Operation Site Down

Operation Site Down was the code name for one of the FBI and intelligence agencies from ten countries coordinated operation that was directed against the warez scene.

The operation consisted of three separate undercover projects in Chicago (Operation Jolly Roger ), Charlotte and San Jose (the largest, Operation Copycat ) were initiated. The highlight of the operation were carried out several raids on 29 June 2005. In the total of 90 house searches - including 70 in the United States and another 20 in ten other countries - were smashed several leading warez groups.

The primary goal of surgery were ISO - groups that dealt with the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted software and movies. Distributor of TV series, 0-day and music files were affected by the action relatively little.

Summary

The San Jose (Operation Copycat ) outgoing covert action sat among other things as follows:

  • A concealed acting FBI agent who " attacked " under the alias was known, to use two Gigabit UTC (provider Hurricane Electric ): LAD and CHUD
  • Chirayu Patel ( alias " nebula ") was site administrator at LAD and CHUD, both in Fremont (California), Patel's residence, were hosted.
  • Patel, not knowing what he was doing, won - through friends and other sources - some leading groups such as Centropy or TDA ( The Divine Alcoholics ) as a partner controlled by the FBI sites.
  • Over a period of two years, which the side LAD and CHUD online was, the FBI collected the IP addresses of some of the acting at the top provider of scene.
  • The FBI was given the address of Patel because he " attacked " the agent some motorsport DVDs sent by mail and had provided the envelope with return address.
  • The head of the Centropy group, which was known under the alias " marvel" and "cartel ", was arrested in Indiana.

In the action started in Chicago were also involved, among others, one with the FBI cooperating civilian, the server sat for the members of the group RiSCISO.

Affected groups / Topsites

Groups

  • RiSCISO (ISOs applications)
  • Myth (PC Games Rips )
  • TDA (ISOs applications)
  • LND ( ​​ISO's industrial applications, CAD / CAM)
  • GFZ (ISOs )
  • HOODLUM (ISOs PC Games)
  • VENGEANCE (ISOs PC Games)
  • Centropy (VCD, SVCD and DVDr movies)
  • WastedTime (VCD movies)
  • Alec 's Game Copying Service (ISOs PC and PS2 games)
  • ThP ( DIVx, TV DVDr and DVDr movies)
  • Corrupt ( DVDr movies)
  • Gamerz (ISOs PS2 and XBOX Games)
  • ADMITONE (VCD movies)
  • HELLBOUND ( DVDr and TV Movies DVDr )
  • KGS (VCD movies)
  • BBX ( ANIME DVDr )
  • GDR ( German Cine Group)
  • KHG ( ANIME DVDr )
  • NOX (VCD movies)
  • NFR (SVCD movies)
  • CDZ (ISOs PS2 and XBOX Games)
  • DO (VCD movies)
  • BHP ( TV DVDr and DVDr movies)

Affected Top-Referrer/Verteiler ( UTC )

  • LAD (U.S. West Coast, secret service controlled)
  • CHUD (U.S. West Coast, secret service controlled)
  • SC (U.S. West Coast )
  • VS (U.S. West Coast )
  • RSN (Netherlands)
  • TNA (California )
  • BB ( California )
  • TWH (Netherlands)
  • LW (Lithuania )

Shortly after learning of the action closed its doors several remaining pages and many still active members of the scene withdrew in order not to suffer the same fate as their " allies ".

Affected countries

Accuse

  • On July 14, 2005 due to the Copycat action four men were charged.
  • On July 28, 2005, eight men who were pried through the action in Charlotte, the criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy were indicted.
  • On August 4, 2005, a man in Northern California has been charged in relation to the " Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 ." This was the first prosecution, when this law came to bear.
  • Another five men were charged in Northern California on 17 November 2005.
  • On 1 February 2006, 19 men who were associated with the group RiSCISO, conspiracy to criminal copyright infringement were tried in Illinois.
Charlotte (North Carolina) Topsite (warez) Sysop Myth (warez) Computer-aided manufacturing
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