[Intrepid Homoludens]

Game pirate gets four years jail time
Federal judge hands out 50-month prison term, near-$700,000 fine to California black marketeer.

Crime sure didn't pay for Sean Michael Breen. In an Oakland court on Tuesday, the Richmond, California resident was sentenced to 50 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong.

His offense? Selling nearly half a million dollars' worth of cracked console and PC games over the past decade.

Breen's sentence follows his guilty plea and subsequent conviction last July on two counts of copyright infringement and to three counts of mail fraud. As has been widely reported, the charges stemmed from Breen's multiyear tenure as the self-styled leader of Razor1911, an infamous group of game hackers responsible for an elaborate black-market operation. He is the last Razor1911 member to be sentenced--last June, a North Carolina-based member received an 18-month jail term on related charges.

According to court documents and his own confession, Breen and other Razor1911 members acquired, cracked, and sold advance copies of Quake, Command & Conquer Red Alert, Terminal Velocity, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and many other games. They acquired advance copies of said titles by posing as reviewers for fictitious game magazines and having them shipped to a derelict storefront address in Oakland.

Breen and his associates would sell their games via pirated-software sites. Their massive transactions garnered the attention of the U.S. Customs Service, which arrested Breen and 40 other individuals after an elaborate undercover operation known as "Operation Buccaneer."

Razor1911 members also posed as customers of Cisco Systems in order to falsely place massive game orders. This tactic came back to haunt Breen today, when Judge Armstrong ordered him to pay $690,236.91 in restitution to Cisco.

Breen begins his sentence on March 26. Barring parole, he will be released in 2009, when he will have to serve a further three years probation. He will also have to finish reimbursing Cisco, which will likely take much longer.

Gamespot news, 02/11/04

All I have to say about the guy finally getting his ass busted is:

[LauraMac]

Hey, he made his money the old fashioned way - he stole it. Good riddence.

[Bastich]

I am not in ANY way a supporter of piracy, but copyright infringement is such a petty crime compared to many other far worse crimes that have equal or lesser sentences. I would slap those guys on the wrist and save those prison cells for real criminals. This guy would have gotten off with a lighter punishment if he would have raped someone. In fact, if it wasn't premeditated, he would have had his life impacted less by murdering someone. The fines far outweigh the years in prison. Apparently, miniscule potential corporate profits are more important than human lives.

Maybe if these FBI agents were assigned to keeping known terrorists out of our country instead of hunting petty criminals like this down for corporations, there would be several thousand more people alive today.

This is just another example of how absolutely awful the US injustice system is, and the serious lack of priorities in this country. These guys are about as much of a threat to me as all the pot smokers sitting in jail right now...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Bastich, that was harsh. The U.S. is trying hard to give all types of criminals their comeuppance, no system is perfect. Piracy would be categorized under white collar crimes, so I think the guy's punishment is fitting. I believe the fellow who worked with Martha Stewart is serving a two year sentence or something. Breen should at least be grateful he wasn't caught under Saudi Arabia's judicial system or similar. They would have cut his hands off, and how's that for justic, eh?

[davez82]

actually i think he got what he deserved, pirating is one thing, but making money offa it is totally wrong.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Exactly.

[remixor]

No kidding. Look at how long this guy had been doing this, and what an extreme case it was. Bastich, if you were a game developer and you spend years of your life developing quality games, how would you feel if this guy was always there releasing your stuff before it was even out and profiting off of it? I don't think the sentence was extreme at all. Four years? I don't know how old the guy is, but he'll have plenty of life left to live after this is all over. As LauraMac said, good riddance.

[tabacco]

I love statements like "Maybe if the [FBI/CIA/Police/etc] spent more time worrying about [foo], we wouldn't have problems with [bar]"... as if law enforcement agencies as a whole can only focus on one thing at a time.

[LauraMac]

This guy was a poster child for getting harsh with pirates.

Not only did he profit from his thefts, he aquired the games by posing as a game journalist. This is why companies are so reluctant or even refuse to do the siort of wide based testing that used to be common. You can't let code out of house, so it's all in-house, on their machines and with hints walking around the room. You don;t catch inconsistancies, drop outs, system conflicts and such that way. Plus you are already running into companies not sending review copies out til a few weeks before release or even at release. Which is another layer to uncover problems that can be tweaked before release.

He screwed all sorts of people over in so many ways with his activities.

[mag]

I think I'll just start off now by saying that I do not approve of piracy in any way. But, as shocked as all of you will no doubt be by this statement, I kind of agree with Bastich. It's not that I don't consider pirates to be "real criminals." But I think it's not always the black and white issue that most people make it out to be. Historically piracy only occurs when producers in a market charge prices that are just completely unfair. If the prices weren't so high nobody would risk buying it illegally. They'd just buy it the same as anybody else. In a way, that's how it is with software right now. $50 for a game is kind of expensive even in America. And in some other countries there's no way anybody can afford to buy a game legally. Again, I'm not condoning the actions of any pirate. But neither am I going to sit here and cry that some publishing company can't reap its 300% profit, of which the people who made the game will only see a fraction.

But as remixor points out, the real victims are the developers. They're the ones I feel bad for. First they get cheated by the publisher. Then they get cheated by the pirates.

mag

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by mag

But, as shocked as all of you will no doubt be by this statement, I kind of agree with Bastich

Someone call me an ambulance. I think I am having a heart attack...

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Bastich, that was harsh. The U.S. is trying hard to give all types of criminals their comeuppance, no system is perfect. Piracy would be categorized under white collar crimes, so I think the guy's punishment is fitting. I believe the fellow who worked with Martha Stewart is serving a two year sentence or something. Breen should at least be grateful he wasn't caught under Saudi Arabia's judicial system or similar. They would have cut his hands off, and how's that for justic, eh?

I wasn't actually trying to be all that harsh. I was speaking very pragmatically. Just picture Steven Wright speaking my post and you are pretty close to the amount of emotion I put into it. Maybe I should buy a microphone and include an mp3 of my voice so you could hear that I am actually not ranting at all.

My belief is that only people who pose a physical threat to others should be locked in a cage. There are other, better ways to treat petty crime that don't put as big of a burden on taxpayers or the FBI, for that matter.

$700,000 of non-provable profit loss? Peanuts. By non-provable, I mean that the software would definitely have been purchased legally by people if the pirated copies weren't available. That is a very dubious claim.

actually i think he got what he deserved, pirating is one thing, but making money off of it is totally wrong.

There is no difference between the two. If you download a game off the internet, you are making money off of it. The money you save by not purchasing it, is profit that can be used to buy other things. You may have a point about the degree of profit, but there is little difference in the actual crime. I am speaking only of copyright infringement here. I don't really feel that such profit is really all that big of a deal though. See below.

Originally Posted by remixor

Bastich, if you were a game developer and you spend years of your life developing quality games, how would you feel if this guy was always there releasing your stuff before it was even out and profiting off of it? I don't think the sentence was extreme at all. Four years? I don't know how old the guy is, but he'll have plenty of life left to live after this is all over. As LauraMac said, good riddance.

Actually, I have worked in the entertainment industry doing live productions. If someone wanted to bring in a video camera and film my show, all the power to them. Maybe they will show it to someone else who will then come and see the show. It is like paying for advertising. The losses can often turn into gains through word of mouth. Piracy has always existed and forever will. Even the whole mp3 thing is a joke to me. And I say that as someone who used to be a musician. Hmm. I guess I still am one, technically...

I love statements like "Maybe if the [FBI/CIA/Police/etc] spent more time worrying about [foo], we wouldn't have problems with [bar]"... as if law enforcement agencies as a whole can only focus on one thing at a time.

They do have limited budgets and personnel. It was quite obvious that we needed to have agents double checking other agents work or they would have noticed that known terrorists were coming into this country using their REAL names. I don't really want to go down this path though, so let's just agree to disagree.

[Jake]

Here's an exaggerated version of what's vaguely being discussed here... but its real http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/7877728.htm

More copies of "Halo" for Macintosh have been pirated online to date than MacSoft has distributed legitimately, Tamte said. He didn't release sales figures but said illegal downloads number at least in the hundreds of thousands.

You cant tell me in all seriousness if the pirated copies of that game weren't available MacSoft would have seen the exact same amount of profit coming on on Halo as they have with the piracy thats going on?

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by Jake

You cant tell me in all seriousness if the pirated copies of that game weren't available MacSoft would have seen the exact same amount of profit coming on on Halo as they have with the piracy thats going on?

Such naughty Mac users. You would think if you could afford a Mac (I wish I could ATM) you would have no problem buying a game. Although, maybe that is the VERY reason.

Seriously though, you can't make a correlation between the number of downloaded games and the loss of profit. I know many people who DL the warez version to see if they like it and then go and buy the game. Especially nowadays, when demos often come after the release of the game.

[remixor]

Originally Posted by Bastich

Actually, I have worked in the entertainment industry doing live productions. If someone wanted to bring in a video camera and film my show, all the power to them. Maybe they will show it to someone else who will then come and see the show. It is like paying for advertising. The losses can often turn into gains through word of mouth. Piracy has always existed and forever will. Even the whole mp3 thing is a joke to me. And I say that as someone who used to be a musician. Hmm. I guess I still am one, technically.

Your firsthand example is interesting, but not really completely analogous. If people have a pirated game, it's not free advertising, it's the product itself. In your case, people might be inspired to come see the show and get the full experience, but in the case of games, once people have it, that's it. They don't need to be inspired to do anything else, since they can already play the game and enjoy it. It might be argued that some people then go out and buy legitimate copies to obtain the box and instructions, but I'm sure the number of people who do this is so small as to be irrelevant.

[remixor]

Originally Posted by Bastich

Such naughty Mac users. You would think if you could afford a Mac (I wish I could ATM) you would have no problem buying a game. Although, maybe that is the VERY reason.

Seriously though, you can't make a correlation between the number of downloaded games and the loss of profit. I know many people who DL the warez version to see if they like it and then go and buy the game. Especially nowadays, when demos often come after the release of the game.

There may not be a direct pound-for-pound correlation, but there is a correlation nonetheless. Especially in the case Jake gave, I think that's pretty clear. There's no way to scientifically quantify it, but I think it's pretty obvious that if everyone can get a game for free, a lot of people who would otherwise buy it will simply get it for free (or buy a pirated copy for dirt cheap). Not EVERYONE of course, nor a fixed number that is the same in all cases, but most definitely many people.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Bastich

I know many people who DL the warez version to see if they like it and then go and buy the game. Especially nowadays, when demos often come after the release of the game.

I know more people who DL the warez version, rationalize it to themselves by saying "if I like it, I'll buy the game," and then end up either completing the warez version (for instance, because they like it so much and can't stop playing it) and then decide they don't need to buy it now that they've beat it, or get tired of it after playing like 3/4 of what is usually the full commercial game and decide they don't want it after all.

That said, I do understand where you're coming from in terms of downloading full games that don't have demos available. I've done it before myself, and trashed the game almost immediately because its crap, or bought the real game a few weeks later... but that said I think the group that actually does that is far more in the minority compared to the group that claims to do that and is just stealing. And in reality I think both those groups are in the minority compared to the amount of people who will flagrantly admit that they're straight out stealing a game.

[remixor]

Yeah, what Jake said. I know a lot of people who SAY they download warez to determine what games to buy, but who never actually end up doing it.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by remixor

Your firsthand example is interesting, but not really completely analogous. If people have a pirated game, it's not free advertising, it's the product itself. In your case, people might be inspired to come see the show and get the full experience, but in the case of games, once people have it, that's it. They don't need to be inspired to do anything else, since they can already play the game and enjoy it. It might be argued that some people then go out and buy legitimate copies to obtain the box and instructions, but I'm sure the number of people who do this is so small as to be irrelevant.

I agree. It's not like sneaking a video cam into a much lauded production of Das Rheingold and then trying to sell copies of the tape, because the recording is not the product itself, it's the live performance. I still stand by my argument, it is a crime, the punishment befits it, and the bastard deserves what he got. Let him be an example for others.

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by Intrepid

I still stand by my argument, it is a crime, the punishment befits it, and the bastard deserves what he got. Let him be an example for others.

I certainly wasn't trying to imply that it wasn't a crime, just that the punishment was unduly harsh. If I were to rape someone, I would be committing a class 1 felony and could also get as little as 4 years in prison.

I don't know about you, but I would rather someone steal one of my paychecks than have my daughter raped. According to the law, the impact of rape on said daughter is no more important than potential company profit margins.

This guy profited nearly $500,000 dollars in ten years from a multi-billion dollar industry. That is an AVG of $50,000 a year. If you scale that down to an average individual's income, that is like having $1.50 stolen a year from you or me, assuming a billion dollar income is used for a ratio comparison, which is a very conservative figure nowadays if I am not mistaken. It also assumes that everyone he sold to, actually would have purchased those titles otherwise.

What do you think the punishment would be for that equivalent crime, which is ACTUAL theft in that case, not copyright infringement which is a lesser issue? A simple misdemeanor punishable by simple probation. In fact, most people wouldn't even report it and the cops would laugh at you if you did. The numbers may look big, but relatively speaking they are very small indeed.

And I won't even get into the absurdity of him having to pay almost $700,000 to Cisco. The average American couldn't pay that back if they gave every spare penny they had for the entirety of their lives. In fact, if they gave every single penny period and could live on zero income, it would still take over 20 years. Unless the guy is filthy rich, which he certainly didn't get from doing his crime, that is an impossible debt to pay.

Like I said, he would have been better off raping someone, or killing someone in a fit of rage. It would have impacted his life less.

[Kingzjester]

Originally Posted by tabacco

I love statements like "Maybe if the [FBI/CIA/Police/etc] spent more time worrying about [foo], we wouldn't have problems with [bar]"... as if law enforcement agencies as a whole can only focus on one thing at a time.

You spend way too much time on that php.net website...

But honestly folks, who cares? We live in a free society, that pretty much means that loudmouths get to bullshit to their heart's content and criminals get to be free. More importantly it means that we are to share information with no fear of KGB breaking our doors down.... Yes, yes, yes - freedoms in this country are simply nominal, I know. It is funny still how the greatest asset nowadays are not sheep, raw silver, nor women* but simple non-top-secret information. If you told that to somebody fifty years ago they would have laughed at you.


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