Welcome screen at the elite torrents site

YOU NOTICE BOTH THE FBI SEAL AND THE OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY SEALS
BUT, IS THIS A LEGIT FBI/HOMELAND SECURITY SHUTDOWN PAGE...OR AN ELABORATE HACK?
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=801

==============================================================================
In an article at
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050526-9999-1b26crackdow.html
by Jonathan Sidener we read:

"May 26, 2005

Last week, federal investigators in San Diego watched as "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith," turned up on a prominent file-sharing Web site several hours before the movie opened in theaters. And they counted as more than 10,000 visitors downloaded illegal copies of the movie in 24 hours.

Then yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department responded with what could be called "Revenge of the Copyright Holders," serving search warrants in 10 cities against suspected administrators of the Web site, Elite Torrents. No arrests were made; however, the site was shut down.

Investigators here say they have the names of nearly 140,000 Elite Torrent users. But prosecutors aren't saying whether those rank-and-file participants could face charges.

The raids mark an escalation in the battle against illegal movie and music sharing. Unlike the more restrained response to Napster and KaZaa and other preceding technologies, authorities are launching criminal investigations to tackle the newly dominant file-sharing technology, BitTorrent.

And Justice Department officials in Washington turned to San Diego investigators to crack the case.

The battle against earlier file-sharing networks such as Napster and San Diego's MP3.com was fought primarily through civil suits filed by the recording and movie industries. Then BitTorrent came along with a technology that speeds the process of sharing movies and music files. By some estimates, BitTorrent file transfers account for up to 30 percent of all Internet traffic, with the vast majority of transfers assumed to be of copyrighted material.

At the same time BitTorrent was growing in popularity, the Justice Department became increasingly aggressive against digital piracy.

"When we have a technology that speeds up the process like this, we have a little more sense of urgency," department spokesman Bryan Sierra said.

Sierra said yesterday's raids focused on the leaders of the prominent BitTorrent site. He declined to comment on the fate of the thousands of site visitors who were identified through the investigation.

"Intellectual-property theft is illegal," he said. "A crime is a crime. People who use the Internet need to be aware of criminal activity and proceed with caution."

Like other so-called peer-to-peer networks, BitTorrent allows users to transfer files back and forth with other users. Unlike previous networks, BitTorrent does not transfer a file directly between two users. Instead, it sends multiple pieces of a file from several users to a single recipient, which speeds the process.

Because the files are not stored on any centralized servers, it is difficult to stop through legal action. But individuals sharing files can be identified and sued or prosecuted.

Elite Torrent was one of thousands of sites that provide downloads of BitTorrent software and help users search for files being shared by other users.

But Motion Picture Association of America investigators singled out the site as one of the first to provide pre-release movies such as "Revenge of the Sith," said Jim Sevel, San Diego superintendent of cybercrime investigations for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The MPAA took its information to the Justice Department in February, and the case was referred to San Diego, Sevel said.

In addition to federal cyber-investigators, San Diego has the Computer and Technology Crime High Tech Response Team, or CATCH, which is led by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office and includes local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

One investigator from Sevel's office, an FBI agent and several CATCH members worked on the case, Sevel said.

"Elite Torrents was a very prominent site," he said. "They were among the first to have pre-release movies, which means they were close to the source of the theft."

He said that administrators of the site were each sharing up to 30 terabytes of pirated material. A terabyte is roughly 1,000 gigabytes.

The group's Web site, EliteTorrents.org, was essentially shut down yesterday. Justice Department officials redirected Web traffic to a new page that announced the site had been closed by the FBI.

"Individuals involved in the operation and use of the Elite Torrents network are under investigation for criminal copyright infringement," the replacement page said.

Search warrants were served in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The actual site was stored on servers in Sweden, Sevel said. Customs agents are working with Swedish investigators to pursue the case, he said.

Because Internet crimes are often international, cybercases are considered to be without boundaries and are often referred to the U.S. Customs Enforcement agency.

Sevel said that as part of the investigation, he viewed some of "Revenge of the Sith," but not enough to spoil the plot.

"I went out and paid $9.50 to see it in a theater," he said."

=========SNIP===========
I haven't seen the movie yet, and probably will not since I am boycotting the MPAA, and would not waste my bandwidth downloading it, and I do not support copyright infringement, but, that being said...Star Wars is the kind of thing that is best seen on the big screen if you are a fan, in full quality.

But again, with that being said, the laws have got to be changed to allow non-commercial distribution for content that will be only viewed in people's homes.

This is the biggest waste of legal manpower since the war on drugs and prostitution began.

"So it goes."
~Vonnegut

"digital piracy"- B U L L S H I T !

Seeing how well Star Wars did last week at the box office, I don't see how they can make a case for file sharing hurting ticket sales.

Well that's not the point. The MPAA doesn't have to make a case anymore, thank to Bush's Family Protection Act. All the FBI needs is to find someone who is pre-releasing and someone is going to the pokey. The MPAA doesn't have to do squat... just sit back and gloat while more US tax dollars are spent on criminalizing the population. I really wish we had a president that put tax dollars where they belong... fixing America's infrastructure, social programs, cleaning up the political system, the law system, red tape and the national debt.

Back to issue at hand. As I've read elsewhere, the torrent file was not of very good quality so even if 10k users downloaded it, atleast half deleted it right off. Anyone who liked the film is free to go see it at the theater. And honestly, I don't see why this is a bad thing (for the consumers). Try it, buy it. What a novel concept.

The movie is makin ton of money...breaking records...would love to hear how this is "hurting" the movie industry

I was reading the headline in the news this morning. this one caught my attention.

http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=174fc43b-0abe-421a-0141-95b449f6283e&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

I thought to myself "this is probably the saddest thing I will read all day". then I came here. Once again I have to ask, isn't there something better we could be spending all this money on? Are times really so good that the worst thing law enforcement has to worry about is a kid with a computer?

I remember watching the original star wars 200 times as a kid and the elation I felt when I heard they were going to make more star wars movies. I have waited 30 years for the end of the series and faithfully paid through the nose just to get to sit in a dirty chair in a dank theater that smells like ass and eat popcorn that cost more per tub than a huge amount of americans make an hour. I'll probably wait a lot longer to see this one. and if some kid with a computer downloads it for free? well, I've got bigger problems to worry about and frankly so does the industry.

I agree captdunsel, but I think the MPAA suffers from "chicken little" disease. They keep saying 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling', except its the phrase well know to us 'file-sharing is piracy and cutting our sales', 'file-sharing is piracy and cutting our sales'. They say it often enough that they believe, our lawmakers believe it, and then pass ignorant legislation to protect them.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Well, we've had a War on Crime, and a War on Poverty, and a War on Drugs, and recently a War on Terrorism. I guess it's time for our Country's Finest to wage a War on Downloading.

The only way to stop the MPAA to control the media is for other Countries to build and develope their own movie studios twice the size, technology, and less in cost to operate than whats in hollywood right now. Also produce better movies than what hollywood is presently pushing out. There are many independent producers that are making really good movies. Perhaps China should do this as they are very enthusiastic about beating the U.S. in economics.

I read on CNet that it was Homeland Security agents that conducted the raid. WTF?!
http://news.com.com/Feds+shut+down+BitTorrent+hub/2100-1028_3-5720541.html?tag=nefd.top

It's about C-O-N-T-R-O-L. It's not about whether it was a good copy, or whether it hurt box office. They just don't like anyone watching or listening to ANYTHING without their express permission, don't ya know.

dogpile- you ever been to India? they own the world's largest cinema industry.

carla is right...when you click there you read...
"Homeland security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group's main server. The agency said it was the first criminal enforcement action aimed at copyright infringers who use the now-popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology.

Visitors to the Elite Torrents Wednesday found a bright red screen displaying a message that operators were under investigation for criminal copyright infringement.

"Our goal is to shut down as much of this illegal operation as quickly as possible to stem the serious financial damage to the victims of this high-tech piracy--the people who labor to produce these copyrighted products," Acting Assistant Attorney General John Richter said in a statement. "Today's crackdown sends a clear and unmistakable message to anyone involved in the online theft of copyrighted works that they cannot hide behind new technology."

Federal investigators have been increasingly active during recent months in targeting organized groups of copyright infringers online, a process that has dovetailed with civil litigation launched by Hollywood studios and record labels.

Wednesday's action was part of an operation dubbed "D-elite," which targets administrators and people who provided content that was distributed through the EliteTorrents.org site. "

But, was the site HAcKEd ?
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=801

The homepage of this website was replaced with a permanent shutdown notice, purportedly announced by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and U.S. Customs. The FBI is under the United States Department of Justice, while U.S. Customs is under the Department of Homeland Security.

EliteTorrents.org is hosted in the United States, however the owner lives in the Netherlands. The involvement of both departments would seem logical, considering the geographical coverage of the torrent site.

However, while one’s initial reaction may lead an individual to believe EliteTorrents.org is under a criminal investigation, further examination challenges this thought.

1) Neither the FBI nor U.S. Customs has never directly or exclusively shut down any torrent site. All site closures have been the result of an MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) action or investigation.

2) An odd message on the bottom right of EliteTorrents.org states “RTJKAS.” This message only appears when the page is highlighted.

3) The topic message on EliteTorrent.org IRC channel states, “Topic is 'Site: Down | Tracker: Up | Forums: Down | Radio: OFF | News : Site will be up when it's fixed. Stop asking.'”

4) The topic message on thier IRC channel now states, "Latest news:ET Was DNS Hacked (sithlord.)"

From the evidence presented, in all likely circumstances this is an elaborate hack, followed by an equally elaborate hoax. In fact the job is so elaborate, if one does an IP/Domain name trace, it ultimately ends at www.dhs.gov (Department of Homeland Security.) Incidentally, this sophisticated portion of this current circumstance is the only real counter-evidence to suggest that it may in fact be a true enforcement action. Slyck.com has contacted the FBI newsroom and awaits confirmation or denial of this situation.

The main site is still up and running and offering a new "trackerless" beta program

http://www.bittorrent.com/trackerless.html

Although the RTJKAS appears when you highlight, if you do a View Source, you find a redirect to dhs.gov

192.31.21.68 = [ www.dhs.gov ]
OrgName: San Diego Supercomputer Center
OrgID: SDSC
Address: P.O. Box 85608
City: San Diego
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 92186
Country: US
NetRange: 192.31.21.0 - 192.31.21.255
CIDR: 192.31.21.0/24
NetName: SDSC-APOLLO
NetHandle: NET-192-31-21-0-1
Parent: NET-192-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: DNS1.SDSC.EDU
NameServer: NS0.SDSC.EDU
Comment:
RegDate:
Updated: 1994-12-20
TechHandle: TH60-ARIN
TechName: Hutton Thomas
TechPhone: 1-858-534-5136
TechEmail: hutton@sdslug.org

dhs=department of homeland security

dhs=department of homeland security

Okay, let's back up here. So far, the MPAA has only been filing lawsuits against tracker sites (eg LokiTorrent, Suprnova and now EliteTorrents). Without the trackers to facilitate the transfers of copyrighted material, the network won't work, which is why the MPAA has a scapegoat, holding these sites responsible. Even though they don't actually supply copyrighted material, and the users are the only infringers once they have actually obtained the torrent files, they do distribute it through the tracker, which, when you think about it, was the exact same reason the RIAA was able to justify their accusations against Napster.

With that said, as many of you know, the newest version of Bit Torrent is decentralized, and does not require a tracker. So if a website hosts torrents of copyrighted material, but does not use a tracker (or even if they use someone else's tracker), can they still face legal action? Are the lawsuits being filed against these sites because of the torrents, or the tracker?

Anyway, you don't need any of those sites. Go to www.isohunt.com. It's basically a google search for torrents. You do a search, and it gives you a list of all torrents on any available website matching your search. That's how I got me a copy of Sin City and Star Wars III.

I'm especially not pleased at how all of this gets blamed on BitTorrent. BT is the best piece of software out there so far to have substantial non-infringing uses. Software/gaming companies use it to distribute both content and patches, independant content creators of all kinds use it, families use it to share home movies!

Some people do things with the software that are clearly out of line, like the Star Wars thing. However, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater here! BT can be a powerful tool FOR the movie industry. No really, distribute the film via BT and then people who want to watch it can pay to unlock it. (Yeah, DRM I know, and I wouldn't buy a DRM infested file, but I know some folks in other countries who'd pay to see a movie when it comes out, not 3 years later when their government gives the film the OK.)

The best part about BT is that besides running the tracker and doing some initial seeding you don't have to host the file yourself, the users take over the bandwidth burden, and you get nearly free distribution!

"Well, we've had a War on Crime, and a War on Poverty, and a War on Drugs, and recently a War on Terrorism. I guess it's time for our Country's Finest to wage a War on Downloading."

Lets rephrase those: War on Criminals, War on Drug Users, War on the Poor, War on Terrorists, and now a War on Downloaders. War on people, not concepts, and people are the real casualties of any idealistic wars. Millions of African American men can attest to that.

Department of Homeland Security has a nice Third Reich feel to it. Doesn't it? I mean really, why not just go ahead and call it the Department of Fatherland Security? Fuck it, call it what it is, the Gestapo. Fucking fascist pricks. They are taking our fucking Republic away from us; for no other reason than because they can.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/26/feds_close_elite/
"Yes, it took the FBI and the Homeland Security Department to pull off "Operation D-Elite" - an action directed at BitTorrent hub Elite Torrents. The Feds, working off 10 search warrants, seized control of the site's central server in a quick, decisive maneuver and obtained information from the site's alleged administrators. More than 17,800 movie titles were shuffled about by 133,000 Elite Torrent members, according to a statement from the US DoJ (Department of Justice)."

"And later.

"Internet pirates cost U.S. industry hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue every year from the illegal sale of copyrighted goods and new online file-sharing technologies make their job even easier," said Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia. "Through today's landmark enforcement actions, ICE (Customs Enforcement) and the FBI have shut down a group of online criminals who were using legitimate technology to create one-stop shopping for the illegal sharing of movies, games, software and music."

And later.

"The theft of copyrighted material is far from a victimless crime," said Assistant Director Louis Reigel of the FBI. "When thieves steal this data, they are taking jobs away from hard workers in industry, which adversely impacts the U.S. economy. The FBI remains committed to working with our partners in law enforcement at all levels and private industry to identify and take action against those responsible."

The Feds always use almost comical language to describe P2P and BitTorrent sites, portraying them as the work of evil, swollen-brained mad computer scientists. This time we find that Elite Torrent was a "technologically sophisticated P2P network" and not just a link hub or search engine like you might find in myriad forms on the internet.

One gets the feeling that such language is meant to cover the P2P operations with a very sinister aura in the hopes that this will explain why the Homeland Security department is wasting time making sure George Lucas receives all his cash instead of protecting citizens from actual danger. Not to mention that Silicon Valley churns out far more cash for the US economy than Hollywood, meaning that jobs taken away from Disney might end up at Intel or Microsoft because of a P2P breakthrough. But such foresight would be asking a bit much of bureaucrats, especially ones greased by pigopolist pork."

I'VE LONG RAILED AGAINST THE RHETORIC OF PIRACY AND TALKED ABOUT THE INTENTIONAL SYMBOLISM OF IT ALL...

I'm glad I am no longer a lone voice crying in the wilderness about this issue!

One can not but get the feel that this was a setup job all the way around. Announced numbers couldn't be gotten in a short time, meaning this was already "planned". I have no doubt the MPAA had set up the action with a purposeful leak to ensure the bait was there. Much the same as the stunt in Sweden where it was later found that the investigating parties were sure the items had been downloaded because they themselves made the items available.

There are a few countries that are trying to put a bit of reason into this protectionism scheme hatched by the megacorps. Canada is saying bring proof not accusations to the court. France is giving convicted downloaders suspended sentences, basically saying "don't do it again". Both have made the megacorp's livid with rage.

However despite all the talk, I don't see them as serious with China as they claim they are. China has long had a history of not paying any attention, other than lip service to the "rights of copyright holders". I still think it will be a while before anything more serious than retoric is thrown at them.

"I have no doubt the MPAA had set up the action with a purposeful leak to ensure the bait was there."

We reported on the leak the day Star Wars III came out.

P2p, BitTorrents, and the Internet itself allows too much freedom of communication between people for the taste of those who command the Men In Black.

I am putting my tin-foil hat on for real. We the People are getting mind-fu*ked by somebody. We are in real danger of dictatorship via media dominance these days. Beware!

" because they themselves made the items available. "

If proven and true, it would be a complete defense. You cannot make something available and then claim you did not authorize it to be distributed.

The FBI is using Title 17, Section 506 whch states...
"TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 5 > § 506 Prev | Next

§ 506. Criminal offenses


Release date: 2004-04-30

(a) Criminal Infringement.— Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either—
(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or
(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, United States Code. For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement. "

captdunsel:

Nope. Thanks for bringing that up.