Global InformationOperation Buccaneer information
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Operation Buccaneer is an "ongoing international copyright piracy investigation and prosecution" undertaken by the United States federal government.[1] It was part of a crackdown divided into three parts: Operation Bandwidth, Operation Buccaneer and Digital Piratez.[2]
An undercover operation began in October 2000.[3] On December 11, 2001, law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of violating software copyright, with leads in twenty other countries. U.S. law enforcement agents, led by the United States Customs Service, raided computers in the economics department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[4] the University of California, Los Angeles, an "off-campus location" of the University of Oregon, and dorm rooms at Duke University and Purdue University.[5] Information obtained led to a subsequent raid at the Rochester Institute of Technology,[6] described by "warez gadfly 'ttol'" as one of "the two major hubs for communications between pirate groups" (along with the University of Twente in the Netherlands).[7] However, the universities themselves were not considered targets of the criminal investigation.[8] Several software companies were also raided.[6]
"The Customs Service said it had singled out DrinkOrDie because it was considered one of the most sophisticated of the rings operating within a loose, global network."[5] The DrinkOrDie site, where non-free software could be downloaded for free, was shut down the following day.[5] However, Farhad Manjoo wrote in a Wired magazine article that others were puzzled why the group was targeted; Manjoo characterized them as "small potatoes in the world of software theft", while an anonymous Australian infringer was quoted as saying, "they aren't the first to come to mind when you think to yourself 'who's the big deal in the scene?'"[9]
Around 70[3] search warrants were served and 150[5] computers were seized for analysis. Raids were also conducted in Canada, Britain, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden.[4][10] Other groups investigated in the operation were warez groups such as Risciso, Razor 1911, RequestToSend (RTS), ShadowRealm (SRM), WeLoveWarez (WLW) and POPZ.[11][12]
Related law enforcement actions include: Operation Fastlink, Operation Digital Gridlock, Operation D-Elite and Operation Site Down.
- ^ "Operation Buccaneer: Overview". Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original on December 30, 2011. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
- ^ Wilson P. Dizard, III (2002-01-21). "Software piracy probe slowed by evidence glut: Prosecutors are reviewing 50T of data, plus leads from pirates who are cooperating with them, in a global 'warez' crackdown. (Law Enforcement)". Government Computer News. 21 (2). 1105 Media, Inc.
- ^ a b "Operation Buccaneer: The Investigation". Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
- ^ a b "MIT cooperating in six-nation computer piracy raid". MIT News. December 12, 2001. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Philip Shenon (December 12, 2001). "Internet Piracy Is Suspected as U.S. Agents Raid Campuses". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Philip Shenon (December 19, 2001). "U.S. Expands Investigation Into Piracy of Software". The New York Times.
- ^ Robert Lemos (December 19, 2001). "FBI raids cripple software pirates". CNET. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
- ^ Greg Farrell (December 12, 2001). "U.S. seizes computers in software piracy raids". USA Today.
- ^ Farhad Manjoo (December 13, 2001). "Were DrinkOrDie Raids Overkill?". Wired magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
- ^ Jasper Koning (December 20, 2001). "Dutch university targeted in piracy raids". CNET. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
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