Warez group charged for selling scene releases
Five people in five states have been indicted on charges of conspiring to commit copyright infringement U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut Kevin J. O’Connor announced that a Grand Jury returned a three-count indictment Tuesday charging five people with participating in an organized online piracy community that engages in large-scale distribution of illegally copied software. Prosecutors said the defendants participated in the “warez scene,” an underground group that provides people with copyrighted software, video games, DVDs, and MP3 files, often before the products are publicly released.
O’Connor said that each warez group specializes in one or more different types of “warez,” like games, software, and the like. The groups are thought to compete with one another to attain the reputation as the fastest and best provider of pirated materials. “Suppliers” upload content, while “crackers,” allegedly figure out how to remove digital copyright protections. “Couriers,” send the pirated materials to file Internet servers for access, reproduction, and distribution. Files are stored on “warez sites,” with names like The Ethernet Site (TEN), Nite Ranger Hideout (NRH), and The Boxer Rebellion (TBR).
The 17-page indictment charges 53-year-old Dominic Tymorek, of Woodstock, Georgia, and 57-year-old Robert Hardick, of Getzville, N.Y., with three counts of conspiracy. It also charges 55-year-old Steven Fiatarone, of Spring Hill, Florida, 43-year-old Michael Uszakow, of Oakdale, Minn., with two counts of conspiracy, and it charges 38-year-old William Parrott, of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., of one count of conspiracy. The defendants’ user names in included: kidzapped, iced, niterangr, and tcut. They are accused of trading Symantec Anti-Virus programs, as well as Windows Server Enterprise Edition, among other products. If the defendants are found guilty, they could face up to five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count. Well, I can’t do anything than agree, selling scene stuff is just sick.
[Via InformationWeek]
1st
“Well, I can’t do anything than agree, selling scene stuff is just sick.”
Rlslog.net is making money off the scene. So its just as bad.
@2.
LOL you’re right there.
“selling scene stuff is just sick.”
But downloading it for free hence reducing the quality of movies / TV shows is fine.
“Well, I can’t do anything than agree, selling scene stuff is just sick.”
I so totally agree.
“Rlslog.net is making money off the scene. So its just as bad.”
Hmm, didnt realize that as i use firefox adblocker. But i do believe the money they earn is used to maintain the site (i sure hope thats the case).
“Warez group charged for selling scene releases”
Did I miss somewhere in the post where it actually says they SOLD their warez??
It is one thing to rip scene stuff for yourself, but to profit and sell to a mass audience is another.
@ 5. Plasmoronic
yes sounds strange to me too…
The difference is the idiots in the article is taking money from people for something they should get for free. Rlslog ain’t taking any money from it’s visitors for the info on the site. They get the money from some stupid ad-company who actually think we will buy something because of their ads. I’m also using FF with Adblock so I don’t even see the ads but I don’t mind Rlslog making some money that way from stupid IE users.
they were trading, does trading mean selling?
Plasmoronic is right… the article is either very unclear or the title is just wrong. How exactly do they come to the conclusion that they sold “warez”?
After all that is writen in the article, it could just as well be that they “just” made money with their warez site, via adds I presume.
Anyone has any better info? Very incomplete article… would like to read the whole story somewhere.
So.. which particular groups are we talking about?
Trading Symantec BloatWare makes them automatically guilty… as being stupid.
How Did They Get Caught?
@10
This is the real title: “Online Group Charged With Selling Illegal Software On Warez Scene”
Their website must have been infiltrated by a mole, that is I I think they got caught but I could be wrong. the article is unclear as to what happened. besides they won’t tell the media how they busted the accused hackers co’z that will give away information.
I mean software crackers not hackers. correction on my previous post.
#2 is right, look at all the banners, I got news for you, rls log is profitting off the scene too, so hypocrisy looks good on you. pwned.
“selling scene stuff is just sick”
wtf? yeah its right up there with rape and murder obviously… and where does it say anything about selling, all it describes is the way scene groups get their releases.
50+ years old grandpa sceners, heh.
frank;y I don’t think it’s fair to make assumptions about rls log with their banner ads… they need to pay for the website to run. we don’t even know how much money is generated from those ads and it might not even be enough to cover the expenses of trying to keep this website running each month and often the owner ends up paying for what the ads can’t cover. before you make any judgments on the rls log ask yourself if you ever had your own website and the cost to keep it open?
Yeah I was also surprised at how old these guys were.
This site is not charging anyone for anything, and they don’t ask for donations so they have to make money to keep the site running somehow. They’re not any different from the millions of other sites that use ads to pay for the cost of maintaining and hosting their sites.
@20 hmmm loads of admins leave rlslog for not getting paid for there contributions and martins always off on holiday, i guess he makes enough. from the ads.
ps its not just this site he owns ;P
I didn´t see anything in the article that says they actually were selling warez… Now if thats the case, they deserved it.
And looks like someone’s father are taking the “credits” for something that his son made.
Selling “scene stuff”, the stuff never belonged to the scene to start with. The scene has no rights whatsoever over any of their releases.
They are pirates and hence have no intellectual property over the tv shows/games/movies/applications they release.
Cool Picture.
krypto how do you know that admins leave co’z they don’t get paid and so what if the owner goes on vacation? doe that mean the ads on this website or the other websites he owns gives him the luxury to do so? I think what he does and where he goes is his business, besides he isn’t cracking the software just posting what is being released. a big difference there. if he makes a few extra money then I say let it be co’z the website is worth the visit. I don’t think people just come here primarily to chat anyways?
@27 How about growing a brain. you are being a chauvinist by your comments. and what does that have to do with the news? it is just a freaking picture get over it! you sound so lame.
i’m selling to noobs a floppy disk with a link to “rlslog.net”
for 1$!
i made 55,320$ already !!!
It’s a known fact that women are very stupid (low iq) and this shows especially in computing.
The reason women are so lame at computing, is because ther brains are capable to only think of 1 thing at a time (they can’t “multitask” IRL).
And because women think about male genitalias 24/7, it uses all their brain capacity, which leaves no brain resources for computing (or any technical stuff).
Long story short; the reason women suck @ computing, is because they can only think about male genitalias all the time. I read this from this one science magazine; a group of japanese scientists had done a study about what women think, only to find out they only think about men and sex all the time.
The charges are not specifically for SELLING, but for TRADING.
If you know how the scene functions, you’ll know there’s a lot of trading going on, and is probably the source of most downloading outside of topsites, most private FTPs regularly trade, and thats basically what these guys were running.
People tend to assume that most people on the internet are the same age as them. Some of us have been here for a long time…
@32 I need to meet these women you speak of.
freaking trolls!!!
lol at these grandpas getting caught
@3 “But downloading it for free hence reducing the quality of movies / TV shows is fine.”
If you download a movie for free, you think the Quality of the next movies will be low?, maybe that’s the reason for movies, like WAR OF THE WORLDS 2, that explain the cancellation of Jericho, but the interesting think, the movies can’t go that bad for piracy, i just saw this ’90s video anti-piracy, where they tell that if you copy a game (on diskette), you may actually destroy the gaming industry, that’s just hilarious, enjoy_
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xfqkdh5Js4
Readya!_
http://www.defacto2.net/news.cfm?mode=comments&id=190
“I can’t do anything than agree, selling scene stuff is just sick.”
that was one of the stupidest comments all week by a staff member here & they get stupid
Good. any site that charges or asks for money in any way should be shut down.
after all its us that do the uploading for ‘f’s sakes…
ps i hope the dopey looking bint blows herself up doing that…why not just unplug it?
Her real name is “Samantha”, see here:
http://www.howoldami.com/index.php?Entry=696
And here’s a REALLY funny photo, it really is worth a million words:
http://www.howoldami.com/index.php?Entry=747
You will notice that profit or the funding of terrorism will always be mentioned in the media in connection with scene busts.
It has to be this way or the general (non scene aware) public would be confused as no crime seems to have been committed.
Nice comment by #43 on the propaganda stimuli used by the agencies and media to provoke Fear on ignorant people,classic stuff from the 50’s.
Helen (#42)
I’m a little disappointed! I expected to be ‘Rick-Rolled’ by clicking on your links - what a shame that they were actually genuine
“selling scene stuff is just sick” - what an unbelievably pathetic comment. Of all the sick and disgusting things that happen in the world, this has to be the absolute bottom of the list. Contender for lamest comment of all time.
There would be no scene if it wasn’t for us old farts. We were cracking protection and unlocking demos before most of you were born.
R.I.P. Dr.Detergent
Many good tutorials, many good games, many good times.
ataririot
@22 nice nickname.
Make sure to post Battlestar Galactica…its back on tonight YAY
How sick is it that punishment for piracy can be more severe than assault or other REAL crimes which really do hurt and even kill people. I guess this is what happens when $$$ is more important than life.
Yahoo News Story claims they were selling it.
“Online Group Charged With Selling Illegal Software On Warez Scene”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080403/tc_cmp/207001337
Cant believe everyone is going on about how old they are, they have probably been in the scene since it started and are probably major players and have possibly been in it since it first began
I would eat her twat
@51: exactly. corporations get away with stuff that would shock you (and most times there isnt even legislation to cover this stuff…
yet some poor sod gets arrested for infringement of intellectual property rights..
its a funny old world..
this might be wort a read if anyones interested in whats happening next:\
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l26057a.htm
As long as their not getting rich and the money’s used to offest costs i dont mind. We should start raising some money for these guys defenses. I know its bad for business to give away stuff but if the games good i will buy it. This stuff isnt stopping companies from turning a buck and in some cases im sure it helps business to have this much distribution. If game designers were smart they would release a handicapped version of the game to a warez community… if the game was just a little different then the released version it wouldnt be worth the effort to crack and release it but if the game was handicapped enough so that players who really enjoyed it went out to buy it i think it would be a good idea.
Maybe turn us into a massive beta community.
@39:
Funny, in the 90’s piracy pretty much did destroy the gaming industry for the Amiga, which was by far the best gaming machine around at the time.
The floppy disk vendors did pretty well out of it though :).
You young’uns have no idea how easy you have it these days. Try getting your warez by BBS, and sharing P2P by floppy in the playground and car parks
Why are people who disagree with file sharing movies, music, applications, etc actually visiting this file sharing site. It seems that if you thought file sharing was wrong, you would stay away from RSLOG not unless you were a plant (as in potted).
Stop saying sharing is bad. There are such things as property rights (there would be chaos without these principles). However, not every idea or even work product can be locked up and sold for profit simply because I lay claim to it. If we lock everything up with bullet-proof encryption and secure communications, then a powerful few will monopolize all media and content for their profit and to our detriment and to the detriment of all humanity.
There is a balance here. Piracy is the “we share” counterbalance to excesses of the “its mine” mentality. We are in this together or we are not. Choose a side - humanity or corporatism.
“Well, I can’t do anything than agree, selling scene stuff is just sick.”
- To the ppl that have no clue why a comment like that needs to be made here should turn off their computers and toss it out of the window and find something else to do that does not require much thinking power.
And here I was thinking old people couldn’t handle the internet.
@ uraloser #6
Ignorance is bliss. IE7 users can install IEpro (free). It will do adblocks amongst a lot of other useful things. Get it here: http://www.ie7pro.com
@ superficialbob #56 Heh
Old people designed and built the internet.
Who in their right mind would _buy_ warez? OK, it works in Asia because most people don’t own computers let alone fast download connections, but in the US?
“But downloading it for free hence reducing the quality of movies / TV shows is fine.” No, don’t reduce the quality! I’m all for high-quality rips.
Isn’t that picture taken at Dreamhack here in Jönköping/Sweden?
U f4ckin a55ho13.. DO YOU KNOW WHAT SICK IS… IDIOT>.
THIS ISNT SICK.. YOURE F4CK3D IN THE HEAD POSTER..
Just gotta say, that’s the lamest parody of those inspirational posters I’ve ever seen.
Old lads! BTW, the poster sucks big time.
Damnit Kennii, learn to use a damn period when you type!
I dont ppl making profit from the scene.. I say more ppl should do it. Why waste time and effort buy just giving it away to some random groups. I say if you can make money off the suckers that want to release under there noob scene names go for it.
hahaha….anyone who tries to make money off piracy deserves it
Pfft what the hell is wrong with selling scene pirated goods? Distributing them for free already hurts the company that makes them. And rlslog definetly profits of the scene.
It’s like Robin Hood - steal from the rich (scene release), give to the poor (selling em off)
“Well, I can’t do anything than agree, selling scene stuff is just sick.”
classic!
Is like Hood Nibor, only reverse.
Sorry, todays is not funny day.
warez pirates hate our freedom
People buy warez because they don’t know how to download them for free or they don’t have access to cheap, high speed internet with large download limits.
Not everyone sees a computer the way you do, for them it’s just a handy way to keep the kids amused and for doing the occasional email and booking a flight.
As for the story, I’ve seen this happen heaps of times. People see an opportunity to make a lot of money relatively easily simply because the know-how to obtain this stuff for free is so sparse. It’s why weekend markets generally have at least one stall selling cheap “DVDs”. I’ve even seen one tool driving around town to businesses offering cheap movies from a list he printed out. When he was asked if he was worried about being caught he laughed and said “I use a rental car and a prepaid mobile phone, they’ll never catch me.”
Two weeks later he’s fronting up in court.
People get blinded by the money.
Nobody was selling anything.
They are facing those fines/jail for releasing it.
Try reading the article.
I told you once I told you twice and i’m not going to tell you again don’t put your finger there
beep office
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
“ju ju ju just a lil splash of ginseng make all your problems go away.”—James Sykes
i sell wares to my grandma because she is a dumb ho! she was quite happy i was about to get the jewface cd for her. i was quite happy to rip her off for 200 dollars
http://tinyurl.com/6kfv4k
The owner of this site is rather hypocritical. The owners of this site profit from scene releases by proxy due to the traffic “free” movies garners. This in turn garners ad revenue. So actually selling directly is no worse than making money from giving it away then attaching ads the portal where people come to grab it. The fact is that it is the copyrighted product that draws the traffic. Not that I have a problem with it, I just have a problem with the writers “holier than thou” attitude, just sickening.
If you dont wont to be a hypocrite, get ride of the major redirect script on your servers… ass.
and all ads. Or, stop acting like this is not for profit.
@77
The owner of this site is providing a service. A serivice that takes time and energy. Most importantly, the owner, if making anything, is doing it through adds. I’d bet it took money out of his own pocket to get this thing started too. HOWEVER, the best part of all…..are the users spending anything by using rlslog?
Pwned, now get out, you are not welcome here.
You can also use firefox with adblock….works like a charm.
wow… either you download them or you buy them… if your downloading them and keeping them to your self or giving it away… dont see why you would be worried… Selling the stuff well… proves that you need to get a life and stop benifiting off others. And as for all of you who have posted on here a repeated amount of times… come on get some new moviez and stop watching this thread. heh its the Net I mean come on…
@80, as opposed to businesses that start out with zero capital… this has ended up a buisness for martin and good on him to be honest. you blantantly wish youd thought of it first! he provides a service that people clearly want. and yeah, use adblock if you want.
THAT comment made little sense actually, it is too early and i have work on the morrow, best go to bed
anybody that says “pwned” is a loser. it’s not funny, it just makes you look stupid.
lol, i didn’t even know that rlslog.net have ad on their site.. . yeah i got FF and adblocker too.
i cant see why punish people likt this, the industry makes millions still so why punish the fans cause it is them that upload the stuff or seed it :S
Punish the fans good job, even through its a low to not share copyrighted info and stuff like that those big fines have nothing todo with punishment, its called Anti piracy groups need new BIG cars -.-
@12 ” Say “no” to BloatWare!”
Symantec AntiVirus and Norton AntiVirus are TWO totally different products. Symantec one is corp edition and is really light on resources.
So check your facts before you bash anything, Mr. I-Think-I-Know-Everything.
Kennii, get off that high horse. its not big and its not clever, but (if they were indeed ’selling’ warez - why would anyone BUY software from software pirates??) they were simply profiting from other people’s stupidity, which is actually no worse than any business really. apple? microsoft? symantec? the only difference being that the warez groups dont code the software… now hang on a second, i know of another site which provides access to illegally cracked software… and they let you have it for FREE!!
if you think that doing rlslog as a not-for-profit makes you morally ok, youre sadly naive. in the eyes of the law, and common sense, you can rob from the rich to give to the poor but that doesnt stop it being theft. the few sites and scene groups running as not-for-profit are actually all suckers, in the scheme of things, since everyone else is raking in the cash for this code.
BUT!!! ive not gone mad, dont get angry - i love you, and the sceners for it. i really do. you are the 21st century robin hoods, and ill gladly be your maid marion. just dont forget that we’re just ‘nice’ pirates - we’re still pirates and calling other pirates “SICK” is pretty darned short-sighted.
people in glass houses, etc etc.
hmm, robin hood/pirates. mixed metaphors. why arent sceners seen as robin hood types? try saying that with a mouthful of jelly.
Well, LOL I so Did I. It is one, yes, The difference they were how exactly So.. Trading How Did This is the Their website. I mean #2 is right, 50+ years frank;y Yeah I @20 hmmm. I didn´t see Selling Cool krypto. @27 How i’m It’s The charges People @32 I need freaking lol.
you can get more informations about this in http://www.diy-t-shirt.com
To Tom, the first person in this comment box. The internet is a place where you should not be. thanx.