Operation Site Down
Operation Site Down was the code name for an operation coordinated by the FBI and secret services from ten countries, which was directed against the warez scene.
The operation consisted of three separate undercover projects initiated in Chicago (Operation Jolly Roger), Charlotte and San Jose (the largest, Operation Copycat). The culmination of the operation was a number of house searches carried out on June 29, 2005 . In a total of 90 house searches - including 70 in the United States and a further 20 in ten other countries - several leading warez groups were broken up.
The primary objective of the operation were ISO groups that deal with the illegal copying and distribution of copyright protected software employed and movies. Distributors of TV series, 0-Day and music files were relatively little influenced by the campaign.
Summary
The covert action emanating from San Jose (Operation Copycat) consisted of the following:
- A covert FBI agent, known by the alias "griffen", created two gigabit top sites (provider Hurricane Electric): LAD and CHUD
- Chirayu Patel (aka "nebula") became the site administrator for LAD and CHUD, both of which were hosted in Fremont, California, where Patel lived.
- Patel, ignorant of what he was doing, won - through friends and other sources - some leading groups such as Centropy or TDA (The Divine Alcoholics) as partners of the FBI-controlled sites.
- Over the two-year period that the LAD and CHUD sites were online, the FBI collected the IP addresses of some of the top utilities on the scene.
- The FBI got the address from Patel because he had "grabbed" the agent and sent some motorsport DVDs by mail and had provided the envelope with the return address.
- The head of the Centropy group, known by the alias "marvel" and "cartel", was arrested in Indiana .
A civilian cooperating with the FBI, who set up servers for the members of the RiSCISO group, was involved in the action that began in Chicago .
Affected groups / top sites
groups
- RiSCISO (ISOs applications)
- Myth (PC games rips)
- TDA (ISOs applications)
- LND (ISOs industrial applications, CAD / CAM )
- GFZ (ISOs)
- HOODLUM (ISOs PC games)
- VENGEANCE (ISOs PC games)
- Centropy (VCD, SVCD and DVDr films)
- WastedTime (VCD films)
- Alec's Game Copying Service (ISOs PC and PS2 games)
- ThP (DIVx, TV-DVDr and DVDr films)
- Corrupt (DVDr movies)
- GAMERZ (ISOs PS2 and XBOX games)
- ADMITONE (VCD films)
- HELLBOUND (DVDr and TV-DVDr films)
- KGS (VCD films)
- BBX (ANIME DVDr)
- GDR (German Cine Group)
- KHG (ANIME DVDr)
- NOX (VCD films)
- NFR (SVCD films)
- CDZ (ISOs PS2 and XBOX games)
- DO (VCD films)
- BHP (TV-DVDr and DVDr films)
Affected top referrers / distributors (top sites )
- LAD (US West Coast, secret service controlled)
- CHUD (US West Coast, secret service controlled)
- SC (US West Coast)
- VS (US West Coast)
- RSN (Netherlands)
- TNA (California)
- BB (California)
- TWH (Netherlands)
- LW (Lithuania)
Shortly after the action became known, a number of the remaining sides closed their doors and many still active members of the scene withdrew so as not to suffer the same fate as their “allies”.
Affected countries
- Canada
- Israel
- France
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Portugal
- Australia
- United States
Accuse
- On July 14, 2005, four men were charged as a result of the Copycat operation.
- On July 28, 2005, eight men identified by the Charlotte action were charged with criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy.
- On August 4, 2005, a man in Northern California was indicted under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. This was the first indictment to use this law.
- On November 17, 2005, five other men were charged in Northern California.
- On February 1, 2006, 19 men associated with the RiSCISO group in Illinois were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.