Attached Link: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/3289134.htm

yeah but unfortunantly for every 1 person caught there are 100 to take his place. and 1,000 that are never caught for every 1 that is

Holy Crimeny! These aren't teenagers-- at 35 and 28, you ought to know much much better. Now, if I could see the Klez designer behind bars I'd be a happy woman. I'll bet you many people are brushing this off because it hurt the big boys, Microsoft and Symentec, but the vast majority of software developers barely break even and piracy is no joke. Emily

They're actually doing what they should be doing - getting to the root of the problem by weeding out the people who crack the programs.

you do realise that on release they'll all get jobs in computer security firms MAKING security programs?L.. funny old world.

Here in Florida they have a system that encourages disgruntled employees to report ANY misuse of software...even the old....buy one program put it on all the machines in the office. that's not warez, but, i am sure corporate misuse adds to the problem.

ONLY 46 months? I hope he's denied access to a computer during that period. By the time he gets out, he'll never catch up with all the advances in technology.

If they can get pornography and drugs in prison I'm pretty sure he'll manage to get a hold of a few techie manuals here and there... in a less civilised country he'd be sporting a new lack of fingertipsL..

ummm most prisons now have internet access and computers for the inmates to use

Hmmmm, Internet Access aye? (goes to rob bank)

"authorities said DrinkOrDie cost the software industry $1 billion to $5 billion in lost sales each year. An industry trade group estimates that piracy costs software-makers $12 billion a year worldwide." this is a gross exageration.....based on the assumption that all these people who use pirated software would have otherwise purchased it.....that's simply not true....alot of people collect pirated software just to have it and never even use it...they certainly would have never spent hundreds of dollars to buy it...the "software-makers" are dreaming...LOL

Aureenna's right about people stealing software and not using it. At college, pirated software goes around more that VD. Most of the people there will never use the software. They just pirate because they can. Then there are people who who feel that software should be free. They work hard to break the law. StefyZZ recently had a run in with these type of people. They have no idea how much work goes into developing software. At college, when I was looking for a piece of software, I heard alot of "just download it off the net." By breaking up the people who distribute warez. They can cut down the amount of people who pirate. Now this is just a gripe. How come these warez sites never have bandwidth problems. If they are not going to pay for software, they most definately are not going to pay for the bandwidth to handle people downloading massive amounts of files.

A lot of Warez sites are 'fly by night' operations on 'fly by night' servers. They move around constantly and they do a lot of remote hosting of the data files. Try this: search out and find perhaps 5 real warez sites with real downloads. Bookmark them, then come back to them in one month and see how many are still there or how many of the links you tested to see if they were real still work. These guys are getting shot down all the time, but they just come right back up somewhere else even faster than they go down. Of course technology is rapidly making them obsolete though not in a 'good way' as far as the industry is concerned. Witness technologies like Napster, Kazaa, and so on. They did manage to shoot down Napster, but it will be a lot harder to take out Kazaa and even harder to take out whatever eventually replaces it. This is a conflict that simply cannot be won. A lot like the 'war on drugs'; the more you hurt them, the tougher they get.

The money loss figures always make me laugh. They arent "losing" any money at all because these people arent going to buy the software. The only time software companies can claim lost sales is when they bust the bootleggers. Even then it is an iffy claim. If someone sells 50,000 copies of Office 2k Pro for $10 a pop, that doesnt mean those 50,000 people would have still bought the software if it was $400. You could shut down all the pirate sites tonight and I bet no major software company will show any significant increase in sales, except maybe Microsoft. People will buy new versions of Windows if they have to. Discreet, Alias|Wavefront, Softimage, etc are dreaming if they think any of those damn pirates are going to shell out the cash for their apps. As far as bandwidth goes, major groups like DoD leach FTP space from companies with annonymous access on fat pipes. This is called a pub. The software usually gets put deep in many subdirectories with codes and directory names that the average FTP application will not see. The software moves quickly from pub to pub and gets deleted almost as fast. At that point, it is known as "0-day" warez. Those 'in-the-know' log in and download the software in it's "0-day" state while it is circulating the pubs. Eventually it filters down to Usenet, medium and smaller FTP sites, IRC, web sites, etc. Direct TV is even better for dreaming up these huge "loss" numbers caused by people with hacked access cards.

Little Dragon Sez: "ONLY 46 months?" I'd say that being stuck for a little less than 4 years in an institution that houses and nurtures sociopaths is overkill especially for intellectual theft. I think 20 hours a week of community service over a period of 8 years, performing hard menial labor, would be a more fitting punishment (in addition to working a full time job). Working 60 hours a week would leave almost no time for computer based shenanigans, and it might put a tan and some muscle on those pasty geeks. I think the threat of outdoors based physical activities would put the fear of God into most krackers and pirates (except the ones with peglegs and parrots. The ones that say "Yarrrrrr!!!")

I tend to agree.
Right now some child molesting rapist may geting an "early release" because the cell space is needed for
some geek who cracked the dongle protection
for Lightwave3D
or worse the FBI assualt team is raiding the third floor apartment of some Idiot looking for unregistered copies of " sierra print artist 9"
while terrorist in the apartment above are planning their next major U.S. attack.

Priorities?????...

Please. :-/

Hmmm, Well, last time I looked "the scene" was still going strong in the months this has taken to come to trial. The new Star Wars movie (as well as Spiderman) is available for those that have the bandwidth. So some bloke who never made a bean from his endevours goes to jail, while his competition goes in to overdrive to take up the slack. Meanwhile in places like the Phillipines, (the) Ukraine, and China you can walk in off the street and buy the latest pirate software on CD complete with manuals, for peanuts from people who are looking to make a profit. Customs confiscate them if they find them, but don't prosecute. This is a global problem, that needs a global solution. I don't think they're ever going to find one, world politics being what they are. Though I have to be honest and say I hope they never do find a solution. My tribe would be immesurably poorer without the hoards of dedicated pirates and hangers on, that make up "the scene" and my youth and upbringing/education would have been far different had I not found the computer sub-culture /community when I did. I know this is a minority opinion, but there you go. Your tax dollar at work. later jb

"this is a gross exageration.....based on the assumption that all these people who use pirated software would have otherwise purchased it.....that's simply not true....alot of people collect pirated software just to have it and never even use it...they certainly would have never spent hundreds of dollars to buy it..." nyar1ath0tep said this a few months ago. It still tickles me: "For warez traders, the whole purpose of life is downloading and burning CDs full of files that they never use, and one way they gain status is by posting files using "bleeding edge" technology - much in the same way a chimp would gain status in its society if somebody gave it an empty gasoline can to bang around."

Hi, Well personally speaking I'd rather be a king in Hell than a pauper in Heaven. I was real big on banging gas cans around in my youth, and not just in a metaphorical sense :) later jb

" For I am the Pirate King! And it 'tis, it 'tis a glorious thing to be a Pirate King" Many a King on a First Class Throne If he wants to call the throne his own- Must manage somehow to get through... More Dirty Work than 'er I do!" Gilbert and Sullivan, from memory.