Operation Site Down
Encyclopedia
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
(Operation Jolly Roger), Charlotte
and San Jose
(Operation Copycat). The raid consisted of approximately 70 searches in the United States and approximately 20 others in ten other countries in an effort to disrupt and dismantle many of the leading warez
groups which distribute and trade in copyright
ed software, movie
s, music
and game
s on the Internet
.
On February 1, 2006, the U.S. Attorney's Office under Patrick Fitzgerald
announced that it was indicting nineteen members of Risciso
, a software and movie piracy ring, in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The lead prosecutor for the government in this case was Assistant U.S. Attorney Pravin Rao.
Up to May 6, 2008, there had been over 40 convictions as a result of the ongoing investigation. As part of each plea agreement, each defendant has agreed to forfeit the equipment that was seized during the federal search warrants executed on June 29, 2005. The current tally is:
Operation Site Down has primarily targeted ISO
(movies and software) groups. TV
, 0-day, and MP3
groups seem relatively unaffected.
s include:
Affected warez sites include:
While few arrests had been made by the time of the first press releases, repercussions ran deep in the warez scene. Countless sites closed as a direct response to the busts, and many active scene members went into hiding.
Ryan Zeman, 23, of Rohnert Park, California, was sentenced to three years probation, four months home confinement, four months community confinement, and required to pay $120,000 in restitution. On October 3, 2005, Zeman pleaded guilty to violating the NET Act, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(c)(1), and aiding and abetting.
Gregory Dickman, 25, of Wilmington, North Carolina, was sentenced to 8 months home confinement, three years of probation and ordered to pay $31,515 in restitution. On April 10, 2006, Dickman pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and to violating the NET Act, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(c)(1), and aiding and abetting.
Johnny Russell, 34, of Spring, Texas, was sentenced to 8 months in a community confinement facility, three years of probation, and ordered to pay a $11,508 in restitution. On April 10, 2006, Russell pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and to violating the NET Act, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(c)(1), and aiding and abetting.
is a fictional take on the actual piracy scene. Some claims have been made that there are coincidences between the series and actual events.
The main character is Brian Sandro, an NYU student, who also pirates Hollywood movies in his spare time. Sandro heads the movie release group, CPX.
In episode nine, released in the beginning of June 2005, Sandro, whose IRC alias is Drosan, is messaged by a member named Gryffin. Gryffin was earlier looking for members of CPX in a different IRC channel. Gryffin's friend's father apparently works at a film studio and Gryffin is asking to be a supplier to CPX. The Gryffin character in the scene comes off as a little mysterious, but otherwise harmless.
However, it was pointed out that his name is similar to the nickname of the actual lead FBI agent, Griffen, responsible for the busts in Operation Site Down. Also, in the messaging session between Drosan and Gryffin, the music playing in the background periodically says "He works for the FBI" in a trancelike fashion.
Jun Productions, the creators of The Scene, deny all accounts that they had insider information about the arrests and that the similarities are only coincidences.
However, according to a Slyck posting, Gryffin the character and Griffen the FBI agent shared the same BNC the.yankees-suck.net. The vhost resolves to Hurricane Electric, which is the location of the two Fed topsites: CHUD and LAD.
Furthermore, Bruce Forrest, who was quoted in a Wired article as a self-proclaimed "double agent
", was an active correspondent for The Scene series. While Jun Productions claim that Forrest had no involvement in the ninth episode (he supposedly left on his own terms after the eighth episode), some speculate that it could have been an elaborate warning by Forrest about the impending Federal arrests.
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
investigations were involved, based in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(Operation Jolly Roger), Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
- CHARLOTTE :CHARLOTTE is an American blues-based hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1986. Currently, they are signed to indie label, Eonian Records, under which they released their debut cd, Medusa Groove, in 2010. Notable Charlotte songs include 'Siren', 'Little Devils',...
and San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
(Operation Copycat). The raid consisted of approximately 70 searches in the United States and approximately 20 others in ten other countries in an effort to disrupt and dismantle many of the leading 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...
groups which distribute and trade in copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ed software, movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
On February 1, 2006, the U.S. Attorney's Office under Patrick Fitzgerald
Patrick Fitzgerald
Patrick J. Fitzgerald is the current United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel...
announced that it was indicting nineteen members of Risciso
Risciso
Risciso was an online warez group, founded in approximately 1993, dedicated to distributing newly-released copyrighted software, games and movies...
, a software and movie piracy ring, in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The lead prosecutor for the government in this case was Assistant U.S. Attorney Pravin Rao.
Up to May 6, 2008, there had been over 40 convictions as a result of the ongoing investigation. As part of each plea agreement, each defendant has agreed to forfeit the equipment that was seized during the federal search warrants executed on June 29, 2005. The current tally is:
- 118 computers;
- 13 laptops;
- 4,567 infringed CDs and DVDs;
- 413 VHS tapes and floppies;
- 28 keyboards and monitors;
- 5 digital cameras;
- 28 PlayStations and Xboxes;
- 7 computer towers; and
- 1 plasma TVPlasma displayA plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
, cell phones, speakers, an MP3 player, and a DSL modem.
Operation Site Down has primarily targeted ISO
ISO image
An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...
(movies and software) groups. TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, 0-day, and MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
groups seem relatively unaffected.
Summary
The San Jose-based undercover investigation proceeded as follows:- An FBI undercover agent, who went by the alias griffen, created two California Gigabit Top Sites (located at Hurricane Electric): LAD and CHUD
- Chirayu Patel (nebula), a member of Boozers, becomes a SiteOp on LAD and CHUD which are both hosted in Fremont, CA (which is where Patel resides).
- Patel, through his friends and sources, acquired major groups affiliates such as Centropy and TDA (The Divine Alcoholics) to the two fed topsites.
- Over the two years that both LAD and CHUD were online, the FBI collected IPs of some of the top piracy providers.
- FBI was able to get Patel's address because he sent griffen some motorcycle stunt DVDs via mail and gave his return address on the envelope
- Centropy leader, who went by the alias of both 'marvel' and 'cartel,' was arrested in Indiana.
- The Centropy Herbie release was on the server pre'd, meaning that even though the Herbie release was released a day after the raids, it had already been available on topsites.
Groups/sites affected
Affected warez groupWarez
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...
s include:
- RiSCiSO / -iSORiscisoRisciso was an online warez group, founded in approximately 1993, dedicated to distributing newly-released copyrighted software, games and movies...
(iso utils) - MythMyth (warez)Myth was a warez group, focused on cracking and ripping PC games. Besides ripped games, the group also released trainers and cracked updates for games.-History:Myth was formed in February 2000, in a merger between Origin and Paradigm....
(PC-game rips) - TDA (iso utils)
- LND (iso industry utils, e.g. CAD/CAM)
- GFZ (courier group- US/KR iso division)
- HOODLUM (PC-game iso)
- VENGEANCE (PC-game iso)
- CentropyCentropyCentropy, founded in January 1999, was a warez group which specialized in the piracy 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, before it was...
(vcd, svcd and dvdr movies) - WastedTime (vcd movies)
- Alec's Game Copying Service (PC Games, PS2)
- ThP (divx, TV-dvdr and dvdr movies)
- Corrupt (dvdr movies)
- GAMERZ (ps2/Xbox games iso)
- ADMITONE (vcd movies)
- HELLBOUND (dvdr movies, TV-dvdr, classic dvdr)
- KGS (vcd movies)
- BBX (anime dvdr)
- KHG (anime dvdr)
- NOX (vcd movies)
- NFR (svcd movies)
- CDZ (ps2/Xbox games iso)
- TUN (vcd movies)
- BHP (TV-dvdr and dvdr movies)
- MACiSO (RiSCiSO /OSX iso games and utils division )
- DVDiSO (RiSCiSO / classic movies division)
Affected warez sites include:
- RM1 and RM2 (RiSCiSO Main / RM2 link provided by Chicago FBI)
- LAD (West-coast US, hardware/link provided by undercover agents)
- CHUD (West-coast US, hardware/link provided by undercover agents)
- SC (West-coast US, link provided by undercover agents)
- VS (West-coast US, link provided by undercover agents)
- RSN (Netherlands, busted?)
- TNA (California, busted?)
- BB (California, busted?)
- TWH (Netherlands, busted?)
- TEN (Eastcoast, US)
- LW (Lithuania, busted?)
While few arrests had been made by the time of the first press releases, repercussions ran deep in the warez scene. Countless sites closed as a direct response to the busts, and many active scene members went into hiding.
Sentences
Mark G. Carter II (a.k.a. Burner), 29, of Upland, California, was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment, and ordered to pay $34,964 in restitution. Judge Whyte also sentenced the defendant to a three year period of supervised release. On December 12, 2005, Carter pleaded guilty to one count of violating the NET Act and to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. The defendant began serving the sentence on October 26, 2006.Ryan Zeman, 23, of Rohnert Park, California, was sentenced to three years probation, four months home confinement, four months community confinement, and required to pay $120,000 in restitution. On October 3, 2005, Zeman pleaded guilty to violating the NET Act, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(c)(1), and aiding and abetting.
Gregory Dickman, 25, of Wilmington, North Carolina, was sentenced to 8 months home confinement, three years of probation and ordered to pay $31,515 in restitution. On April 10, 2006, Dickman pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and to violating the NET Act, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(c)(1), and aiding and abetting.
Johnny Russell, 34, of Spring, Texas, was sentenced to 8 months in a community confinement facility, three years of probation, and ordered to pay a $11,508 in restitution. On April 10, 2006, Russell pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and to violating the NET Act, 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319(c)(1), and aiding and abetting.
Similarities to The Scene miniseries
An online film series titled The SceneThe Scene (miniseries)
The Scene was a miniseries created by Jun Group Entertainment. This first-of-its-kind film was targeted to peer-to-peer users, both in distribution, subject and style....
is a fictional take on the actual piracy scene. Some claims have been made that there are coincidences between the series and actual events.
The main character is Brian Sandro, an NYU student, who also pirates Hollywood movies in his spare time. Sandro heads the movie release group, CPX.
In episode nine, released in the beginning of June 2005, Sandro, whose IRC alias is Drosan, is messaged by a member named Gryffin. Gryffin was earlier looking for members of CPX in a different IRC channel. Gryffin's friend's father apparently works at a film studio and Gryffin is asking to be a supplier to CPX. The Gryffin character in the scene comes off as a little mysterious, but otherwise harmless.
However, it was pointed out that his name is similar to the nickname of the actual lead FBI agent, Griffen, responsible for the busts in Operation Site Down. Also, in the messaging session between Drosan and Gryffin, the music playing in the background periodically says "He works for the FBI" in a trancelike fashion.
Jun Productions, the creators of The Scene, deny all accounts that they had insider information about the arrests and that the similarities are only coincidences.
However, according to a Slyck posting, Gryffin the character and Griffen the FBI agent shared the same BNC the.yankees-suck.net. The vhost resolves to Hurricane Electric, which is the location of the two Fed topsites: CHUD and LAD.
Furthermore, Bruce Forrest, who was quoted in a Wired article as a self-proclaimed "double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
", was an active correspondent for The Scene series. While Jun Productions claim that Forrest had no involvement in the ninth episode (he supposedly left on his own terms after the eighth episode), some speculate that it could have been an elaborate warning by Forrest about the impending Federal arrests.
External links
- 'Operation Site Down' Attacks Organized Piracy Networks in 10 Countries, press release by the US Department of Justice (June 30, 2005)
- First "Operation Site Down" Indictment Charges Four Defendants with Copyright Violations Following Undercover "Warez" Investigation, press release by the US Department of Justice (July 14, 2005)
- Justice Department Announces Eight Charged in Internet Piracy Crackdown, press release by the US Department of Justice (July 28, 2005)
- Defendant Indicted for Camcording Films in Movie Theaters and for Distributing the Films on Computer Networks, press release by the US Department of Justice on Salisbury charge (August 4, 2005)
- First Guilty Plea to New Federal Law Prohibiting Camcording Films in Movie Theaters Missouri Theater Employee First Conviction in "Operation Copycat", press release by the US Department of Justice on Salisbury plea (September 26, 2005)
- Second Guilty Plea in Connection with Operation Copycat, press release by the US Department of Justice on Zeman plea (October 3, 2005)
- Five New Defendants Charged with Internet-based Movie Piracy, Plus Software and Games Piracy, press release by the US Department of Justice (November 17, 2005)
- 10 Convictions to Date for Internet-based Piracy of Movies, Software and Games in Operation Copycat, press release by the US Department of Justice (January 9, 2006)
- Ten Additional Defendants Charged with Violating Copyright Laws as Part of Operation Copycat, press release by the US Department of Justice (January 26, 2006)
- (Dead Link) 19 Indicted in $6.5 Million "RiSCISO" Software Piracy Conspiracy, press release by the US Department of Justice (February 1, 2006)
- Five Additional Defendants Charged with Violating Copyright Laws, press release by the US Department of Justice (April 6, 2006)
- Press Release - Thirtieth copyright conviction as part of Operation Copycat - Includes Film Critic Who Admitted to Selling Over 100 Movies For Illegal Distribution.
- US Law - 'Operation Copycat' Nets Four Men Sentenced and Another Film Critic Pleads Guilty - US Attorney Report