Interesting article on the big WAREZ raid...
 

Justice Dept. nets pirates in 'Fastlink' raids

"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."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr..._id=1000494996

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Perhaps a harbinger of things to come to the adult industry in the months before November?

I'm no fan of warez, it's always been a dopey game, but I can't say I think much of justice dept strategy and tactics either.

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more from the article:

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."

Just more of the government spending lots of money and time on a problem that could be taken care of other ways.

Don't want your software copied put copy protection in it, same goes for music and movies.

Apple does this with itunes music, plays on up to 3 devices. Doesn't work on more then that since it needs a key from a server and the server will not give a key to more then 3 devices.

Quark does this with their software QuarkXPress. After you install it a fingerprint of your hardware is generated and a key based on this fingerprint is then created from Quark's server. Completely put an end to QuarkXPress being pirated.

Note, you can burn CD's of iTunes music and the format of CDs is too old to support copy protection. You could then rip that music back to MP3, but you do loose quality and all meta info is lost and is basically is a time consuming hassle just to save .99¢.