The story of the scener and the largest publisher EliteTorrents, who "escaped" with a suspended sentence

Almost every time articles about the scene appear, in the comments the question arises as to why the sceners do this without any benefit, but at the risk of actually getting out of jail. I hope today I can clarify this issue a bit.

In February 2012, an article was published on torrentfreak based on an interview with a man, along with others arrested by the FBI during Operation D-Elite, which I wrote about earlier . As a teenager, he gained access to an elite pirate community (scene) and at the same time became a leading uploader on one of the most famous torrent trackers in the world.

Under the cut - a translation of the article and a small figurative comparison.

At the very beginning of the new millennium, one 15-year-old student brought another Iomega ZIP disk, full of warez - pirated programs and games. James (we will call him that for now) has never seen anything like this, and at first glance the passion inherent in many avid file hosting services manifested in him.

“I just couldn't stop. He says. “It was much more interesting to download and give all this crap to friends than to actually use software and play games.”

Inspired by this beginning, James began chatting with other like-minded people on warez sites and ICQ, and exchanging warez through the so-called "pubs" - FTP servers, which are available in excess in large companies that had wide channels and almost no security.

File sharing was not an easy thing in those years, and James recalls that when Napster appeared, they hated it. “It was just a mockery of the hard work with which we got all our warez.” But despite this first dislike of Napster, in the future James will be at the top of an even wider peer-to-peer exchange network.

James gradually made his way to the leading roles of the GraveyardFXP warez board, and after that became the moderator of DelusionalFXP. It is there, on their IRC channel, that he will meet people whose new project will drag him in and forever change his life. Around this time, James became better known in narrow circles as StonyVision, and he was invited to participate in the case, which was organized by his familiar pirate, known as Sk0t. This was the start of the Elite Torrents torrent tracker, which would then be the first (and only) US-based tracker to cover the FBI.

In February 2004, when all his friends had cable modems, StonyVision had two. But the speed was still not enough. Then he rented a 100 Mbit server from The Planet, and began to file files from there. As soon as the first hundred users downloaded his new release, he created the next distribution, usually these were new movies. Such activity eventually brought him to the administration of the tracker.

Of course, Stony had to get fresh content somewhere, and he, without hesitation, took it directly from the stage. He got access there earlier, through his friends at DelusionalFXP. By that time, his own server was connected to a top-site called “TOP” (Tower of Power) - an array of 53 dedicated 100-Mbit servers, acting as a single huge pirated FTP. But Stony was not enough.

“At that time I was on four of the five top sites, I was mainly interested in films. I've always been fond of cinema, and now too, ”explains Stony. “Since my server was constantly overloaded, I rented two more, one for the scene, the other for distribution to Elite Torrents.”

Like his older comrades, Stony saw himself as someone like Robin Hood, who takes from the rich and distributes to the poor, enjoying the enthusiastic feedback from users of his tracker. But by this time, the FBI and the US Department of Justice had begun violent activity against the scene. The Fastlink operation took place, and everyone was wondering who would be their next target. Stony anticipated the danger and left the tracker's leadership around April 2005, when he was 19 years old. But it was too late.

All admins and major tracker releases have already been hooked by the FBI. Then everything was as usual in such stories. At 6 a.m., a dozen FBI sheep burst into his house. At first he even laughed, thought it was a joke. But soon he was no longer laughing.

Stony says: “They presented me with completely idiotic figures for the losses of the film industry, declared me almost a terrorist. I was in complete confusion, did not understand what was happening. What happened to the others, I also had no idea. ”

He did not have a lawyer; he found him in the phone book. A lengthy lawsuit ensued, and Stony was threatened with a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. The pressure of the situation was too strong, and he washed down.

In December 2006, charges were brought. The prosecutor demanded a real time to intimidate potential violators. To Stony's great relief, this did not happen.

“Fortunately for me, the case was conducted by the most liberal judge of those that were then. I was fined 3,500 dollars, 6 months of house arrest, community service, and 3 years probation, during which I could not touch the computer. But I was able to escape the prison, which simply infuriated the prosecutor. ”

However, Stony says he still paid his price: “It became my curse and changed me forever. I rolled along the path of self-destruction, did crazy things, continued to swing and arrange drunken fights in bars. Believe me, I went through hell, looked into the eyes of the devil with his billions (RIAA, MPAA), laughed in their faces and left. "

How's Stony doing now? There are difficulties with work because of a criminal record (albeit conditional), but the family supports him. He says: "Of course, now I’m no longer piracy, but I’m sure they are still watching me."

At the end of the article, Stony said that he recently went online and was pleasantly surprised by the huge company against SOPA and PIPA. “Thanks to everyone who participated in this. I am really amazed that people finally decided to stand up for their rights. ”

So why do they do it?

Now I will try to summarize the stories of convicts that I published in recent months: EliteTorrents , Risciso , DoD .

Everyone has hobbies. Someone likes to fish, someone to play games, and someone to share files. Of course, sceners, top-releases, to a large extent, do this out of a desire to be on top, but the file-sharing process itself is also a very attractive activity.

They do not have money from this, this is their favorite thing, to which they have devoted many years of life. This is especially true for those who started back in the days of BBS. I recall that most of the people mentioned in the above articles were aged 30-40 years and older. They do not consider this something so bad that they can be compared with terrorism, on the contrary, they are sure that they are making the world a better place.

I understand that this example is not similar to the situation with copyright , and that there are many differences. I quote it solely to illustrate the answer to the question: "why do they do this, despite the fact that they can be planted." I think they could have experienced such feelings.

Imagine that for 20 years (since the 80s) you have grown flowers in your garden, this is your favorite thing. And suddenly it turns out that the violets are the intellectual property of some company, and the lilies are different, and no one else in the world is allowed to grow them, and criminal penalties are relied on for this. You do not believe that this can happen, it's absurd! But time passes, and one day the FBI comes to you, trample all the flowers, they take you with them, they judge you and put you in jail for 5 years.