Fergie's Tech Blog

DOJ Crackdown Leads to Piracy Charges Against Five People

Grant Gross writes on InfoWorld:

Five U.S. residents face criminal copyright charges for their alleged participation in the online "warez" file-trading community, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

The charges come out of an ongoing DOJ crackdown against international online piracy groups that distribute copyrighted movies, software, games and music on the Internet. The five defendants are alleged to be leading members of the "warez scene," groups of Internet users who illegally distribute copyrighted materials online.

Kevin Fuchs, 25, of West Amherst, New York, and Cuong Quoc Trang, 35, of Parker, Colorado, were charged in an indictment with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and copyright infringement, the DOJ said.

Matthew Alderman, 24, of Ashland, Oregon, was charged with criminal copyright infringement, and David Morvant, 35, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, and Michael Hays, 51, of Delafield, Wisconsin, were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.

posted by Fergie @ 4/27/2006 11:35:00 AM