Centropy, founded in January 1999, was a warez

Warez

Warez refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar...

 group which specialized in the piracy

Copyright infringement of software

Copyright infringement of software=The copyright infringement of software refers to several practices which involve the unauthorized copying of computer software. Copyright infringement of this kind varies globally...

 of films. Touting many "0-day" and "negative day" releases, Centropy has notoriously released and pre-released numerous films. Among the most well known is their release of The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15,...

, before it was released to movie theater

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s in 2003. They primarily release DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

-Rips

Ripping

Ripping is the process of copying audio or video content to a hard disk, typically from removable media. The word is used to refer to all forms of media. Despite the name, neither the media nor the data is damaged after extraction....

, Telesync

Telesync

A telesync is a bootleg recording of a film recorded in a movie theater, often with a professional camera on a tripod in the projection booth , with a direct connection to the sound source...

s and Screener

Screener

A screener is an advance screening of a film sent to critics, awards voters, video stores , and other film industry professionals, including producers and distributors. A screener often has no post-processing....

s.

As of 2005, Centropy is still prominent in the film-piracy scene, and is generally known for releasing very high quality versions of films a few days/weeks after their release, rather than extremely fast (but lower quality) copies. Often their releases are known as "propers" - a title given to a pirated film release that is not the first available in a given format, but is of much higher visual/aural quality than the earlier releases. This has led to the development of the phrase well-known in the piracy scene - "I'll wait for a Centropy" - meaning that the writer is not satisfied with the particular release, and will wait for a higher-quality release. Similarly, if a release is said to be "Centropy quality", it is usually considered to be of high quality.

Centropy was a target of Operation Site Down

Operation Site Down

Operation Site Down is the umbrella name for a law enforcement initiative conducted by the FBI and law enforcement agents from ten other countries which resulted in a raid on targets on June 29, 2005. Three separate undercover investigations were involved, based in Chicago , Charlotte and San Jose...

, a major raid conducted by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies on June 29, 2005. Centropy responded to this with the inclusion of the following note in their release of Herbie: Fully Loaded

Herbie: Fully Loaded

Herbie: Fully Loaded is a 2005 American comedy film directed by Angela Robinson and produced by Robert Simonds for Walt Disney Pictures. It stars Lindsay Lohan as the youngest member of an automobile-racing family, Michael Keaton as her father, Matt Dillon as a competing racer, Breckin Meyer as...

:
There have been notices on the internet that the group apparently got caught in Wageningen, Netherlands.

More recently, the group has been quoted as "going internal". This means that any future releases they make will not be propagated throughout the internet, and will instead be limited to close affiliates of the group.

External links

• 'Matrix' sequel spotted on the Net - by CNet
  CNET
  CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
  
  News. Mentions Centropy by name.