Probably a story that most of you don’t want to read, but cNet has a published story about John Sankus, Jr who allegedly ran the massive piracy syndication DrinkOrDie. He entered a plea of “guilty” which could give him up to five years in prison if they toss the book at him.
From The Story – “The accused leader of an Internet piracy group known as DrinkOrDie could face up to five years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. John Sankus, Jr., 28, who entered his plea in a Virginia federal court, will be sentenced May 17, federal prosecutors said. As part of the plea, Sankus agreed that he caused between $2.5 million and $5 million in damages by allowing the distribution of illegal software, games and movies over the Internet, the prosecutors said. In addition to possible prison time, he faces fines of up to $250,000. Prosecutors said Sankus ran the daily operations of DrinkOrDie and was in contact with 60 people who cracked and distributed pirated software and movies via secret Web sites and invite-only IRC (Internet relay chat) channels. Such software is known as “warez”–a name for digital content whose copy protection has been cracked by skilled programmers.”
Related
- Software piracy ring leader sentenced to 46 months
- NY Times feature on DrinkorDie: Pirates of the Web
- Man involved with BitTorrent (site EliteTorrents) pleads guilty to copyright theft
- Man behind online file-sharing hub pleads guilty to theft
- Drink or Die software pirate goes to prison
