DrinkOrDie
Encyclopedia
DrinkOrDie was an underground software piracy group and warez
trading network during the 1990s. On December 11, 2001, a major law enforcement raid - known as Operation Buccaneer
- forced it to close under criminal charges of infringement
. DoD, as a rule, received no financial profit
for their activities. The DoD network - which primarily consisted of university
undergraduates - was also supported by software company employees, who would leak copies of software and other digital media
. DoD was also actively involved in illicit file
-trading with other networks.
by a Russia
n with the handle
"deviator" and a friend who went by the code name "CyberAngel." By 1995, the group was global.
One of its earliest major accomplishments was the Internet
release of Windows 95
two weeks before Microsoft
released the official version. It is also known for its DoD DVD
Speed Ripper released in 1999 shortly before DeCSS
. The activity of the DoD group diminished after 1996, and they were not considered major players in the warez scene by 2000.
. The global raids were initiated after information was given to United States Customs by James Cudney, known as Bcrea8tiv. Cudney quickly rose up the ranks of DOD council where he spent many years working undercover for US Customs, logging conversations in chat rooms and channels visited on IRC. He also carried out undercover operations in the UK, France, and the US prior to the arrests collecting detailed information on members.
Large amounts of intelligence were collected by U.S. Customs agents on many warez groups worldwide e.g., screenames, ftp locations, nationalities. At the time, DrinkOrDie allegedly had two leaders, one in the United States
and another in Australia
.
The Australian co-leader Hew Raymond Griffiths
, known by his handle
"Bandido", from Bateau Bay
on the Central Coast of New South Wales
, was charged in 2003 with copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement under US legislation. He was involved in opposing extradition to the USA in Australian courts for a period of almost 3 years.
Griffiths was ultimately unsuccessful and in early February 2007, he was transferred to the US detention system. He pleaded guilty on 20 April 2007 to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement. On 22 June 2007 Griffiths was sentenced to 51 months in prison for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. But the US District Court Judge, Claude M Hilton, took into account the almost three years Griffiths had spent in Australian jails while fighting extradition, meaning he will only have to serve 15 months in a US Jail.
The self-confessed American co-leader John Sankus Jr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, known by his screen name "eriFlleH" (HellFire spelled backwards), was convicted and sentenced to 46 months, later reduced to 18 months by cooperating with the government in capturing other members of the group. Sankus was also a member of the group HARM at the time of his arrest.
, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit
in the UK
also arrested six members residing in Britain.
Two of those arrested ran a 6 month trial at the Old Bailey
and were charged and convicted for Conspiracy to Defraud, Alex Bell (aka "mr2940") of Grays
, Essex
and Steven Dowd (aka "Tim") of Newton-le-Willows
, Merseyside
,
Andrew Eardley of Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire
, (aka "Maverick") pleaded guilty in May 2005 to conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws and was sentenced to an 18 month suspended sentence after previously being remanded in custody and under a stringent 24 hour house arrest order whilst under suspicion of contempt of court. Eardley was also a member of Parents On ‘Puterz (POP) which was founded as a joint venture by Eardley, Cudney & Erickson and allegedly other various other groups of which Cudney had various senior positions.
Mark Vent of Essex
(aka "British") entered a guilty plea in July 2004 and received an 18-month sentence. Denis Oshdashko, a Ukrainian national (aka "Vizitor"), who had been instrumental in the reverse-engineering part of the conspiracy, was deported after his arrest.
Bell, Dowd & Vent served their time at HMP Belmarsh.
Warez
Warez refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar...
trading network during the 1990s. On December 11, 2001, a major law enforcement raid - known as Operation Buccaneer
Operation Buccaneer
On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as Operation Buccaneer, law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries.U.S...
- forced it to close under criminal charges of infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
. DoD, as a rule, received no financial profit
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...
for their activities. The DoD network - which primarily consisted of university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
undergraduates - was also supported by software company employees, who would leak copies of software and other digital media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
. DoD was also actively involved in illicit file
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
-trading with other networks.
Start up and trading
DrinkOrDie was founded in 1993 in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
by a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n with the handle
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"deviator" and a friend who went by the code name "CyberAngel." By 1995, the group was global.
One of its earliest major accomplishments was the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
release of Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
two weeks before Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
released the official version. It is also known for its DoD DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
Speed Ripper released in 1999 shortly before DeCSS
DeCSS
DeCSS is a computer program capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, there was no way for computers running a Linux-based operating system to play video DVDs....
. The activity of the DoD group diminished after 1996, and they were not considered major players in the warez scene by 2000.
Member raids
In 2001 the group was busted in a U.S. Customs operation called Operation BuccaneerOperation Buccaneer
On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as Operation Buccaneer, law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries.U.S...
. The global raids were initiated after information was given to United States Customs by James Cudney, known as Bcrea8tiv. Cudney quickly rose up the ranks of DOD council where he spent many years working undercover for US Customs, logging conversations in chat rooms and channels visited on IRC. He also carried out undercover operations in the UK, France, and the US prior to the arrests collecting detailed information on members.
Large amounts of intelligence were collected by U.S. Customs agents on many warez groups worldwide e.g., screenames, ftp locations, nationalities. At the time, DrinkOrDie allegedly had two leaders, one in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and another in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
The Australian co-leader Hew Raymond Griffiths
Hew Raymond Griffiths
Hew Raymond Griffiths has been accused by the United States of being a ring leader of DrinkOrDie or DOD, an underground software piracy network. Griffiths was living in Berkeley Vale in the Central Coast Region of NSW, Australia before he was placed on remand at Silverwater Correctional Centre...
, known by his handle
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
"Bandido", from Bateau Bay
Bateau Bay, New South Wales
Bateau Bay is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Wyong Shire local government area. Bateau Bay lies in the area known as Darkinjung to Indigenous Australians...
on the Central Coast of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, was charged in 2003 with copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement under US legislation. He was involved in opposing extradition to the USA in Australian courts for a period of almost 3 years.
Griffiths was ultimately unsuccessful and in early February 2007, he was transferred to the US detention system. He pleaded guilty on 20 April 2007 to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement. On 22 June 2007 Griffiths was sentenced to 51 months in prison for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. But the US District Court Judge, Claude M Hilton, took into account the almost three years Griffiths had spent in Australian jails while fighting extradition, meaning he will only have to serve 15 months in a US Jail.
The self-confessed American co-leader John Sankus Jr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, known by his screen name "eriFlleH" (HellFire spelled backwards), was convicted and sentenced to 46 months, later reduced to 18 months by cooperating with the government in capturing other members of the group. Sankus was also a member of the group HARM at the time of his arrest.
US
Also charged and convicted were:- Christopher Tresco age 23, of Boston, Massachusetts, who used the screename "bigrar", pleaded guilty May 28, 2002 to conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws, and was sentenced to 33 months jail. Tresco was also a member of Rise in Superior Couriering (RiSC). Tresco at the time of his arrest was the Systems Administrator for the MIT Economics departmentMIT Department of EconomicsThe MIT Department of Economics is a department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Undergraduate studies in economics were introduced in the 19th century by institute president Francis Amasa Walker. The department's Ph.D...
.
- Barry Erickson age 35, of Eugene, OregonEugene, OregonEugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, who used the screename "radsl", pleaded guilty on May 2, 2002 to one felony count charging conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws, and was sentenced to a term of 33 months, with three years of probation to follow. Erickson was a systems engineer at Symantec Corporation and provided prerelease software to DoD and RiSCiSORiscisoRisciso was an online warez group, founded in approximately 1993, dedicated to distributing newly-released copyrighted software, games and movies...
. He was also a founding member of Parents On ‘Puterz (POP) a warez group that specialized in the release of children’s learning software and games.
- David Grimes age 25, of Arlington, TexasArlington, TexasArlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas within the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census results, the city had a population of 365,438, making it the third largest municipality in the Metroplex...
, who used the screename "chevelle", pleaded guilty on March 4, 2002 to one felony count charging conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws. Grimes was a computer engineer at Check Point Software. Grimes supplied Check Point firewall software to DrinkOrDie on at least two occasions, and he operated an FTP site known as High Octane and was affiliated with RiSC, MYTH, RTS, and DrinkOrDie.
- Richard Berry age 34, of Rockville, MarylandRockville, MarylandRockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
, who used the screen name "flood", pleaded guilty on April 29, 2002 to one felony count charging conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws. Berry was Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Streampipe.com in Alexandria, VA. A longtime member of DrinkOrDie, he supplied members with computer hardware, occasionally tested software, and operated BNCBounce (network)A BNC is a piece of software that is used to relay traffic and connections in computer networks, much like a proxy. Using a BNC allows a user to hide the original source of the user's connection, providing privacy as well as the ability to route traffic through a specific location...
s for the FTP sites known as Fatal Error, Packet Storm, and Lake of Fire. Berry was also a member of POP.
- Sabuj Pattanayek age 21, of Nashville, TennesseeNashville, TennesseeNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, who used the screen name "buj", pleaded guilty on April 16, 2002 and was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate criminal copyright laws. However, Pattanayek did not spend one day in prison nor was he ever arrested. Instead, his sentence was reduced to 6 months community confinement, 3 years probation, and 100 hours of community service. Pattanayek, a student at Duke UniversityDuke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, was a council member, and a skilled software cracker. Pattanayek had also been a senior member of the courier group Request To Send (RTS).
- Stacey Nawara age 34, of Rosenberg, TexasRosenberg, TexasRosenberg is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Fort Bend County and is part of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The population was 31,676 at the 2010 census...
, who used the screen name "avec", pleaded guilty on March 19, 2002 to one felony count charging conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws. Nawara was a Council member in DoD, a senior member of the warez courier group RTS, and a leading courier for the warez group Razor 1911Razor 1911Razor 1911 is a warez and demo group.-History:The group was originally founded as Razor 2992 by Doctor No, Insane TTM and Sector9 in Norway in October 1985 as a Commodore 64 software cracking group...
.
- Michael Kelly age 21, of Miami, FloridaMiami, FloridaMiami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, who used the screen name "erupt", pleaded guilty on April 10, 2002 to one felony count charging conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws. Kelly was a systems network administrator for Gator Leasing, Inc., of Miami, Florida, from where he conducted many of his activities. A senior member/botmaster for DoD, he also had past or current membership in the warez groups AMNESiA, CORP, and RiSC and the underground artsceneComputer art sceneThe phrase computer art scene, or artscene for short, refers to a community of individuals and groups that are both interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.-Early computer art:...
group RemorseRemorse ASCIIRemorse ASCII, or Remorse 1981, is the official ASCII sub-label of ACiD Productions.-History:Remorse was established in late 1994 by two IBM-PC scene ASCII artists from San José, California who went by the pseudonyms Necromancer and Necronite....
.
- Nathan Hunt age 25, of Waterford, PennsylvaniaWaterford, PennsylvaniaWaterford is a borough in Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,449 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Erie Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Waterford is located at ....
, who used the screen name "azide", pleaded guilty on April 3, 2002 to one felony count charging conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws. Hunt was a senior member in DoD and the group’s leading supplier of software. From November 2000 through October 2001, Hunt provided the group with more than 120 individual software titles. Hunt was also a senior member of The Corporation (CORP).
- David Russo age 50, of Warwick, Rhode IslandWarwick, Rhode IslandWarwick is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. It is the second largest city in the state, with a population of 82,672 at the 2010 census. Its mayor has been Scott Avedisian since 2000...
, who used the screen name "ange", pleaded guilty on April 24, 2003 to conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws and received 13 months in federal prison. Russo was responsible for testing the programs to determine if they functioned properly before release.
- Kentaga Kartadinata, 29, of Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, who used the screen name "tenkuken", pleaded guilty on January 22, 2002 to conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws. Kartadinata operated an electronic mail server for the group.
- Andrew Clardy of Galesburg, IllinoisGalesburg, IllinoisGalesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County....
, who used the screen name "doodad", pleaded guilty on April 4, 2002 to criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws. Clardy was also a member of POP.
- Derek Eiser of Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, who used the screen name "psychod", pleaded guilty on June 21, 2002 to conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws.
- Robert Gross of Horsham, PennsylvaniaHorsham, PennsylvaniaHorsham is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 14,842 at the 2010 census. Horsham is located entirely within Horsham Township, and it is home to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove.In 2007, Horsham was named the 15th best...
, who used the screen name "targetpractice", pleaded guilty on May 22, 2002 to criminal copyright infringement.
- Myron Cole of Warminster, Pennsylvania, who used the screen name "t3rminal", pleaded guilty on July 10, 2002 to criminal copyright infringement.
- Anthony Buchanan of Eugene, OregonEugene, OregonEugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, who used the screen name "spaceace", pleaded guilty on August 19, 2002 to criminal copyright infringement. Buchanan was also a member of POP and worked as a computer administrator at the University of Oregon.
UK
As a result of Operation BuccaneerOperation Buccaneer
On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as Operation Buccaneer, law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries.U.S...
, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit
National Hi-Tech Crime Unit
The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit previously formed part of the National Crime Squad, a British Police organisation which dealt with major crime....
in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
also arrested six members residing in Britain.
Two of those arrested ran a 6 month trial at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
and were charged and convicted for Conspiracy to Defraud, Alex Bell (aka "mr2940") of Grays
Grays
Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional parishes...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
and Steven Dowd (aka "Tim") of Newton-le-Willows
Newton-le-Willows
Newton-le-Willows is a small market town within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is situated about midway between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, to the east of St Helens, to the north of Warrington and to the south of...
, Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
,
Andrew Eardley of Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, (aka "Maverick") pleaded guilty in May 2005 to conspiracy to violate the criminal copyright laws and was sentenced to an 18 month suspended sentence after previously being remanded in custody and under a stringent 24 hour house arrest order whilst under suspicion of contempt of court. Eardley was also a member of Parents On ‘Puterz (POP) which was founded as a joint venture by Eardley, Cudney & Erickson and allegedly other various other groups of which Cudney had various senior positions.
Mark Vent of Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
(aka "British") entered a guilty plea in July 2004 and received an 18-month sentence. Denis Oshdashko, a Ukrainian national (aka "Vizitor"), who had been instrumental in the reverse-engineering part of the conspiracy, was deported after his arrest.
Bell, Dowd & Vent served their time at HMP Belmarsh.
Elsewhere
Apart from the Australian and British defendants, others implicated in DoD were Swedish, German, Norwegian, Italian and Finnish nationals. All except the Australian were dealt with under the copyright or fraud laws of their own country. Griffiths was the only member of the international network to be extradited to the USA. This has set an important benchmark in copyright enforcement for the US Department of Justice.External links
- Official webpage DrinkorDie Webpage.
- Piracy case that cost £18.4m.
- Slashdot interview with former DoD member Chris Tresco aka BiGrAr
- Slashdot article on the extradition of the leader of DrinkOrDie.
- Your Rights Online: DrinkOrDie Warez Trader to be Extradited to U.S.
- ZDNet UK article regarding DoD members standing trial.
- Digital Pirates and the "Warez" Wars by Omar J. Pahati of AlterNet
- Defendant Indicted in Connection with Operating Illegal Internet Software Piracy Group (Hew Griffiths)
- Warez Leader Sentenced to 46 Months (John Sankus)
- Member of "DrinkOrDie" Warez Group Sentenced to 41 Months (Sabuj Pattanayek)
- Warwick Man is Sentenced for Software Piracy (David Russo)
- Drink or Die file and information repository on Defacto2
- 'Bandido' Software Pirate Arraigned In U.S. On 2 Charges, Information Week, February 21, 2007.
- DrinkOrDie warez ringleader cops to piracy charges, Ars TechnicaArs TechnicaArs Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
, April 25, 2007