How Lies Are Spread

The BBC said this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1705000/1705079.stm
"The US Customs Service believes the Warez community is responsible for almost 90% of the pirated software sold over the web."

But the US Customs Service ACTUALLY said this:
Source: http://www.customs.gov/121101f.htm

Tuesday, December 11, 2001

U.S. Customs Dismantles
One of the World's Most Sophisticated Internet Piracy
Networks
'Operation Buccaneer' Targets 'Warez' Cyberspace Gangs And
Their Multi-Billion-Dollar Software Piracy Scheme

WASHINGTON, DC-The U.S. Customs Service today executed 37
search warrants in 27 U.S. cities in connection with Operation
Buccaneer, an unprecedented investigation into a global network of
cyberspace gangs responsible for pirating billions of dollars worth of
software over the Internet. Law enforcement authorities in four foreign
nations simultaneously executed an additional 19 search warrants and
arrested five individuals in connection with the case.

The software pirated by these groups included expensive business
software, firewall and other security software, and copyrighted games,
music and digital videos. Operation Buccaneer is the first federal
investigation of Internet software piracy to reach across international
borders.

Beginning at 10:30 Eastern Standard Time today, U.S. Customs
agents executed search warrants on major universities, businesses and
residences around the country, seizing computers and computer hard
drives used to store and distribute pirated software. Today's
enforcement actions were closely coordinated with authorities in
Australia, England, Finland, and Norway.

"Operation Buccaneer is the largest and most extensive investigation of
its kind," said U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. "This
investigation underscores the severity and scope of a
multi-billion-dollar software swindle over the Internet, as well as the
vulnerabilities of this technology to outside attack."

The enforcement actions today mark the first overt phase of a
fifteen-month undercover investigation by the U.S. Customs Special
Agent-in-Charge Office in Baltimore, Maryland; the U.S. Customs
CyberSmuggling Center (C3) in Virginia; and the Justice Department's
Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) in
Washington, D.C.

Operation Buccaneer targeted the WAREZ community, a loosely
affiliated network of software piracy gangs that engage in the
duplication and reproduction of copyrighted software over the
Internet. It is estimated that the WAREZ community is responsible for
nearly 90% of the Internet sites that offer pirated software.

Now, how did " responsible for nearly 90% of the Internet sites that offer pirated software" turn into "90% of the pirated software sold over the web"???

This is an important distinction, and the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the US customs stated about the Warez groups:

"What is the motivation of these groups? Do they do it for
money?

DrinkOrDie and other Warez groups steal software for the mere
challenge and fun of it. Reputation is everything to them. Earning an
online reputation as the fastest to steal, "crack," and release
high-quality, pirated software over the Internet is most important to
them. Groups compete against each other in these efforts. Some even
have web sites celebrating their greatest pirating feats. They also view
themselves as Robin Hood figures -- pirating new software so it can be
distributed freely over the Internet. They seek an Internet devoid of
rules or law."

Wether the stated losses due to warez are lies (12 Billion lost sales is being claimed, which is clearly bullshit) most of the facts presented by the FBI about how and why warez groups exist have been stated correctly; these people do it for fun, and not for profit. They are of course, not "Pirates". Pirates sell other peoples software, wheras Warez d00dz are interested in how fast they can move Warez, how fast they can crack Warez and how quickly they can get the latest Warez. Selling Warez is despicable to them. Anyone that can use Google can understand this, but aparently, the BBC cant even READ.

How Lies Are Spread

John Philip Walker Lindh - the Taliban rap

Oh Sh*t...