Operation Buccaneer

On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as "Operation Buccaneer", law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries.

U.S. law enforcement agents, led by the United States Customs Service, raided MIT, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Oregon, Duke and Purdue, as well as several software companies. Raids were also conducted in Britain, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Many computers were seized and people questioned.

Five people were arrested in England; in the United States, no arrests were made on the day of the raids, pending review of materials seized.

In the United States, 56 search warrants were served and approximately 130 computers, each holding an average of a terabyte of data, were seized.

The DrinkOrDie site, where the software could be downloaded for free, was also shut down that day.

The raid at MIT was in the economics department; the University of Oregon raid at an off-campus location; the Duke raid in the campus dormitory of a male undergraduate. The universities themselves were not considered targets of the criminal investigation.

Related law enforcement actions include: Operation Fastlink, Operation Gridlock, and Operation D-Elite.

Contents

1 Individuals raided 2 Individuals charged/convicted/sentenced 3 Bust locations 4 Quotations 5 Video link 6 External links

Individuals raided

• HiTech666 – (ex-PWZ / ex-FTS / ex-Razor 1911 / Myth / DEViANCE / RTS) – Montreal, Canada
• thraxis – (raided but not busted [700 cds and computer taken], RiSC / PGC / DoD) – Queensland, Australia
• bigrar (Christopher Tresco) – (MIT employee, DoD council / RiSC / ex-MnM / ex-PSF (Proper Stuff)) – Boston, Massachusetts
• buj – (DoD council / former RTS senior / Razor 1911 / former corpgods leader / ex-PGC) – Durham, North Carolina)
• eRUPT – (author of RuptBot!, DoD / Remorse) – Miami, Florida
• shark – (Police Officer, RatzHole siteop, WLW / Razor 1911 / DoD) – Sydney, Australia
• avec – (former FTS / RTS / RiSe / former DoD council / Razor 1911)
• hackrat – (WLW / Razor 1911 / DoD) – California
• maverick – (SKiDRoW / DoD council)
• bandido – (Razor 1911 / DoD council / RiSC council)
• eriflleh – (DoD council) – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• forcekill – (DoD) – Turku, Finland
• radsl – (Systems Engineer at Symantec, DoD / popz founder) – Eugene, Oregon
• ievil (Arnvid Karstad) – (MIT employee, ircop, DoD / Razor 1911)
• doc-x – (DoD council) – Miami, Florida
• jozef – (RogueWarriorz) – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
• Elisa – (ex-DoD / EGO / RogueWarriorz) – San Jose, California
• Bierkrug – (RogueWarriorz) – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Lord Hacker – (RogueWarriorz)
• Axxess – (RogueWarriorz) – Washington
• Waldorf – (RogueWarriorz)
• Demonfurby – (RogueWarriorz)
• Dr Infothief – (RogueWarriorz) – Long Island, New York
• Prentice – (RogueWarriorz) – Seattle, Washington
• peaces – (RogueWarriorz) – Chicago, Illinois
• ThrawN – (raided not busted, DiSTiNCT / CLASS) – Western Australia
• tyson – (PARADOX / eminence / period) – Newfoundland, Canada
• superiso – (raided not busted, inferno)
• avalanche – (RiSC / DoD)
• doodad – (pop)
• tenkuken – (DoD)
• heckler – (TiL)
• zielin – (TFL / WLW / OTFW)
• sui – (TFL / WLW)
• chevelle – (Dallas, Texas)
• billyjoe – (Austin, Texas)
• ^stealth – Oregon
• BaLLz – (CSR)
• sony

Individuals charged/convicted/sentenced

John Riffe age 32, of Port St. John, Florida, pled guilty on May 9, 2002 to one felony count charging criminal copyright infringement. Riffe, used the screen name pseudonyms "blue" and "blueadept", and was a member of the warez groups ShadowRealm (SRM) and EXODUS.

John Riffe is now out of jail and has begun working at Popeye's Chicken Fast Food Restaurant.

Bust locations

Countries Australia Belgium Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Hungary Israel Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Singapore Spain Sweden United Kingdom United States of America

United States cities Atlanta, Georgia Austin, Texas Baton Rouge, Louisiana Boston, Massachusetts Charlotte, North Carolina Chicago, Illinois Cincinnati, Ohio Dallas, Texas Durham, North Carolina Cocoa Beach, Florida Houston, Texas Indianapolis, Indiana Miami, Florida New Haven, Connecticut New York, New York Newark, New Jersey Norfolk, Virginia Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Orlando, Florida Oxnard, California Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Phoenix, Arizona Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Portland, Oregon San Francisco, California St. Louis, Missouri Washington, D.C. Wilmington, Delaware

Quotations

"This investigation underscores the severity and scope of a multibillion-dollar software swindle over the Internet, as well as the vulnerabilities of this technology to outside attack."

— Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of the Customs Service

"Our targets are not your stereotypical teenage hacker."

— Customs assistant commissioner John Varrone

"This is not a sport. This is a serious crime. These people should do some hard time."

— Commerce undersecretary Phil Bond

"Software piracy undermines the stability of the burgeoning e-commerce industry and it is a direct threat to innovative companies that help strengthen the U.S. economy."

— Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam

Video link

• MPEG Video file (http://tlf.cx/daily_show-piracy_coverage-12-12-01-h13.mpg) – The Daily Show with John Stewart humorously covers the raid, includes official U.S. Customs comment.

External links

• Operation Buccaneer (http://www.cybercrime.gov/ob/OBMain.htm); US DOJ web pages.
• Operation Buccaneer Defendants Chart (http://www.cybercrime.gov/ob/Dchart.htm)
• Federal Law Enforcement Targets International Internet Piracy Syndicates: Multiple Enforcement Actions Worldwide Snare Top "Warez" Leadership (http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2001/December/01_crm_643.htm) – U.S. Department of Justice, December 11, 2001
• Cryptome article on busts (http://cryptome.org/fbi121101.htm)
• FBI raids cripple software pirates (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-277226.html?legacy=cnet&tag=tp_pr) – (CNet) reports on the raid.
• U.S. Expands Investigation Into Piracy of Software (http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/19/technology/19PIRA.html) – New York Times article on the raid.
• U.S. seizes computers in software piracy raids (http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001/12/11/software-piracy.htm) – USA Today article on the raids (includes Microsoft's public "response")
• Dutch university targeted in piracy raids (http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8244958.html) – (CNet) article on raid at University of Twente
• MIT cooperating in six-nation computer piracy raid (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/computerpiracy.html) – MIT university news reacts to bust of employee Christopher Tresco a.k.a. bigrar.
• Stort tillslag mot internationellt nätverk för piratkopiering (http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/it/story/0,2789,113842,00.html) – Swedish language newspaper article on the raid.
• Warez Scene news feed on the raid (http://parazite.greatnow.com/scenebusts72.htm)
• Internet Piracy Is Suspected as U.S. Agents Raid Campuses (http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/12/technology/12PIRA.html) – The New York Times, December 12, 2001
• Feds Zero In on Piracy Ring (http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49026,00.html) – Associated Press, 2:55 pm December 11, 2001 PST
• Were DrinkOrDie raids overkill? (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49096,00.html) – Wired News, 02:00 a.m. Dec. 13, 2001 PST
• Article on Operation Digital Pirates. (http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040308/NEWS01/203080342/0/FRONTPAGE) – Nashua Telegraph, Mar. 8, 2004
• Internet piracy trio sent to jail (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4518771.stm) – BBC News UK Edition, May 6, 2005