A London information-technology (IT) specialist was jailed for two and a half years on Friday for his role in a global gang of Internet pirates behind the UK's biggest software theft.
A court in central London heard that Alex Bell, 29, a Morgan Stanley IT worker, belonged to an international underground hackers' organization, DrinkorDie, which prided itself on cracking even the most complex security codes and putting illegally copied software, games, music and videos on the Web before their official release.
The group, 70 members of which have been arrested worldwide, was not driven by financial gain, but by the technological thrill and a dislike of corporate giants such as Microsoft. But its actions cost the computer industry millions of dollars.
Bell and co-defendant Steven Dowd, 39, both denied conspiracy to defraud, but were convicted by the jury. Two other men, 31-year-old Mark Vent and Andrew Eardley, 35, admitted the charge. Dowd was jailed for two years, Vent for 18 months, and Eardley got an 18-month suspended sentence.
Bell was a "staff member" of DrinkorDie, with some kudos in the hierarchy, and fraudulently used other people's credit cards to buy software for the group to crack. Dowd was also a member and police found a "treasure trove" of pirated software in his home.
Judge Paul Focke said that while the defendants were not the ringleaders of DrinkorDie, all four were involved in activities which "struck at the very heart of software trading."
"The cost to software owners through piracy is staggering," he added. "Not only does it have an effect on them but it also has an effect on related businesses and the lives of their employees can be rendered catastrophic."
Bruce Houlder, prosecuting, described the gang as computer obsessives who lived in a virtual world where they were Internet heroes.
"Computers are their universe. They seem to live and breathe the world of computers. They see themselves as stars and come out at night. They are the night-time tappers of keyboards whose lives are bound by random access memory. Their lives revolve around cyberspace.
"Often they don't do what they do for money but for a kind of street cred among their fellow Internet devotees. But they see themselves as Internet heroes.
"They may think of themselves as latter-day Robin Hoods, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor ... but this Robin Hood mentality is just something that serves their purpose. In reality it is a cover for fraud," he said.
British cyber-detectives worked with the FBI on a five-year investigation and British Detective Superintendent Mick Deats said that DrinkorDie was one of the most sophisticated groups making up the "Warez Community" -- a network of gangs which started in the 1990s, "ripping" software by removing protective copyright and then posting it on the Internet for illegal downloading.
"Internet piracy is a growing problem, with organized crime moving into this space and defrauding the individual, business and governments of millions of pounds," Deats said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS