An anticipated U.S. Justice Department crackdown on Internet crime began August 25 with a move against the world of peer-to-peer online file swapping. Six warrants served at five homes and one Internet service provider in Texas, New York, and Wisconsin resulted in seizure of computers, software, and computer equipment, in what Attorney General John Ashcroft said was meant to send a message to “those who steal over the Internet” and disrupt an extensive if not well known peer-to-peer network.
No arrests or formal charges had been filed yet in the raids aimed at stopping The Underground Network, but the move signals perhaps the first time the Justice Department is putting its power behind bids by the music and film industries to put a stop to P2P networks.
“When online thieves illegally distribute copyrighted programs and products, they put the livelihoods of millions of hard-working Americans at risk and damage our economy,” Ashcroft told a late-day press conference, announcing the warrants as part of Operation Digital Gridlock, a joint probe between the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, and Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Division.
“The execution of today’s warrants disrupted an extensive peer-to-peer network suspected of enabling users to traffic illegally in music, films, software, and published works…. The message is simply this: P2P or peer-to-peer does not stand for permission to pilfer,” Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft and Justice had been expected to make an August 26 announcement of a major cybercrime crackdown involving preponderantly spammers and Internet scammers. The six August 25 warrants were said to involve five Underground Network hubs, described by the Justice Department as part of an organization of 7,000 users swapping pirated films, music, computer games, and software.
“The Department of Justice is committed to enforcing intellectual property laws, and we will pursue those who steal copyrighted materials even when they try to hide behind the false anonymity of peer-to-peer networks,” Ashcroft said.
“Today’s enforcement action is the latest step in our ongoing effort to combat piracy occurring on the Internet,” Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Christopher A. Wray said at the conference. “This is the first federal law enforcement action against criminal copyright infringement using peer-to-peer networks and shows that we are committed to combating piracy, regardless of the medium used to commit these illegal acts.”
Undercover agents reportedly downloaded about 84 films, 40 software programs, 13 games, and 178 sound recordings from five sites in the reputed hub. “It is illegal to trade in copyright-protected materials on the Internet,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein said at the conference. “This is theft, plain and simple. If you are engaged in this behavior, you are on notice that you are not as anonymous as you may think.”
The Underground Network, according to unsealed search warrant affidavits, required users to share a minimum of one to 100GB of computer files with other network users. Justice said film, software, game, and music piracy costs American industries about $19 billion around the world annually.
Whether this means Justice might go after such popular P2P networks as KaZaA, Grokster, Morpheus, and others, however, may remain open to speculation – especially following last week’s ruling, from a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, holding that Grokster and Morpheus, at least, could not be held liable in and of themselves for copyright-infringing activities engaged by their member users.
That ruling, upholding a lower court’s 2003 ruling, did not sit well with the Recording Industry Association of America. The ruling “does nothing to absolve these businesses from their responsibility as corporate citizens to address the rampant illegal use of their networks,” said RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol. “We will continue to pursue legislative solutions and legal actions to address the ongoing illegal activity facilitated by Grokster and other P2P services.
Bainwol also said the ruling all but drew battle lines between legitimate digital downloading and illegitimate downloading. “[I]rrespective of what any court says, a debate has crystallized…. It's iTunes, Rhapsody, the new Napster and Wal-Mart, Amazon, Musicnet, Dell, Sony Connect, Microsoft and others, versus the likes of Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster,” he said. “It's whether or not digital music will be enjoyed in a fashion that supports the creative process or one that robs it of its future. That's the online future of music."
