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Justice Dept. nets pirates in 'Fastlink' raids



WASHINGTON -- Undercover agents across the world raided suspected Internet download sites, including one in an Arizona school system, in an effort to break the command-and-control structure of highly sophisticated Internet pirate rings.

"Operation Fastlink" identified more than 100 people in the United States and abroad involved in the theft of more than $50 million worth of music, movies and software, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Thursday.

"Intellectual property theft is a global problem that hurts economies around the world," Ashcroft said. "To be effective, we must respond globally."

More than 120 searches were conducted Wednesday in a 24-hour period in 27 states and 10 countries in an effort to dismantle so-called "warez" networks known by such names as Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class, Project X and APC, he said. more than 200 computers, including 30 that served as storage and distribution hubs containing thousands of copies of pirated material. One server seized in the United States contained 65,000 separate pirated titles, authorities said.

"Warez networks exist solely to engage in theft," Ashcroft said. Calling them "highly sophisticated," and "highly structured" organizations that "direct day-to-day operations."

No arrests were immediately announced, but Ashcroft said they were coming. Among the countries in which FBI searches have been conducted are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and Great Britain.

While people on the Warez networks tend not to make money off of their workings, they are a central distribution point for illegal movies, sound recordings and software before they are released in the theaters or on the store shelves. Warez people try to be the first guy out there to post a movie that's not in the theaters or the latest music titles, said agents working on the case.

"It's not a for-profit enterprise," said on fed. "That's how people in the warez scene improve their reputations. ... For profit is actually looked down upon."

The agents said that the community is made up of a wide range of people who often have families and good jobs and are extremely good with a computer, though there are some digital neophytes among the suspects. If convicted of violating the federal copyright law they could face up to five years in jail.

"They do profit in that they get the keys to the candy store," said another one of the agents working on the on-going investigation. "They do so knowing that it will be distributed widely."

Ashcroft and the agents refused to say how they nabbed the suspects or how they stopped the computer savvy warez community from telling everyone on the networks what was going on. One agent said their techniques differ from the ones used by the music industry in catching P2P users who illegally share files. The MPAA, the RIAA, the Entertainment Software Assn. and the Business Software Alliance all cooperated with the department in the raid, Ashcroft said.

The raids, which were in the making for about two years, are an example of the importance the Justice Department puts on intellectual property crimes, Ashcroft said.

"This is a priority for the Justice Department," he said. "We are committed to combating this theft and will pursue these thieves regardless of their location."




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