p2pnet.net News:- David M. Fish, 24, Chirayu Patel, 23, Wiliam Veyna, 34, and Nathaniel E, Lovell, 22, have been indicted for alleged infringements of US federal copyright laws.

They were busted under Operation Site Down, a massively expensive international FBI sting instigated by the entertainment and software cartels.

Fish, from Watertown, Connecticut, was a site operator, “a scripter, equipment supplier, broker, and encoder for the warez sites,” says an assistant US attorney for the CHIP Unit who’s prosecuting in a Site Down US component called Operation Copycat.

CHIP is short for Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property.

Patel, from Fremont, California, is said to have been a site operator at another warez server, and also a scripter, equipment supplier, and broker.

Veyna allegedly acted as a site operator at the same warez site as Patel and also as an equipment supplier and broker.

Lovell, from Boulder, Colorado, was described merely as, “an equipment supplier”.

“The nine count indictment charges the four defendants with conspiring to violate federal copyright laws and with violating the No Electronic Theft Act (known as the ‘NET Act’),” says the US Department of Justice, going on:

“Fish is charged with four counts under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), including three counts of circumvention of a technological measure designed protect the contents of a DVD from unauthorized access and copying; and one count of trafficking in tools used to circumvent technological measures protecting a right of a copyright owner.

‘G-men’ staged simultaneous undercover operations in San Jose, Chicago and Charlotte and 90 searches were conducted worldwide, with by far the largest number - 70 - taking place in the US.

Also involved were Canada, Israel, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Australia.

“At least eight major online distribution sites were dismantled,” says the DoJ proudly. And, “More than 120 leading members of the organized online piracy underground were identified by the investigation to date, and others will be added as the investigations continues.”

Copycat was a two-year long undercover effort during which the FBI used two fake “undercover computer servers” to trick warez groups into storing files.

Many people believed episode 9 of the Jun Group’s online video series, The Scene, was somehow modeled on the FBI bust and that a character called Gryffin was the same as Griffen, the FBI agent who ran the scammer servers.

However, The Scene events came from a remarkable series of coincidences, p2pnet was told.

Fish, Patel, Veyna and Lovell are slated for a status hearing on September 26.

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
massively expensive - Operation Site Down, p2pnet, July 1, 2005
US Department of Justice - “Star Wars” and other entertainment stolen; perpetrators stung in undercover operation, July 15, 2005
series of coincidences - The Scene conspiracy, p2pnet, July 13, 2005

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