceed $50 million

Like in 3rd point. Virtual $50 million. Let's take a look how do they calculate similar amounts. Assume we have captured 30 pressed CDs with:

Catia V4 All Packs (single copy = $21.000) - 10 copies
ArcGIS complete (single copy = $50.000) - 10 copies
MatLab + SimuLink with extensions (single copy = $100.000) - 10 copies

We have captured illegal software worth $1.710.000 (in the way feds calculates). Is it really worth $1.710.00? Nope, we can assume that it is worth approx. $200 since you can buy all these titles (30 copies) for similar money in the "black market". Of course feds do not take the real market value but developer's price (who would be interested in their actions if they write $1.000 instead of $50.000.000).

my opinion, people use pirated sw because they don't have money to buy the licenses. in this case, no marginal profit at all expected when piracy stopped. this is just to accomodate the industry wishlist that goverment does something.

in my country, they sell pirated soft/dvd/cd next to the police office :D . no action taken.

> in my country, they sell pirated soft/dvd/cd next to the police office.
Russia? :) I think everywhere where exist ppl why want to economize on soft or a bit owercode law via warez :) Warez teams is part of our system... And it is impossable to solve this problem with power... I think while soft will appear warez will be appear more and more...

I think protections should be harder, and if one wants some stuff, he would have to crack it for himself :D
(well you may crack one for your girlfriend if you are in lack of flowers hehe)

Real SCCT fans would buy the game neverthless of the crack because of multiplayer ability (CD keys problem). The crack is not important for the people who really wants to get the title because most of nowadays PC games rely on multiplayer. The people who use pirated version of games most likely would not buy the game if there is no crack. Since you mentioned "statistical support", here we continue the story below.

I have access to game publishers official sales reports thus assume fulfiling your requirement. SCCT "no crack sales boost" is estimated as ~5% by its publishers (basing on their opinions and sales reports comparing uncracked SCCT sales to cracked Silent Hunter in similar official release period and assuming SCCT as louder title). Furthermore, when I have been talking about SCCT crack absence they were not convinced if it ever boosted the sales to that amount (they suggested lower percentage). Is 5% in your opinon "lots of people"?

Imagine how many millions of pirated SCCT copies would have been used in case of crack existence (multiply official stock by few times) and then calculate on your own how many of them really bought this title (substract 5% from official stock and compare it to multiplied annual stock).

[EDIT: this post has been made as a reply to Poseidon's post. Somehow his post has been deleted and since that this one may look a bit out of the context]

Well...with TDA caught it's a pain since 40-50% of the scene were TDA releases(All Autocads? Adobe Software?), but piracy cant be killed without killing software retail prices so new groups will grow and new TDA-like groupt will emerge.

TDA/PHX/etc. will be SORELY missed
 

Thanks for EVERYTHING TDA PHX etc. and I hope you return one day. Some like PHX who have not been caught have decided to pull the plug:

V-COM.FIX.IT.UTILITIES.PROFESSIONAL.V6-PHXiSO
phxiso.nfo
Sorry PHX for putting in *** I wish I could leave them. I totally agree with PHX and dyn!o

MONEY should never LIMIT the POTENTIAL of anybody! There are so many not so unfortunate (poor) ones who have VASTLY more intelligence many of the highly paid professionals who had the priviledge of coming from wealthy countries or families to get their education/positions in life.

Unfortunately, this is a sad fact of life in this this mainly capitalistic world of ours. And that the not so fortunate, have little chance to fulfill their full potential just to due to their economic/country status.

Thanks TDA, PHX etc. You will NOT be forgotten by those you have given a chance to LEARN whom otherwise would never possibly had if the FBI/BSA had it all their OWN way.

And the LiveAid and G8 summit to encourage an increased African aid effort is also a relevant analogy here.

nullz

PHX and TDA definitely written themselves in the scene history and people's minds (just like mine).

I have one question: my last post was a comment in addition to Poseidon's (or similar name) post which suddenly disappeared from this thread. I am wondering if Poseidon deleted it (I do not feel the hand of JMI in this case) and if so then may I know why?

Regards.

I made an editorial decision that several posts by Poseidon's were, in my opinion, more about an attempt to make statements about the previous posters and to boost his own ego, then they were about the subject matter of the Thread. Having come to that conclusion, I deleted several of his Posts, and, where I felt appropriate, edited the Posts which followed his, to eliminate quotes from his now deleted Posts. He has also been warned that any further similar Postings by him will result in his no longer being permitted to post here at all.

Generally, only Aaron, or Beverly, or I have the ability to edit other peoples posts. Sometimes I edit posts to fix typing errors to avoid confusion, but in this case it was simply because the eliminated comments addressed previous statements which no longer existed and might not make sense to the reader without the part which had already been deleted.

Regards,

It seems this forum has become some kind of pro-warez forum.

To JMI, look in the mirror, "WILL RESULT IN SUSPENSION OF THE USER ACCOUNTS OF EVERYONE WHO MAY BE FOOLISH ENOUGHT TO TEST MY PATIENCE", " it would cause me not the slightest hesitation to simply send you into the oblivion you have so richly deserved.", you should control your own ego first.

As for TDA, they choose to affiliate with 4-gbit US site LAD and CHUD, they choose to have big site with tons of leech and ultra fast connection rather than secure site, their greed caused their own demise.

[EDIT JMI: Once again posiedon has chosen to demonstrate that he lacks both the simple intelligence not to attempt to tweak those who control his access to these Forums and the honesty to acturately quote the comments which got him in trouble in the first instance.

What my PM to him actually stated was:
*****
posiedon:

You may have noticed that many of your recent posts have been "disappearing." This PM is to give you clear and unequivocal warning that I find the vast majority of your Posts here to be condescending and filled with your self-assumed superiority bullshit and simply not worthy of taking up space on these Forums.

The next time I feel compelled to delet something you have Posted, YOU will be deleted. There will be NO further warnings.

Consider carefull how you might chose to respond to this message, because we really do not need or want your type of "attitude" at all here and it would cause me not the slightest hesitation to simply send you into the oblivion you have so richly deserved.
****

Apparrently he thought he could improve his phoney argument by mixing parts of this PM with a comment I had made about unspecified posters arguing back and forth with eachother into something sounding like a defense of his "attitude" and "ego control" deficiencies.

Apparently, he was also foolish enough to believe I was not serious.

In all of these things he was wrong and now he is history. ]

My busy cache if needed
 

@@:
There would be no warez if there was no software.
There would be no crackers or groups if there was no warez.
There would be no ExeTools if there were no crackers.
JMP @B

So let's all go for a long holiday!