millions 'wasted' on software piracy convictions
Earlier this month sentences were handed down to UK members of DrinkorDie, the international software piracy "warez" group. The judge, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) all stressed the amount of damage they thought the group had caused.
This was one of the first of NHTCU's really complex cases to achieve completion. It cost the criminal justice system - funded by the tax-payer - several million pounds, but was it a good use of resources?
The original investigation was carried out by the US Customs Service as Operation Buccaneer and it was entirely right that NHTCU should pick up the UK leads in what was alleged to be a global activity by many interrelated warez groups.
However, it soon became clear that UK DrinkorDie members were motivated by the glory of being the first to "get out" new software with the copy protection removed, rather than by direct financial reward. This was a crime that required organisation but it was not, as NHTCU and CPS press releases hinted, traditional organised crime in the sense of extended criminal families engaged in illegal activity to make a profit.
The CPS had a choice: charge each suspect individually with substantive offences under trade mark or copyright law, or go for the much more ambitious and glamourous "conspiracy" indictment.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- 2961 reads
- PDF version
More in Tux Machines
- Highlights
- Front Page
- Latest Headlines
- Archive
- Recent comments
- All-Time Popular Stories
- Hot Topics
- New Members
digiKam 7.7.0 is releasedAfter three months of active maintenance and another bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.7.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release. |
Dilution and Misuse of the "Linux" Brand
|
Samsung, Red Hat to Work on Linux Drivers for Future TechThe metaverse is expected to uproot system design as we know it, and Samsung is one of many hardware vendors re-imagining data center infrastructure in preparation for a parallel 3D world. Samsung is working on new memory technologies that provide faster bandwidth inside hardware for data to travel between CPUs, storage and other computing resources. The company also announced it was partnering with Red Hat to ensure these technologies have Linux compatibility. |
today's howtos
|
Recent comments
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago
1 year 11 weeks ago