- Operation Buccaneer
-
On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as Operation Buccaneer, law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries.
U.S. law enforcement agents, led by the United States Customs Service, raided MIT, RIT, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Oregon, Duke and Purdue, as well as several software companies. Raids were also conducted in Canada, Britain, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Many computers were seized and people questioned.
Five people were arrested in England; in the United States, no arrests were made on the day of the raids, pending review of materials seized.
In the United States, 70 [1] search warrants were served and approximately 130 computers were seized.
The DrinkOrDie site, where software could be downloaded for free, was also shut down that day.
The raid at MIT was in the economics department; the University of Oregon raid at an off-campus location; the Duke raid in the campus dormitory of a male undergraduate. The universities themselves were not considered targets of the criminal investigation.
Related law enforcement actions include: Operation Fastlink, Operation Gridlock, and Operation D-Elite, Operation Site Down.
Contents
Individuals raided
- HiTech666 – (ex-PWZ / ex-FTS / ex-Razor 1911 / Myth / DEViANCE / RTS) – Montreal, Canada
- thraxis – (raided but released without charge [700 cds and computer taken], RiSC / PGC / DoD) – Queensland, Australia
- bigrar (Christopher Tresco) – (MIT employee, DoD council / RiSC / ex-MnM / ex-PSF (Proper Stuff)) – Boston, Massachusetts
- buj – (DoD council / former RTS senior / Razor 1911 / former CORPGODS leader / ex-PGC) – Durham, North Carolina)
- eRUPT – (author of RuptBot!, DoD / Remorse) – Miami, Florida
- shark – (Police Officer, RatzHole siteop (RHi-West Coast), WLW / Razor 1911 / DoD) – Sydney, Australia
- avec – (former FTS / RTS / RiSe / former DoD council / Razor 1911)
- hackrat – (RatzHole Siteop (RHi-West Coast), WLW / Razor 1911 / DoD) – California
- maverick – (SKiDRoW / DoD council)
- Maverick – (ex Street Spydrs SysOP DoD / Razor 1911), Oklahoma City
- bandido (Hew Raymond Griffiths) – (Razor 1911 / DoD council / RiSC council) - New South Wales, Australia
- eriflleh – (DoD council) – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- forcekill – (DoD) – Turku, Finland
- radsl – (Systems Engineer at Symantec, DoD / popz founder) – Eugene, Oregon
- ievil – (ircop, DoD / Razor 1911)
- doc-x – (DoD council) – Miami, Florida
- Dark_Mercy29 – (Raided in New Zealand but released with no charges no evidence, DoD Elder / Founder)
- jozef – (RogueWarriorz) – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Elisa – (ex-DoD / EGO / RogueWarriorz) – San Jose, California
- Bierkrug – (RogueWarriorz) – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Lord Hacker – (RogueWarriorz)
- Axxess – (RogueWarriorz) – Washington
- Waldorf – (RogueWarriorz)
- Demonfurby – (RogueWarriorz)
- Dr Infothief – (RogueWarriorz) – Long Island, New York
- Prentice – (RogueWarriorz) – Seattle, Washington
- peaces – (RogueWarriorz) – Chicago, Illinois
- ThrawN – (raided but released without charge, DiSTiNCT / CLASS) – Western Australia
- tyson – (PARADOX / eminence / period) – Newfoundland, Canada
- superiso – (raided but released without charge, inferno)
- avalanche – (RiSC / DoD)
- doodad – (pop)
- tenkuken – (DoD)
- heckler – (TiL)
- zielin – (TFL / WLW / OTFW)
- sui – (TFL / WLW)
- chevelle – (Dallas, Texas)
- warpzed – (Arlington, Texas)
- billyjoe – (Austin, Texas)
- worp – (RiSC / DoD/ BEAN / DiSTiNCT)
- ^stealth – Oregon
- BaLLz – (CSR)
- morph – (Neo)
- Sony
- sAVo – (sVO)
- spaceace Anthony Buchanan (Eugene, Oregon - IT administrator University of Oregon)
- Raptor – (non-member / Neo/ Not Charged)
Individuals charged/convicted/sentenced
- John Riffe age 32, of Port St. John, Florida, pled guilty on May 9, 2010 to one felony count charging criminal copyright infringement. Riffe, used the screen name pseudonyms "blue" and "blueadept", and was a member of the warez groups ShadowRealm (SRM) and EXODUS. John Riffe has since been released from prison.
Raid locations
Countries United States cities - Atlanta, Georgia
- Austin, Texas
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Chicago, Illinois
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Eugene, Oregon
- Dallas, Texas
- Durham, North Carolina
- Cocoa Beach, Florida
- Houston, Texas
- Miami, Florida
- New Haven, Connecticut
- New York, New York
- Newark, New Jersey
- Norfolk, Virginia
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Orlando, Florida
- Oxnard, California
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Portland, Oregon
- Rochester, New York
- San Francisco, California
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Washington, D.C.
- Wilmington, Delaware
Quotations
- "This investigation underscores the severity and scope of a multibillion-dollar software swindle over the Internet, as well as the vulnerabilities of this technology to outside attack."
- — Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of the Customs Service
- "Our targets are not your stereotypical teenage hacker."
- — Customs assistant commissioner John Varrone
- "This is not a sport. This is a serious crime. These people should do some hard time."
- "Software piracy undermines the stability of the burgeoning e-commerce industry and it is a direct threat to innovative companies that help strengthen the U.S. economy."
- — Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam
- "This investigation only assist the multibillion-dollar companies to swindle you, the avid consumer, as well as the vulnerable people that deem information should be free, sure we would like people to buy the games they test play, but it doesn't happen because people have to pay #$ a gallon for gas and shit. Technology is to be used for the good of all, not some fat ass company man who doesn't know the first thing from a rar to a iso...... Gravy is awful good."
- — buj, Member of razor 1911
External links
- Official webpage DrinkorDie Webpage.
- Operation Buccaneer US DOJ web pages.
- Operation Buccaneer Defendants Chart
- Federal Law Enforcement Targets International Internet Piracy Syndicates: Multiple Enforcement Actions Worldwide Snare Top "Warez" Leadership – U.S. Department of Justice, December 11, 2001
- Cryptome article on busts
- FBI raids cripple software pirates – (CNet) reports on the raid.
- U.S. Expands Investigation Into Piracy of Software – New York Times article on the raid.
- U.S. seizes computers in software piracy raids – USA Today article on the raids (includes Microsoft's public "response")
- Dutch university targeted in piracy raids – (CNet) article on raid at University of Twente
- MIT cooperating in six-nation computer piracy raid – MIT university news reacts to bust of employee Christopher Tresco a.k.a. bigrar.
- Stort tillslag mot internationellt nätverk för piratkopiering – Swedish language newspaper article on the raid.
- Warez Scene news feed on the raid
- Internet Piracy Is Suspected as U.S. Agents Raid Campuses – The New York Times, December 12, 2001
- Feds Zero In on Piracy Ring – Associated Press, 2:55 p.m. December 11, 2001 PST
- Were DrinkOrDie raids overkill? – Wired News, 02:00 a.m. Dec. 13, 2001 PST
- Article on Operation Digital Pirates. – Nashua Telegraph, Mar. 8, 2004
- Internet piracy trio sent to jail – BBC News UK Edition, May 6, 2005
References
Categories:- Copyright enforcement
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