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Operation Buccaneer is an ongoing international copyright piracy investigation
and prosecution undertaken by federal law enforcement. On December 11, 2001,
in a coordinated international effort, the U.S. Customs Service and the Department
of Justice executed, or caused to be executed, more than 65 searches in the
U.S. and five foreign countries. As of July, 2002, 16 defendants have been convicted
in the U.S. of felony criminal copyright offenses, including conspiracy to commit
those offenses, and nine defendants have been sentenced to federal prison terms
ranging in length from 30 to 46 months. These are the longest sentences ever
imposed in the United States for Internet copyright piracy. Additional guilty
pleas and sentencings are scheduled in the coming months.
Copyright infringement, or piracy, as it is more commonly known, is the unauthorized
reproduction and/or distribution of copyright protected works, such as computer
software, movies, games and music. Pirated digital copies of copyrighted works
distributed over the Internet are commonly known as "warez," and those who engage
in this illegal conduct are said to be in the "warez scene." Operation Buccaneer
is the first federal prosecution to successfully target the suppliers, crackers,
and leadership of multiple top-level warez groups specializing in the supply
(aka "release") of new pirated works to the warez scene. These groups included
Drink Or Die, Razor1911, RiSCISO, MYTH, and POPZ. Additionally, the investigation
successfully targeted members of several leading "courier" groups that specialize
in the distribution and trading of pirated works over the Internet, including
the groups RequestToSend (RTS), WeLoveWarez (WLW), and RiSC. Collectively, these
warez groups were responsible for illegally reproducing and distributing over
the Internet hundreds of millions of dollars worth of copyrighted works.