Crackdown on
software pirate group
By Reuters
February 4, 2000 2:45 PM PT
FBI arrests suspected leader of
international software piracy ring 'Pirates with Attitude,'
and charges him with copyright conspiracy in the bootleg
trafficking of thousands of computer programs.
CHICAGO -- One of the suspected leaders of an
international ring of software pirates operating on the
Internet has been arrested and charged with conspiring to
violate the copyrights on thousands of computer programs,
federal officials announced Friday.
Robin Rothberg, 32, who was arrested
Thursday in Boston, is suspected of being a "council
member" of a group called "Pirates with
Attitude," an organization that disseminates bootleg
copies of software, including some not commercially available,
said U.S. Attorney Scott Lasser.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Chicago said Rothberg, of North Chelmsford, Mass., was charged
with conspiracy to infringe the copyright of thousands of
software programs. If convicted he faces a maximum penalty of
five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Rothberg used an Illinois-based Internet
service provider (ISP) while conspiring to bootleg the
software, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Pirates with Attitude runs a Web site called
Sentinel, which is accessible only to those who enter by a
secure Internet Protocol address.
To use the site, the indictment naming
Rothberg said, users must upload software files. In exchange
they may then download files from a directory listing
thousands of programs.
One computer that supported the operation,
located at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, was seized
by Canadian authorities and the FBI last month, the
announcement said.
But it said the operation -- described as
one of the longest-standing and most sophisticated of its kind
-- is believed to have members and other distribution sites
worldwide.
The FBI said investigators found that
thousands of commercially marketed software products from
nearly every publisher had been uploaded to the Sherbrooke
computer.
Rothberg, who was released on $25,000 bond
following his arrest in Boston, had connected to the Canadian
site through Zenith Data Systems of Buffalo Grove, Illinois,
the ISP for his former employer, NEC Technologies, the
complaint said.
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