14 DAY TRIAL // Software, video games, DVD movies and MP3 music files, all available online, most of them before commercially available to the general public. Does that sound good to you? I don't know, but it sure is illegal! And that was all Eli El's business - he was a 40 year old hacker involved in one heck of a large pirated software distribution operation. Isn't that a mouthful? Through the warez scene, he distributed (illegally, of course) about 20.000 copyrighted works.
So, what he did is commit criminal copyright infringement through his actions. And he was sentenced to 30 months. Now this is a pretty fair sentence if you ask me. He got what he deserved. What was a bit surprising for me was his age. The latest trend is for hackers to be under 30, if not under 20, while this guy - he was pretty old.
But he was not the only guy caught. It was all part of Operation Safehaven that resulted in the seizure of thousands of pirated CDs and DVDs, plus dozens of computers and servers, including the largest warez site ever seized in the United States. The US law enforcers are definitely pounding on these underground cyber-communities in order to properly enforce copyrights.
So, when DRM just doesn't cut it anymore, old fashion security including busts and hand-cuffs is deployed. Sure, this is quite a big blow to piracy in the US, but more such actions need to be taken in order to decrease this phenomenon. And as long as programs such as eMule, Kazaa, RMDC and their kin exist this problem will be very hard to solve. Why? Because piracy doesn't just come from warez sites, but from users that have pirated software and share it with others, as well.
There is much to be done in fighting piracy and I guess that it will take us a lot, before we can control this problem. My advice to you is not to download pirated software. If you choose to ignore the consequences this might have in front of the law, just think that a lot of those programs might harm your computer or might contain a virus.