BuddyHawks

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taken from gamespot

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Game pirate gets four years jail time


Federal judge hands out a 50-month prison term, near-$700,000 fine to infamous "warez" merchant.

Crime sure didn't pay for Sean Michael Breen. In an Oakland court on Tuesday, the Richmond, California resident was sentenced to 50 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong.


His offense? Selling and illegally distributing nearly half a million dollars' worth of cracked console and PC games over the past decade.

Breen's sentence follows his guilty plea and subsequent conviction last July on two counts of copyright infringement and on three counts of mail fraud. As has been widely reported, the charges stemmed from Breen's multiyear tenure as the self-styled leader of Razor1911, an infamous group of game hackers responsible for an elaborate black-market "warez" operation. He is the latest and last Razor1911 member to be sentenced--last June, a North Carolina-based member received an 18-month jail term on related charges.

According to court documents, Breen and other Razor1911 members acquired, cracked, and sold advance copies of Quake, Command & Conquer Red Alert, Terminal Velocity, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and many other games.

They acquired advance copies of said titles by posing as reviewers for fictitious game magazines and having them shipped to a derelict storefront address in Oakland. Breen and his associates would then illegally distribute their games via pirated-software sites and often sell physical copies. Their unconcealed efforts garnered the attention of the U.S. Customs Service, which arrested Breen and 40 other individuals after an extensive undercover operation known as "Operation Buccaneer."

Razor1911 members also posed as customers of Cisco Systems in order to place massive hardware orders they never paid for. This tactic came back to haunt Breen today, when Judge Armstrong ordered him to pay $690,236.91 in restitution to Cisco--more than the value of the software he was accused of distributing.

Breen begins his sentence on March 26. Barring parole, he will be released in May 2008, when he will have to serve a further three years probation. He will also have to finish reimbursing Cisco, which will likely take much longer.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot [POSTED: 02/11/04 04:19 PM]



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Razor911



this make my heart hurt.....

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Shokan

He stole. He was punished. Justice was served.

Yay for laws.

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Legalize it.

H12

That's all that has to be said. Move along.

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Mr.Deflok

OMFG! PIRATES GOT OWN3D!!!!!111one!one

Serves him right, I don't really have much against people who download the odd game, movie or mp3 but for the bastards who download them then sell them and distribute them, you're an assmunch just waiting to be caught.

Caphreak

Agreed, im all for the "try before you buy, buy after you try" , but selling and stealing = jail.

silent_jay

I download everything from movies to games but when you start selling them that's just wrong he got what was coming to him

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GraveTaker

i would hate to be that guy right about now. I hope that he doesn't drop the soap.

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Ov3rKiLL

this is old news i read it at ircspy, well this is one less group to our game releasers. sooner or later i think they would all be gone. but i must say the warcfraft 3 that i got from these guys is wasnt bad.

BuddyHawks

I don't understand how sites like supernova and the like are able to stay up and running. It's not like they are making any effort to be "underground", and I don't think they are protected by any laws. Why doesn't the FBI go to google and do a search, they could probably catch many illegal sites.

supernova even sells tshirts!

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Boruki

I think its because they don't actually have the files, they only provide links to the files.

opackfan

I agree with most of the people here saying that try before buy. That guy was an idiot selling that stuff anyway, good ridance

Chingal0

Oh man. He deserved what he got, but Razor1911 was a huge force in warez. Or so says this guy I know. It is unfortunate, but then again...

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Mr.Deflok

Yep, he was huge, his posses is still running around though. If they brought down Deviance that'd be a huuuge blow.

jhericurl21

What other groups are there beside Deviance or Razor 1911? I only recall seeing these 2 as the main groups releasing. And are these groups also responsible for the stripped EXE version you can find on kazaa?

Ov3rKiLL

other groups are Fairlight and immersion and no the rips that they put on kazaa are released by other groups such ass Myth and so forth.

Stare At The Sun

And rapists and murder's get off clean every day. Some system we got.

Granted, it was wrong, and yes, he is a criminal, but thats a long tim to rot in a cell for pirating some games. That judge probably got a decent chunk of change for that sentance to be handed down.

kutulu

Although I download things, I think there is a big difference between downloading stuff for personal use and making money off of something. He crossed the line, he got what he deserves. Maybe the fact that I d/l things makes me a hypocrite, but I don't care.

Wombat

Good.

hulk

It's not just the downloading. He made $500,000 from doing it. If someone stole $500,000 how long do you think they'd be in for? I'd say close to 4 years. Down here, the Proceeds of Crime laws means he'd lose everything he couldn't prove he paid 100% legal money for, too.

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"'There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person,' says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex."
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tehblaed

lol, he was warezing Terminal Velocity! That game was the shit!

Mr.Deflok

Damn straight! Especially that level like the Death Star trench! Plus the music rocked.

pixel_bc

I work for one of the larger game publishers -- and I know that group has dealt before in our titles.

As far as I'm concerned, he was taking money out of MY pocket. I hope he makes real good friends with some of those rapists and murderers in jail.

legolas

haha, think of the conversation he will have with his cell mate
"what are you in for?"
"murder. you."
"....making video games.... and um... shooting... stuff?"
*onx rape begins*

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MSD

Looks like I got out of Warez in time. My group (no, I'm not naming them) was shut down by the FBI a week after I quit because of some jackass hacking root access to my FTP and deleting a lot of my shit (not warez, personal stuff)

Kids, stick to downloading music and you'll be just fine