CNN.com - 17 indicted in alleged software theft scam - May 5, 2000

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This is a full reprint of the CNN article published at this URL:

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/05/05/software.pirates/

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17 INDICITED IN ALLEGED SOFTWARE THEFT SCAM

May 5, 2000
Web posted at: 7:49 PM EDT (2349 GMT)

CHICAGO (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has indicted 17 people for allegedly
conspiring to infringe the copyright of more than 5,000 computer software
programs that were available through a hidden Internet site.

"This group is one of the oldest and most sophisticated networks of
software pirates anywhere in the world," said Scott R. Lassar, U.S.
Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. "These defendants are
accused of illegally reproducing copyrighted software and distributing it
over the Internet."

Twelve of those indicted allegedly were members of an underground
international group known as "Pirates with Attitudes" that disseminates
stolen software, including programs not yet commercially available, the
Justice Department said. These included a Microsoft Corp. employee who
allegedly supplied company programs to the group members and to the
Internet site.

The remaining five defendants were employees of Intel Corp., four of whom
allegedly supplied computer hardware to the piracy organization in
exchange for obtaining access for themselves and other Intel employees to
the group's pirated software, which had a retail value of more than $1
billion, the statement said.

The investigation was made public with the February 3 arrest of Robin
Rothberg, of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, identified as a leader of
the group by the Justice Department.

"This is the most significant investigation of copyright infringement
involving the use of the Internet conducted to date by the FBI," said
Kathleen McChesney, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago Field
Division. "It demonstrated the FBI's ability to successfully investigate
very sophisticated on-line criminal activity."

Each of the 17 defendants was charged with one count of conspiracy to
infringe copyrights, which carries a maximum prison term of five years
upon conviction, along with a $250,000 fine plus possible additional
financial penalties.

They will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

As part of the conspiracy, the PWAs had a site, known as Sentinel and
located at the University of Sherbrooke in the Canadian province of
Quebec, where they illegally uploaded and copied files -- including
copyright software files, the Justice Department said.

The programs allegedly included operating systems, utilities, applications
such as word processing and data analysis programs, and games and MP3
music files.

The members of the group were assigned roles: "crackers" stripped away the
copy protection often embedded in commercially released software;
"couriers" transferred software to the group; "packagers" tested and
prepared programs for release by couriers; and "suppliers" funneled
programs from major software companies to the group, the Justice
Department said.

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