(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES — U.S. Customs officials raided University of California-Los Angeles and other major universities last month, seizing computers used by suspected members of a worldwide software piracy ring known as “DrinkOrDie.”
According to the Customs Service, the raids were part of “Operation Buccaneer,” an investigation into a global network of cyberspace groups who use the Internet to pirate billions of dollars worth of software.
The groups are also suspected of pirating movies and music. For instance, the films “Behind Enemy Lines” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” were available before their respective premieres, said Kevin Bell, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service.
“We believe that students and (computer network) administrators were involved in using computer resources at these universities to illegally copy software,” Bell said.
Federal agents have executed 44 search warrants in more than 27 cities across the United States and seized more than 129 computers. They conducted searches in businesses, residences and other major schools nationwide, including Duke University.
U.S. officials have charged conspirators in foreign countries, Bell said, and indictments should be handed down in the next several months.
University officials issued a statement last month that UCLA is fully cooperating with the Customs Service and “welcomes the opportunity to work with federal agencies in this investigation.”
The roughly 40-member DrinkOrDie is part of the “WAREZ” community, which Customs Service describes as “a loosely affiliated network of software piracy gangs that engage in the duplication and reproduction of copyrighted software over the Internet.” It accounts for nearly 90 percent of Internet software piracy.
Software piracy violates the Criminal Copyright Infringement Act and the No Electronic Theft Act, according to the Department of Justice.
DrinkOrDie formed in the early 1990s in Russia and expanded to nations including Australia, England, Finland and Norway.
With insider help at software firms, the pirates can acquire software before it is publicly released, Bell said.