FBI wastes Money, Game Industry Trashes IP and More!
And now the exciting conclusion to 'Interview with a Pirate.'
TG: How many busts did you 'live' threw during your stint in pirating?
WS: I can only remember about four busts during what I would call my serious activities, which started when I moved to IRC.
TG: Were you ever part of or connected to RiSCISO?
WS: No, for the most part I stuck to what is called the 0day scene. Being on dial-up as I was I never became interested in the ISO scene until very late in my career. At that point in time I was so entrenched in the 0day scene that switching didn't really make sense, so I just transfered it on the side, it never went beyond that.
TG: Have you heard anything regarding the recent bust that may not have made it to the mainstream media?
WS: When I left the scene I pretty much cut myself off from any contacts I had. I have maintained only two contacts from my time but both of them left the scene before the bust so my information isn't from a ' well connected' source anymore . That said I have heard two things that most reports fail to mention. First off, the bust was actually an extension of the Centropy bust which was called Operation Site Down. That bust was also linked to three other busts around the same time, Operation Fastlink, Operation Gridlock, Operation D-Elite.
There is also speculation that the FBI received its information from an inside informant, which was also done in the Centropy bust. The difference here is that the FBI hasn't stated this themselves (that I have seen), and unlike the Centropy busts, the piraters have no idea who it is or what it is that they do for the scene. To put it in perspective, for Operation Site Down they knew very quickly that 'griffen' was an FBI Agent and that he had created two 'top sites' for piraters to use.
TG: Do you feel that the busts will have any lasting changes on the warez scene?
WS: In the long run, no. But in the short term the FBI will probably be able to say that things slowed down. Movies and games took a bit longer to hit the scene, but this is in the very short term. I would suspect that the scene is back to normal about now.
Its unfortunate that all this money was wasted to try and bust these people and it won't have much of an impact. Most people who begin pirating never take it to that level, or even know that the levels exists but all those people can be replaced, and they will be.
Personally I feel that this battle is much like the losing drug war that the government keeps running. They just keep doing these things because they have to, to please certain people or lobby groups that want to see stuff happening. Pirating is always going to be a problem and no matter what its going to happen as long as we have certain freedoms. I also believe that the ridiculous DRMs that keep being placed on software and CDs is just making people in the know that much more annoyed. And those people in the know are the ones companies have to worry about, since they have the ability to do something about these shady business practices, the latest example being Sony BMG's rootkit.
As I said before the scene wasn't created as a way to make profit, or to hurt businesses. It was created to show your abilities at removing software protection and the best way to popularize that is by distributing it to others. I am not justifying it, but that is the reason that these busts won't stop them, piraters still want to show off to other people.
TG: No one has asked you any direct question on the blog but would you like to respond to some of the various comments made?
WS: Sure, I will just copy + paste the snippets that I am referring to for simplicity.
The reason I decided not to use my real name is pretty simple. For starters I am not a legal expert so I am not, with 100% certainty, sure that the FBI couldn't come after me even though I have stopped pirating. Secondly, I work in the software industry and you could see that if a company found out I admitted to this level of piracy they might be weary to hire me. Say what you want about that, I am sure you have your opinions, which I will probably agree with.
Another thing I wanted to address from your post is that of my age. I started pirating when I was 12years old. Of course I was naive then and didn't realize what I was doing or that it was hurting anyone. But I am not a teenager or anything of that nature now and yet I still don't see my actions as something so horrible. There is a big assumption that piraters are all snot nosed teenagers who sit in their parents basement hacking away on their keyboard. This idea is WAY off. Most of the people who run the groups or are at the high levels of pirating are in the industry, part of the industry or some combination thereof, the snot nosed kids and college students are normally the lower or lowest levels on the food chain.
Reply By: Night TrainPosted: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 He didn't get caught officially because he smartened up when the heat came down, I assume. Addictions cause people to make mistakes. It doesn't sound like he made any mistakes except being a criminal. He knew what he was doing all along and knew how to stay out of trouble. In time he will find something else, he is most likely a lifelong criminal.
Certainly agreed with you until the whole "lifelong criminal" assumption came into play. As a matter of fact I don't have anything on my record and have never done anything wrong except a speeding ticket. I don't have any plans to continue my 'lifelong criminal' activities and probably won't do anything like it again. I could go on like this but I really don't think there is a point to defending myself against an assumption as asinine as that.
Reply By: Ryan (Pobble)(Anonymous User)Posted: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 Pirating, in my opinion, forces movie, application and game developers to create better products. They see all these people are pirating because to be honest the crap is not worth our money. Who wants to pay 10 dollars to see a shitty movie in the theater when you can see it a week after it comes out on your computer for free?
I will buy a movie or game if it is very well done. They deserve my money in this case. Other times, definitely not. Also, most applications are free anyway, but for the pay apps, IMO they are WAY too overpriced.
I've pirated, i've been caught, I haven't changed my ways. But i'm a casual one. No release groups or anything =P.
Oh, and by the way, there have been numerous studies into the 'losses' of these companies, and there has been minimal losses over the years, and still huge sale numbers near holidays (as expected). The music industry especially is a huge lot of whiners. As a whole they've lost almost no revenue. And it still makes huge killings off horrible copycat bands and artists who have no talent and shouldn't be musicians anyway.
Blah Blah. I have to run to class now, enjoy your whining.
I can't say that I agree with you here. I WISH it did make the products better but in the end it really doesn't. People still buy the shitty product because there always someone with money to burn to support them, or with no knowledge to know that the product is bad. The biggest abuser of this mindset is probably the video game industry, although the movie industry also does it.
That industry will see one company get one hit franchise on the first iteration and then ride it to death for a few years. This can be seen with Ubisoft and its Tom Clancy franchises or Nintendo and Metroid but those two examples are the BEST of what happens when a company decides to do that. A good example of bad execution would be the Tomb Raider franchise. The first game was great then the next one was mediocure, more of the same, and then they just became piss poor, but people still bought them up until the latest title. Now SCi is just hoping that they can save the franchise from certain damnation.
The industry on the other hand will get their hands on a new genre and do the same thing, easily shown by real-time strategy or the first-person shooter categories which were bastardized in the 90s. Now of course they have moved onto the MMORPG market with its constant stream of revenue. People keep supporting these things so the companies can just keep making them. Pirating won't stop it, yea it does hurt but since piraters are such a small niche in the market the companies probably won't even notice. Mass boycotting, or consumer standards would be a lot more effective but won't ever happen.
I will address any other comments or questions if people wish the throw them my way. WS Out.
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