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LifestreamUS Department Of Justice: Operation Fastlink Is The Largest Global Enforcement Action
Operation Fastlink is the culmination of four separate undercover investigations simultaneously being conducted by the FBI, coordinated by the FBI Cyber Division, and the U.S. Department of Justice, coordinated by the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the Criminal Division. As a result of Fastlink, over 120 total searches have been executed in the past 24 hours in 27 states and in 10 foreign countries. Foreign searches were conducted in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden as well as Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Among the groups targeted by Fastlink are well-known organizations such as Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class and Project X, all of which specialized in pirating computer games, and music release groups such as APC. The enforcement action announced today is expected to dismantle many of these international warez syndicates and significantly impact the illicit operations of others.
Methinks they made a typo. Replace ‘piracy’ with ‘privacy’ and all of a sudden it makes more sense. So far I’ve seen little about this elsewhere. Waiting for the aftermath .. will get back to this at a later time …
But generally I can just say that I do not subscribe to this nonsense. Piracy is no more a real threat than is terrorism. They are just symptoms, not the decease. Some people have even gone so far as to connect the imaginary dots and link the two. The assumption that “piracy supports terrorism” is about as stupid as it gets. But that is confirmation and egocentric bias for you. If there is something you don’t like, no one else will like it either. I.e. everyone supports you in your little crusade. And something that you do not like is probably in cahoots with something else you do not like. Hey, it’s the axis of evil everyone …
Slashdot reports this also: Operation Fastlink Cracks Down on Warez. And shares the following wisdom:
It should be a matter of triage, first make society safe, then worry about maintaing private industry’s profit margins against the gangs of computer toting outlaw teenagers.
However, the victims of muggings, spousal abuse, drug related violence and gangsta drive-by shootings do not make the hefty campaign contributions, nor do they have the ability to make press and TV conferences. They are just the average tax-payers - you know - the ones the Law Enforcement Officers swore to serve, protect, and defend.
Seriously “big” …
Every single major “elite” warez site in the netherlands is gone.
FairLighT are gone, for those of you who don’t know FairLighT ( FLT ) they’re one of the two main game releasing warez groups. People within the scene are scared, this is a bad day for warez.
Also, this is the US Governments doing, up untill today the .nl boys though they were safe from the law, but looks like the US has done a bit of leaning.
et in arcadia ego
Very true my friend.