Industry trade body applauds piracy convictions

The Entertainment Software Association has issued a statement praising the law enforcement and government officials of Chicago for their indictment of 19 software and film pirates.

Ric Hirsch, SVP of Intellectual Property Enforcement for the ESA, commented: "We applaud the US Attorneyâs Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Department of Justiceâs Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section for their extensive and continuing efforts to dismantle these online piracy rings that steal millions of dollars of intellectual property."

As part of an undercover sting operation dubbed 'Jolly Roger', federal law enforcement officers captured 19 members of an international piracy ring known as RISCISO. It is estimated that the group, which started operating in 1998, had illegally duplicated in excess of USD 6.5 million worth of videogames and movies.

As part of the operation the group's servers were confiscated, and were found to contain enough pirated material to fill more than 23,000 CD-ROMs. According to the ESA statement, two of the group lived outside the US - one in Australia and the other in Barbados. The operation was part of a larger, ongoing international investigation by the US Department of Justice, known as Operation Site Down.

"Federal law enforcementâs continued focus on - and success in - taking down these international warez groups sends a clear message to pirates everywhere that they will be targeted aggressively and are not beyond the law, even if they live outside the United States," Hirsch added. "Given the harm that these groups cause the entertainment software industry, the ESA will continue to support and assist all law enforcement efforts to stop their pirate activities."

In related news, the UK's games industry trade body, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has confirmed that a software pirate in South Lanarkshire has been sentenced to 200 hours of community service for running a counterfeit piracy operation.

William Agnew used his ice cream van as a front for sales of illegal copies of videogames, movies and music. More than 400 pirated CDs and DVDs were confiscated, including games for PS2, Xbox and PC platforms, with an estimated value of GBP 100,000.