Officials attack piracy ring

By Robert Salonga
Daily Bruin Staff

U.S. Customs officials raided UCLA and other major universities
Dec. 11, 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 also pirate 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 and the University of
Oregon.

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.”

No specifics about the confiscated hardware could be released.
Agents will evaluate the evidence in the next few months, combing
over trillions of bytes of information, Bell said.

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.

Piracy costs the software industry $12 billion per year
worldwide, according to the Business Software Alliance, and
DrinkOrDie is responsible for up to $5 billion of that loss per
year.

With reports from Timothy Kudo, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.