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Crackdown on software pirates
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December 11, 2001: 4:23 p.m. ET
Federal investigations result in numerous search warrants.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - In a sweeping crackdown, the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday said it executed roughly 100 search warrants against suspected software pirates.
The warrants mark the completion of the FBI's most extensive software piracy undercover investigation ever, and were carried out with international cooperation, according to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"Today U.S. law enforcement initiated the most aggressive enforcement action to date against illegal software piracy," Ashcroft said in a statement.
"Many of these individuals and groups believed the digital age and the Internet allowed them to operate without fear of detection or criminal sanction," Ashcroft added. "Today, law enforcement in the U.S. and around the world proved them wrong."
In three separate undercover operations, federal law enforcement officials infiltrated organizations known as "warez" groups that operate in the U.S. and abroad specializing in the illegal distribution over the Internet of copyrighted software, computer games and movies, the Justice Department said.
One of the infiltrations, dubbed "Operation Buccaneer," resulted in the simultaneous execution of 58 search warrants against high-level warez leadership and members within the U.S. and abroad. It was the first such enforcement action to reach across international borders, the Justice Department said.
The primary organization targeted by Operation Buccaneer was the warez group known as "DrinkOrDie," which consists of roughly 40 members worldwide. The Justice Department said that investigation led to infiltration and development of cases against individuals from other groups as well.
During the course of the year-long investigation, the department said it has shared evidence with counterparts in the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, and Finland to help further identify and investigate alleged co-conspirators.
In a separate investigation called "Operation Bandwidth," the Justice Department said agents identified organizations and individuals it claims are involved with illegal access to computer systems and the piracy of software using warez storage sites on the Internet.
The two-year operation culminated in over 30 search warrants across the U.S. and Canada, the Justice Department said. During the course of the investigation, federal law enforcement agents created a warez site as a means of attracting targets involved with the distribution of pirated software, netting more than 200 suspects.
The third undercover investigation, called "Operation Digital Piratez," targeted several suspected warez distribution organizations across the U.S. as well as "cracking groups" whose aim is to pirate software so that it may be illegally distributed over the Internet, the Justice Deparment said.
That year-long investigation culminated with the execution of nine search warrants Tuesday, the Justice Department said.
All three investigations were conducted with the cooperation of industry trade associations including the Interactive Digital Software Association, the Business Software Alliance, the Motion Picture Association and individual companies, including Microsoft and Sega, the Justice Department said.
A detailed list of all the organizations and individual suspects caught up in Tuesday's sweep was not immediately available. 
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