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[registrars] US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL INTERNET PIRACY SWEEP
- To: <registrars@xxxxxxxx>
- Subject: [registrars] US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL INTERNET PIRACY SWEEP
- From: "Elana Broitman" <ebroitman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 15:06:01 -0400
- Sender: owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Thread-index: AcQonNnUEN764dwPTti22G6t5s80+g==
- Thread-topic: US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL INTERNET PIRACY SWEEP
<<#263 04-22-04 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL INTERNET PIRACY SWEEP.htm>>
Please note the announcement of a 10-country internet piracy investigation: US, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden as well as Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The ongoing investigations were assisted by various intellectual property trade associations, including the Business Software Alliance, the Entertainment Software Association, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br />
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2004<br />
WWW.USDOJ.GOV<br />
</b></td><td align="right"><b>
CRM<br />
(202) 514-2008<br />
TDD (202) 514-1888<br />
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<p class="title"><b><u>
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL<br />
INTERNET PIRACY SWEEP<br />
</u></b></p>
<p class="title"><b><u><i>
?Operation Fastlink? Is The Largest Global Enforcement Action <br />
Ever Undertaken Against Online Piracy<br />
</i></u></b></p>
<br />
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<p>
<b>WASHINGTON, D.C.</b> - Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today the
most far-reaching and aggressive enforcement action ever undertaken against
organizations involved in illegal intellectual property piracy over the
Internet. Beginning yesterday morning, law enforcement from 10 countries and
the United States conducted over 120 searches worldwide to dismantle some of
the most well-known and prolific online piracy organizations. </p>
<p>
?Intellectual property theft is a global problem that hurts economies around
the world. To be effective, we must respond globally,? Attorney General
Ashcroft said. ?In the past 24 hours, working closely with our foreign law
enforcement counterparts, we have moved aggressively to strike at the very
core of the international online piracy world.? </p>
<p>
Operation Fastlink is the culmination of four separate undercover
investigations simultaneously being conducted by the FBI, coordinated by the
FBI Cyber Division, and the U.S. Department of Justice, coordinated by the
Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the Criminal
Division. As a result of Fastlink, over 120 total searches have been executed
in the past 24 hours in 27 states and in 10 foreign countries. Foreign
searches were conducted in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel,
the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden as well as Great Britain and Northern
Ireland. Operation Fastlink is the largest multi-national law enforcement
effort ever directed at online piracy. Nearly 100 individuals worldwide have
been identified by the investigation to date, many of whom are the leaders or
high-level members of various international piracy organizations. As the
investigations continue, additional targets will be identified and pursued. </p>
<p>
?The amount of international coordination and cooperation in this effort is
unprecedented and will send a clear and unmistakable message to those
individuals and organizations dedicated to piracy that they will no longer be
protected by geographic boundaries,? Attorney General Ashcroft said. ?We are
committed to combating this theft and will pursue these thieves regardless of
their location.? </p>
<p>
In addition to attacking piracy globally, Operation Fastlink struck at all
facets of the illegal software, game, movie, and music trade online, which is
commonly referred to as the ?warez scene.? The investigations focused on
individuals and organizations, known as ?warez? release groups, that
specialize in the Internet distribution of pirated materials. Release groups
are the first-providers - the original source for most of the pirated works
traded or distributed online. Once a release group prepares a stolen work for
distribution, the material is distributed in minutes to secure, top-level
warez servers and made available to a select clientele. From there, within a
matter of hours, the pirated works are further distributed throughout the
world, ending up on public channels on IRC and peer-to-peer file sharing
networks accessible to anyone with Internet access. </p>
<p>
The top release groups are hierarchical, highly structured organizations with
leadership positions that control day-to-day operations, recruit new members
and manage the group?s various computer archive sites. These groups exist
solely to engage in piracy and compete with each other to be the first to
place a newly pirated work onto the Internet - often before the work is
legitimately available to the public. Highly sophisticated technological
measures are employed by the groups to shield their illegal activity from
victims and law enforcement. </p>
<p>
The release groups targeted by Fastlink specialize in the distribution of all
types of pirated works including utility and application software, movies,
music and games. Among the groups targeted by Fastlink are well-known
organizations such as Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class and Project X, all of
which specialized in pirating computer games, and music release groups such as
APC. The enforcement action announced today is expected to dismantle many of
these international warez syndicates and significantly impact the illicit
operations of others. </p>
<p>
Operation Fastlink also resulted in the seizure of more than 200 computers,
including 30 computer servers that functioned as storage and distribution
hubs. These servers collectively contain hundreds of thousands of copies of
pirated works. One of the storage and distribution servers seized in the
United States reportedly contained 65,000 separate pirated titles. Other
servers seized, so-called ?elite? sites, contain the most highly coveted and
valuable ?new releases,? many of which were distributed to the warez scene
before they are commercially available to the general public. Although access
to these elite servers is limited, authorized users frequently provide the
first copies of new releases that are traded and distributed online throughout
the world within hours of their initial illegal release. Conservative
estimates of the value of the pirated works seized easily exceed $50 million.
Conservative projections of the losses to industry attributable to these
distribution hubs are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. </p>
<p>
Operation Fastlink has been conducted under the direction of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, and agents from 30 separate field offices across the
nation were involved in the enforcement action. The investigation has been
coordinated with the Justice Department?s CCIPS Section and federal
prosecutors from 42 separate United States Attorneys? Offices nationwide. </p>
<p>
The ongoing investigations were assisted by various intellectual property
trade associations, including the Business Software Alliance, the
Entertainment Software Association, the Motion Picture Association of America
and the Recording Industry Association of America. </p>
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<p class="none" align="center">###</p>
<p class="none">04-263</p>
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