The iSO News
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The iSO News is a warez news website originally created by David Rocci.
The iSO News supplied release details and NFOs of warez games and programs, without actually supplying them, or information on where to find them.
The site was located at "iSONEWS.com" until David Rocci's house was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on February 27th, 2003. The FBI targeted Rocci because he was advertising modchips on the web site. The raid, ostensibly at least, had nothing to do with the fact that his site detailed releases (in the form of text files) by warez groups. Rocci gave up the iSONEWS.com domain name as part of his plea bargain. The legality of the domain name seizure is questionable as Rocci himself was no longer in ownership of iSONEWS.com when he offered to give it away. This infuriated many free speech activists.
For a approximately one year, visitors to iSONEWS.com were redirected to the Department of Justice Cybercrime.gov (http://www.cybercrime.gov/) web site. A number of iSO News mirrors sprung up as a result, including izonews.com, theisonews.com, and stolemy.com, an expression of frustration amidst the iSO News community at the Department of Justice's actions.
As of November 16, 2004 the domain is owned by DomainSpa, LLC and used to advertise video game sales and rentals. Ironic since this is what the site was originally taken for.
The original iSO News continues to operate under several mirrored URLs.
External links
isonews.com mirrors
- THEISONEWS.COM (http://www.theisonews.com/)
- IZONEWS.COM (http://www.izonews.com/)
- STOLEMY.COM (http://www.stolemy.com/) - named out of frustration at the Department of Justice's action. (now defunct)
In the press
- The Register: [1] (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/02/26/doj_seizes_isonews_site_over/)[2] (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/04/10/put_a_z_in_isonews/)
- BBC: [3] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2803927.stm)
- CNET: [4] (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-986225.html)
- Justice Department Seizes Top Internet Site Involved in Copyright Piracy (http://www.cybercrime.gov/rocciPlea.htm) US DoJ press release on bust