Feds Continue Piracy Crackdown

The federal government continued its crackdown on Internet piracy Thursday by announcing a $50 million, 11-nation crackdown on piracy groups. The investigation resulted in four arrests, along with the seizure of hundreds of computers and the closure of at least eight major piracy servers.

Chirayu Patel, 23, William Veyna of California, 34, David Fish of Connecticut, 24, and Nate Lovell of Colorado, 22 were all arrested and charged with copyright violations. The four are accused of being members of "warez" piracy rings.

Attorney General Roberto Gonzales announced the arrests, saying the government is going from the top down in an attempt to curb piracy. He said doing so would interrupt "a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of illegal digital content now available online."

To catch those involved, the FBI set up its own piracy servers and gathered information on offenders as they uploaded and downloaded from it.

However, the government is not only going after individuals – it also named several groups by name as targets of legal action, including RiSCISO, Myth, TDA, LND, Goodfellaz, Hoodlum, Vengeance, Centropy, Wasted Time, Paranoid, Corrupt, Gamerz, AdmitONE, Hellbound, KGS, BBX, KHG, NOX, NFR, CDZ, TUN and BHP.

If those involved are found guilty, under a new law signed by President Bush last month they could face up to 10 years in a federal prison.