How The FBI Dismantled a BitTorrent Community
Written by enigmax on June 30, 2008On June 25th 2005, the homepage of the EliteTorrents.org tracker displayed an ominous message. Thousands of members trying to log in to get a sneak peak at a leaked copy of Star Wars: Episode 3 were surprised and confused in equal numbers. Had the FBI really raided one of the largest BitTorrent communities and put up a badly made Word document, or were hackers to blame?
There’s no denying it was a very confusing day. For a while the site just didn’t respond for me. The rumors were starting to circulate. Had the EliteTorrents site really been raided by the FBI? Many furious refreshes later and there it was, a crude webpage with a blood-red background, with a DOJ graphic on one side and an FBI one on the other. In the middle sat part of the EliteTorrents banner (enlarge).
The page was so crude that it gave the tens of thousands of worried users a little relief - if the FBI was really behind the shutdown they would’ve made a better job of the page design than this, surely? The conclusion I reached along with many others was that this was the work of hackers. Site staff reported that the DNS had been hacked, which at the time was actually relatively good news, as reports started to come in that the site now traced to the Department of Homeland Security.
For many sci-fi fans the site downtime was really badly timed, as they (and just about everyone else) were desperate to get on the site to get the leaked ‘ViSA‘ workprint copy of Star Wars: Episode III. But as time passed you could feel the mood change. Most people knew deep down something was wrong but just didn’t want to admit it. Operation D-Elite had been and now EliteTorrents was gone.
When the confirmation came, it did so via a notice in the site’s IRC channel: “A few of the admins have been raided by the FBI, sorry, but ET [EliteTorrents] is now closed”, closely followed by an announcement by Acting Assistant Attorney General John C. Richter of the Criminal Division, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Michael J. Garcia, and Assistant Director Louis M. Reigel of the FBI’s Cyber Division:
This morning, agents of the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed 10 search warrants across the United States against leading members of a technologically sophisticated P2P network known as Elite Torrents. Employing technology known as BitTorrent, the Elite Torrents network attracted more than 133,000 members and, in the last four months, allegedly facilitated the illegal distribution of more than 17,800 titles - including movies and software - which were downloaded 2.1 million times.
BitTorrent sites had been shut down before in the United States, such as the LokiTorrent case, but none had been closed down by the FBI - something had changed. The recently introduced Family Entertainment and Copyright Act meant that when EliteTorrents admin Sk0t uploaded Star Wars: Episode III, he didn’t just commit a civil infringement, it was now a serious crime. The huge popularity of the movie meant it was downloaded at least 10,000 times during the first 24 hours with some claiming in the region of 20,000 downloads worldwide, and this was reportedly enough for the MPAA to finally lose its patience and make good on its successful infiltration of the site.
The federal agents involved in the case executed 10 warrants and took control of the server. In a recent interview, Scott McCausland, aka sk0t, an administrator of the site told Slyck: “Star Wars was uploaded… and then it was game over. I awoke one morning to see the FBI warning on the ET site, and thought to myself “Damn, I think we are screwed.” It didn’t dawn on me at the time that I could be a target. I didn’t upload a lot, just a couple movies. But I did Star Wars, so… Then, at 6AM I am woken up to the sounds of 6 FBI, 6 ICE, and 2 Local Police at my front door. They come in, confiscate everything, and that begins my 2+ years saga.”
In the BitTorrent community many people were absolutely furious at the loss of their favorite site, with a passion not seen since the demise of Suprnova. Thousands of others were panicking. Forums and IRC were awash with theories of who had been arrested so far and who would be targeted next by the FBI, and why. Would it be limited to admins? What about the uploaders? Would regular users be chased down? In the end, around 130,000 users had nothing to worry about but some admins and uploaders weren’t so lucky.
In 2006, Scott McCausland pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement for his uploading of Star Wars: Episode III. He received jail time and home confinement and on his release told TorrentFreak: “After 5 months in prison, and another 5 months on home confinement, I have just one obstacle left: my 1.5 years years left of probation.”
Fellow site admin Grant Stanley, then aged 23, pleaded guilty to the same offenses as Scott and received the same sentence with the addition of a $3,000 fine. Other admins and uploaders who pleaded guilty included Sam Kuonen, then aged 24, 22 year old Scott D. Harvanek and An Duc Do, aged 25.
Not everyone arrested in connection with the case pleaded guilty. Daniel Dove, an administrator of the site, opted for a ‘not guilty’ plea. For Dove, the gamble hasn’t paid off. The jury was told that Dove was responsible for managing and recruiting the crucial ‘uploaders’ on the site (original seeders) and that he also operated a server which was used to distribute pirate material. The jury believed it and found him guilty on one count each of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement.
Dove will be sentenced on September 9th 2008 where he, like some of the other admins, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, but is likely to receive substantially less.
Historically, the EliteTorrents case is an important one. Many BitTorrent trackers used to be hosted in the United States, but had been essentially scared or pressured to leave, largely due to direct or indirect MPAA pressure. Right up until the creation of the Family Entertainment Act, any action against sites would have taken place in the civil domain. The act coming into force gave the FBI the green light to get involved, much to the delight of the MPAA who possessed significant investigative powers but lacked the killer ability to quickly shut down a non-compliant site.
The MPAA loves to issue a stream of data about how much piracy went on at EliteTorrents (and a lot did go on), but it was the seeding of a movie, a single pre-release movie that eventually killed the entire site and caused the imprisonment of the admin team. Clearly the leak did nothing to hurt the movie as it went on to gross nearly $110m in its first weekend and has nearly reached a worldwide total of $1bn. But we knew that anyway.
Despite the massive resources at the disposal of the FBI and supposed importance of the case, the person that originally leaked the Episode 3 workprint copy direct from Lucas is nowhere to be seen.
Previously: 3-Strikes Law Not Needed to Disconnect Pirates
Next: Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent (wk26)
188 Responses (Add yours)
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And I for one hope that that guy is never seen or caught…. when they themselves have admitted that pre-releases dont cost them anything, its insane to get so strong armed.
Old story though, when they cant get their way and it keeps falling into the civil courts they change the laws to make in criminal… and poor souls get trapped.
Used to be that only in the US could you get screwed like this, bad sadly Sweden and a lot of other countries are feeling the influence from across the pond.
Cheers!
Wow, poor bastards, I still can’t believe a man can get jail just for sharing a movie.
I saw that movie twice and downloaded it the first day of release, but i also now have it on DVD…
If there worried about leaks they should do better at making there own staff responcible!
How can anyone not see the sheer corruption and injustice in all of this.. All I hear is ‘Its stealing! Its stealing!’
And what these big corporations are doing is better? Why do you allow them to be above the law?
Fact: Someone has to show them the way of the future, and knock down these tyrants of evil. Piracy is the only effective way, its like ants slowly killing a large powerful foe.. eventually.. sheer numbers will win out.
Continue eating away at these monsters, the swarm is a powerful weapon.
I was looking forward to hearing something new here… disappointing article tbh. Tell us something we don’t know plz?
“maximum sentence of 10 years in jail”
That is nuts. USA is retarded.
haha, good that these criminals got caught. Now they have to suuck huge black c*cks in prison! hahaha
@ 6 - zzzdff
Screw you, if your the one who can only think about it, it’s probably your favorite fantasy!
Why do you come to TorrentFreak, to irritate other or do you just want the news on how the cops are going to find all the child shit you look at?
enough said!
@4
Sorry if you’re disappointed, but we thought that it was a good idea to give an overview of what has happened in the eilitetorrents case over the years ;)
I personally think this case is underreported. People went to jail for seeding a movie….
I’m sure not everyone is a informed as you are…
10 years for uploading 1 movie…
2 years for raping/beating someone…
See, that’s equal
*cough*
Wow, the American legal system is a total disaster, if a man can be sent to jail for 10 years for shearing a movie. That means that all of the public libraries in the US would have to be shut down. This is fucking ridiculous, I say we overthrow the government and kill all of these fascist fucks that run our shit.
What a load of SH*T! As I always say, “It’s not innocence or guilt, it’s how much money you have and can spend”. On one hand I can’t believe the US government devoted time to this, on the other it just shows me anything is possibly under King Bush and minion Cheney! This just proves that our government, under Bush, cares more about big business since they (big business) are the ones that fatten their pockets the most! I HATE AMERICA! I am so embarrassed to be a citizen of this pathetic, look out for only the rich people country! Our President and Vice President are oil men who only look out for big business. Why else would Bush veto a bill to stop giving the oil companies $12+ billion in tax breaks! God help us if McCain becomes president! He is Bush’s mini-me! All young people get off of your asses and VOTE! If young people vote then Obama will win. We DO NOT need another rich old white man as president again! (I am Caucasian and I BELIEVE THAT!) We need to do something about this guy getting prison time. What a joke! Our prisons are already overflowing with pointless drug cases. We don’t need more people in prison that had no reason for even being tried! Lets stand up and protest, email, write letters and start petitions! Lets put something on the ballot that changes copyright law. Show the fat cats that we won’t stand for big business pushing us around because they have money for lobbyist and bribes! This should be the straw that breaks the camel’s back! We will not stand for one of “us” being put in prison with rapist, pedophiles and murders because some greedy extortionist company wants even more money because they’re not happy with the billions in profits that they already make every year! I SAY STAND UP!!! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE! FREE DANIEL DOVE!
They might of leak it them selfs to Sk0t to start the ball rolling and get the FPI involved.
@11: It was allegedly a Hollywood
insider that initially distributed
the workprint release of RoTS.
The only effective way to take action against them is to defy them in the open - file-share in the eye of the public. Perhaps distributing CDs in the streets or something, but it must be public.
if its rele a gud movie ppl will buy it, if not dey save $10 and lose 1GB of bandwith. Legalize P2P, ITS FAIR
This is the way to dismantle the RIAA - have someone, preferably someone the public would sympathize with, distribute CDs on the streets, so that that people will know that there is a problem of copyright that they cannot ignore.
This is fuckin hidious, I can’t believe people are sentenced to jail for sharing a file!!! this is fuckin retarded.
MPAA should fuck off, and I still don;t know why the FBI is investigating this case? National Security is on the line? o.O
I hope they’ll take down more torrentsites that distribute copyrighted material to the public.
I can see the couble moral filesharers have. They think it should be legal to download copyrighted material. But stealing money from someone or commit a bank robbery should be illegal. L0LZ!
Most filesharers have an IQ of 50.
@ #16
and judging by your grammar most anti-file sharers have an IQ of 10.
@16
I have deprived you of nothing by copying a file and, according to the psych evaluation I had during High School, My IQ is in the 160s.
What you’re essentially saying is that you want the law to for me to give you money even if what you’re selling is worthless crap that I wouldn’t have paid for even if I couldn’t have previewed it on P2P.
Oh, and I’m actually living below the poverty line, so good luck getting any money out of me. Given how many CDs I used for backups, The CRIA (I’m Canadian) actually owes ME money from all the subsidies they get on blank media sales here. The more music I download without explicitly paying for it, the more fair things will get in my case.
Department of Homeland Security? You’re telling me the people who are supposed to make the U.S. not get blown up by terrorists spend their time hunting prerelease uploaders?
And what was the time between the Star Wars upload and the raid? The article makes it sound like it was overnight, surely it took a decent amount of time?
@18 and @19
It seems like #16 is not an anti-file-sharer, but merely someone with really bad grammar, so you misunderstood whatever this person was saying, although it is very difficult to understand (because it has bad grammar).
The most apt analogy is not shoplifting from a store, but rather, copying materials from a store. Imagine there were a device that could copy physical objects so that there were multiple copies of them. Then this would be a marvelous way to supply everyone with food, and to reduce the price of distribution and mass production to zero. To copy things on a computer is like that - one is copying things, so that essentially this copying supplies everyone with culture, with no distribution or mass production costs at all.
“@18 and @19
It seems like #16 is not an anti-file-sharer, ”
for some reason the numbers are no longer the same. I was talking about the asshat that wrote “I hope they’ll take down more torrentsites that distribute copyrighted material to the public.” etc.
> “I can see the couble moral filesharers have. They think it should be legal to download copyrighted material. But stealing money from someone or commit a bank robbery should be illegal. L0LZ!”
Bank Robbery = Stealing
File Sharing = Not Stealing
:)
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