DrinkOrDie

note: this entry is (as of 12/12) based on information from law enforcement officials; if you have more info, please edit.

DrinkOrDie (DoD) was a Web-based software cracking and trading (warez) network during the 1990s, shut down in a major raid in 2001. DrinkOrDie was founded in 1993 in Moscow by a Russian with the handle "deviator". 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. The DrinkOrDie network is considered criminal for copyright infringement. As a rule, they made no financial profit from their activities.

In 2001, DrinkOrDie had two leaders, one in the United States and another in Australia. Members include Dezzy, Hackrat, and ForceKill, a top software cracker (according to Customs agent Allan Doody). The network primarily consisted of university undergraduates, but was supported by software company employees, who would leak copies of software and other digital media. Among the people targeted were also corporate executives, university employees, and government workers.

The DrinkOrDie archives included business software as well as movies including Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Behind Enemy Lines, Monsters Inc., and Spy Game.

Operation Buccaneer

On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as "Operation Buccaneer", law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people, with leads in twenty other countries.

U.S. law enforcement agents, led by the U.S. Customs Service, raided M.I.T., the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Oregon Duke and Purdue, as well as several software companies. Raids were also held in Britain, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Many computers were seized and people questioned.

Five people were arrested in England; in the United States, no arrests were made on the day of the raids, pending review of materials seized.

In the United States, 56 search warrants were served and approximately 130 computers, each holding an average of a terabyte of data, were seized.

The DrinkOrDie website, where the software could be downloaded for free, was also shut down that day.

The raid at MIT was in the economics department; the University of Oregon raid at an off-campus location; the Duke raid in the campus dormitory of a male undergraduate. The universities themselves were not considered targets of the criminal investigation.

Quotations

The commissioner of the Customs Service, Robert C. Bonner, characterized DrinkOrDie thusly:

This investigation underscores the severity and scope of a multibillion-dollar software swindle over the Internet, as well as the vulnerabilities of this technology to outside attack.

Customs assistant commissioner John Varrone:

Our targets are not your stereotypical teenage hacker.

Commerce undersecretary Phil Bond said:

This is not a sport. This is a serious crime. These people should do some hard time.

Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam said:

Software piracy undermines the stability of the burgeoning e-commerce industry and it is a direct threat to innovative companies that help strengthen the U.S. economy.

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External Links and References

http://www.drinkordie.com

Internet Piracy Is Suspected as U.S. Agents Raid Campuses, The New York Times, December 12, 2001

Feds Zero In on Piracy Ring, Associated Press, 2:55 pm December 11, 2001 PST

/Talk