DLSS Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 sorry 4 the bad translation , i let babelfish do it. i post this cos i myself go to a lot of lanparty's and a m8 of mine planned to go to this one .... . since this month sabam and cops r gonna hold more and more raids on lanparty's in belgium :cry: click here for the babelfish translation of the dutch newssite Police force invades lanpartyza 18/03/06 - in Kruibeke the police force has this morning invaded on a lanparty. Fifteen pc.s and the servers have been confiscated and all thirty people present have been interrogated. According to a first estimate 147,00 illegal audio - and video files have been found. It concerns songs and films which are downloaded of of the Internet . Thereby to estimate for 75,000 euro to copyrights it has been evaded. a few weeks back everyone lanparty related had to go to a sebam meeting a few weeks b4 this. a m8 of mine went cos he goes to lans and writes reviews 4 lanparty.be ...... update : the underaged (-18 ) participants will b sent to the youth court and the +18 participants will b sent to the correctional court (sorry 4 litterally translating but dont know the name of the equivalent in english) also here's a dutch newspaper article on it i scanned in this morning .... click to enlarge (yes i know u cant read it but the dutch ppl on the forum can(if there r any ...) .....) the site of the lan is still up and shout box is full of talk bout the bust .... http://www.t-others.be/ and they seem to call the cops that busted it the " Computer Crime Unit" :roll: Quote
degoba Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 Wow. I go to alot og lan parties myself. A friend of mine and his roomates hold on every 2 months. Its become sort of tradition. We get well over 30 people showing up to ours. We have joked about being raided in the past. I really hope this doesnt start happening in the us. The server at their house has over 60 gigs of music on it. Quote
Digital Arcanist Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 It won't happen in the US....not until they start putting chips in our heads to track us. Even if the desire existed, there isn't the man-power to pull off a raid. There are LAN parties going on all the time in my town. The local law would have to pull a lot of cops off the street to perform a raid and of course the tax-payers would have a fit. My town has way more important things to worry about than file-sharing. You are more likely to have the RIAA bust through your bust than to have the cops. Just be careful not to say anything bad about the government or you might see Home Lan security jumping through your window. Quote
degoba Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 ^^ lol. The riaa is what i am worried about. These dinosaurs cannot seem to wrap it around their thick skulls how to capitolize on the internet and filesharing. Quote
melodic Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 wow i wounder if they would do this in england Quote
VaKo Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 Kinda get the feeling there might have been more to it than a randomly targeted LAN party. Does anyone have any more info? Anything along the lines of a press statement from the cops? Or something from someone who knows them? As for doing it in england... I kinda doubt it. As someone who's been on the wrong side of a police raid (at a rave) it takes a lot of man power to pull it off. If your worried, hold your LAN partys on saturday nights, cops will be far to busy with drunks to have time to bother with you. Quote
Darren Kitchen Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 I don't know how many 300+ person LAN parties I've been to thinking "damn, what would happen if the feds were to bust up in here". Maybe we'll see a "BIG RED BUTTON" mod on Hak.5 in the future. ;) Quote
Uncle Toxie Posted March 18, 2006 Posted March 18, 2006 I don't know how many 300+ person LAN parties I've been to thinking "damn, what would happen if the feds were to bust up in here". Maybe we'll see a "BIG RED BUTTON" mod on Hak.5 in the future. ;) Now it's time to wait for Computer Kid to come in and start hollering about thermite. Quote
VaKo Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 I don't know how many 300+ person LAN parties I've been to thinking "damn, what would happen if the feds were to bust up in here". Maybe we'll see a "BIG RED BUTTON" mod on Hak.5 in the future. ;) I can see it now, the pizza guys running late, knocks a little to loud... 300 jitterly gamers hit detonate at the same time.... Quote
DLSS Posted March 19, 2006 Author Posted March 19, 2006 Kinda get the feeling there might have been more to it than a randomly targeted LAN party. Does anyone have any more info? Anything along the lines of a press statement from the cops? Or something from someone who knows them?As for doing it in england... I kinda doubt it. As someone who's been on the wrong side of a police raid (at a rave) it takes a lot of man power to pull it off. If your worried, hold your LAN partys on saturday nights, cops will be far to busy with drunks to have time to bother with you. erm it was on a saturday .... i do have a update : the underaged (-18 ) participants will b sent to the youth court and the +18 participants will b sent to the correctional court (sorry 4 litterally translating but dont know the name of the equivalent in english) also here's a dutch newspaper article on it i scanned in this morning .... click to enlarge (yes i know u cant read it but the dutch ppl on the forum can(if there r any ...) .....) the site of the lan is still up and shout box is full of talk bout the bust .... http://www.t-others.be/ and they seem to call the cops that busted it the " Computer Crime Unit" :roll: Quote
DLSS Posted March 19, 2006 Author Posted March 19, 2006 ^^ Thank god I can read german. rofl , so u cant read it ? cos its dutch ... (dutch in dutch is nederlands) , (german in german is deutsch) Quote
VaKo Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 erm it was on a saturday .... England, on a Saturday night, is kinda like Iraq in a brewery... Anyone care to do a quick translation of the article for the non-educated amongst us? Quote
cooper Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 Translation of the newspaper clipping: 150000 illegal files confiscated in KruibekeThis saturday-morning, police raided a "LAN-party", a gathering of computer enthousiasts, in Kruibeke and confiscated computers and servers. Roughly 150000 illegally downloaded files were present on them. Kruibeke police and the Computer Crime Unit of GDA ("Gerechtelijke Dienst van het Arrondissement". Rough translation: Judicial Court Service. They appear to be Belgium's FBI) Aalst conducted the raid. At a so-called LAN-party computer files are exchanged and games are played. The party started friday evening and was supposed to continue until sunday afternoon. Some thirty participants were present at the time of the raid. Police confiscated 15 PCs and 5 servers. On them they found 150000 illegally downloaded music and movie files, totalling 75000 euros in evaded copyright royalty payments. Amongst the participants several juveniles were present. The youngest participant was barely 11 years old. None of the participants were arrained (I think they mean jailed). However the case will be investigated further by the justice department. The adults risk being sent to the correctional court on charges of fencing and 'information fraud' (best translation I can think of). The juveniles will be sent to the juvenile court. Quote
VaKo Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 I'm wondering how they found out... doubt it was anything as servere as intercepted mail/IM. Maybe people on IRC talking publicilly about sharing the collections... Or maybe just a good old fashioned tip-off? Anything you do on the internet, passworded or not, is kinda public domain really. But, thinking about it, a group of 30 people could probally have afforded to download that much from AllofMP3.com and then some (if you consider that anyone above 18 is likely to be earning or a student). Yup, its unlikely, but possible. Which begs the question, if you download music from allofmp3.com, and then get raided, are they legal files? Or is it akin to buying warez? Quote
cooper Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 Another article about this same raid. Source. Raid at computerpartyKruibeke police and the Computer Crime Unit of the Aalster region shut down a computer party during a raid in the east-Flanders town of Bazel yesterday morning. Since the start of the meeting friday evening the participants had already illegally downloaded and shared 150000 music and movie files. It's been estimated that in doing so they evaded 75000 euros in copyright royalty payments. 15 computers and 5 servers were confiscated. "At the time of the raid about 20 participants were present, including some minors. The youngest was 11", said Annelore Bruneel, spokesperson of the Dendermonde courts. Everybody was questioned, but nobody was detained. The participants cooperated fully with the investigation. All adults will be prosecuted for violations of both the computerlaw and the copyright law, as well as fencing. The juveniles will be referred to the juvenile judge. The justice department had meticulously planned the raid. Quote
cooper Posted March 19, 2006 Posted March 19, 2006 I'm wondering how they found out... doubt it was anything as servere as intercepted mail/IM. Maybe people on IRC talking publicilly about sharing the collections... Or maybe just a good old fashioned tip-off? Anything you do on the internet, passworded or not, is kinda public domain really. As I was reading up on this article and looking for more info, I discovered a raid they performed sometime last year. They raided that party because the invite to the party promised availability of thousands of pornographic images, thousands of movies and tens of thousands of MP3's. Someone forwarded the invite to the law who then chose to raid the place. Given the size of this party I highly doubt these guys were as brazen as that group. What I suspect is that this is something akin to that happens here (The Netherlands) each year, usually around December. I suspect that's shortly before the budget rounds come up or something. Suddenly the Dutch branch of the MPAA/RIAA, Stichting Brein, raid an illegal CD pressing plant or some such. They play it out big in the news, so people know they exist and COULD BE GOING AFTER YOU NEXT! In the end some poor schmuck who was earning about 10.000 a month with his setup lost all his servers and got a 25000 fine. So in about 4 months he's recouperated his losses and is once again raking in the cash. Things go on business as usual. By then the people from Stichting Brein have long since returned to their comfy desks, and the police have returned to operating speed traps at stupid locations. But, thinking about it, a group of 30 people could probally have afforded to download that much from AllofMP3.com and then some (if you consider that anyone above 18 is likely to be earning or a student). Yup, its unlikely, but possible.Which begs the question, if you download music from allofmp3.com, and then get raided, are they legal files? Or is it akin to buying warez? I'm guessing the police simply asked the persons in question something like "Which of these files are from movies or CDs you actually own?" and the participants responded with "None". Most of the outrage on the forums is because people consider file sharing an integral part of the LAN party experience. In my time it was primarily about playing games, but that might just be me. Anyways, apparently a good chunk of press was drummed up to record the raid (notice any similarity with the dutch CD piracy thing I wrote about?) who subsequently interviewed some participants. These stupid fucks chose to use their time to question the illegality of their actions. They felt they had the right to share these files, and went on national television to say so. If there's ever a list of truly boneheaded things you can do after a raid, this would probably make it to the top-5... The forum people also suspect the police chose this party for their raid precisely BECAUSE it was a small one. You don't need 6 vans of police officers in riot gear to clear out a place with 20 gamers. I'm guessing they did this simply to make the news. Their effectiveness demonstrated, they can now petition whatever bosses they have for more funds, and go on pissing away these funds all year without having to raise a finger. Quote
VaKo Posted March 20, 2006 Posted March 20, 2006 They admited guilt?! On national TV?!? What ever happend to "no comment"? So its kinda likely they were talking about the files they had on offer, and somehow this got to the cops. If they were dumb enough to say it on TV, and they were talking about it in chat rooms and forums, they kinda got what they deserve. The ethics are all screwed up granted, but even so, there are laws about these things. And right or wrong, cops enforce laws. If what you are doing is illegal, don't make yourself a target. [think freedom of speech in china and the American Revolution, etc not slavery/drug dealing] On a side note, I wonder if you could set up a service where you offered to back up music files for people, just like google or microsoft. But with bittorrent not FTP. Legal off-site back up of your music... Quote
degoba Posted March 20, 2006 Posted March 20, 2006 ^^ Thank god I can read german. rofl , so u cant read it ? cos its dutch ... (dutch in dutch is nederlands) , (german in german is deutsch) German is close enough to dutch that i can make do.. I didnt say that i could translate it perfect. I was however to get the general gist of it. If you asked me to read it outloud however, my tougue would be flapping in the wind. Dutch pronunciation is a bit different from german. Quote
DLSS Posted March 20, 2006 Author Posted March 20, 2006 Translation of the newspaper clipping: 150000 illegal files confiscated in KruibekeThis saturday-morning, police raided a "LAN-party", a gathering of computer enthousiasts, in Kruibeke and confiscated computers and servers. Roughly 150000 illegally downloaded files were present on them. Kruibeke police and the Computer Crime Unit of GDA ("Gerechtelijke Dienst van het Arrondissement". Rough translation: Judicial Court Service. They appear to be Belgium's FBI) Aalst conducted the raid. At a so-called LAN-party computer files are exchanged and games are played. The party started friday evening and was supposed to continue until sunday afternoon. Some thirty participants were present at the time of the raid. Police confiscated 15 PCs and 5 servers. On them they found 150000 illegally downloaded music and movie files, totalling 75000 euros in evaded copyright royalty payments. Amongst the participants several juveniles were present. The youngest participant was barely 11 years old. None of the participants were arrained (I think they mean jailed). However the case will be investigated further by the justice department. The adults risk being sent to the correctional court on charges of fencing and 'information fraud' (best translation I can think of). The juveniles will be sent to the juvenile court. wow nice translation 100% correct btw , :oops: sorry i'm lazy :oops: bought a newspaper again today again with this noted on the front page (actual article was on P7) here's the cut out of it (if ur bored u can translate this one aswell ....) click to enlarge Quote
cooper Posted March 20, 2006 Posted March 20, 2006 here's the cut out of it (if ur bored u can translate this one aswell ....)click to enlarge Here we go: Computer Crime Unit intercepts 150000 illegal files at LAN-PartyComputerfreaks unimpressed by raid 150000 illegally downloaded music- and moviefiles valued at roughly 75000 euro, that's what the Computer Crime Unit caught when they raided a LAN-party in Kruibeke saturday morning. The raid was the 'talk of the weekend' on internet forums, but the computerfreaks aren't really impressed. 'What a fucked up thing to do' is the general opinion. After a night of non-stop gaming we were suddenly visited by the police, who came rushing in like we were the worst band of criminals on earth. It was, as they put it, 'A check for illegal PC activity', writes Nova in his report of what happened to him saturday morning at the Sint Joris Instituut in Kruibeke. Some thirty youngsters, including a bunch of juveniles, were just entering their second day of the planned 3 day LAN-party, where as is customary people play games and share computer files, when the police raided the place. "They insisted we stood in the back of the room and left our computers running. We were searched and were barely allowed to notify our parents." Eventually the Judicial Service of the Aalst courts (a.k.a. the regional chapter of the Belgian FBI) confiscated 15 PCs and 5 servers, which were estimated to contain 150000 illegal files. Compared to the previous raid, at De Pinte in may of last year where 40000 files were discovered, an unexpected success. However in the online community of LAN gamers and computerfreaks they aren't as impressed with the catch. To the contrary, they wonder why the police troubles themselves with these small players. "This once again proves we have a serious problem here in Belgium", says Kurt on the website of The Others, the clan that organised the LAN-party. "We've got pedophiles, dealers, etc. running around freely and they assign a 13 man police force for something like this. Downright rediculous!". And Kurt isn't the only person underwhelmed with saturday's raid. Given the amount of people present it's not without merit: barely 30 people, while people regularly organise LAN-parties with hundreds, and up to a thousand visitors. The yield however was something worth mentioning. "A really fucked-up thing to do", says Jhonnie and the other members of the online hangout of The Others, who are convinced the sole purpose of the police was to harrass. The adults face being sent to the correctional court for fencing and information fraud. The juvelines are sent to the juvenile judge, but what matters most to the LAN-goers are their precious computer parts, who are reported to have been confiscated, complete with keyboard and mouse. "If you mess with the bull, you get the horns. A LAN-party is for gaming, not leeching (downloading without supplying any files of your own)", says Edris at the forum, but he also wonders aloud why "the smurfs chose to raid these guys". He's convinced someone ratted them out, or were the organisers stupid enough to mention on their flier that there would be a lot of leeching going on? After all, that was why the police did their previous raid. However according to Pieter De Graef, crewmember of the 'LAN-party.be' website, the raid in Kruibeke isn't that unexpected. The police targets smaller gatherings in an effort to reduce the illegal downloading at the bigger parties. For instance, next month there's a mega-LAN-party. I think that by doing this raid they sent out a clear signal that they most certainly can act against these practices. And it's working." According to De Graef there are quite a few gamers who prefer not to leech, fearing a raid. "The gamers might be more cautious about when and where they download, but if they will stop is a different question altogether." Quote
nate_lapt Posted March 21, 2006 Posted March 21, 2006 I host lan parties atleast 2-4 times a year, Thats is Truely FUCKED UP!!! So how the hell can they even tell if the files were legal or not, they wernt at home, so they couldnt have their originals on them to prove anything, along with how are you supposed to prove you purchused an mp3 online. Just cause you have it doesnt mean you illegaly consumed it. I have virtualy all 300+ cds I own on my system. along with a fully legal collection of 5000 music videos. I personaly would laugh in their face and turn back to my monitor and start gaming again. 8) See this fucker BOOM HEADSHOT Quote
degoba Posted March 21, 2006 Posted March 21, 2006 ^^ Its easy to say that youll ignore the authorities untill they actually come. yea i agree its fucked up. Quote
VaKo Posted March 21, 2006 Posted March 21, 2006 can you imagine? nate_lapt: See this fucker BOOM HEADSHOT RIAA goons: "file trading has been linked to terrorism..." LAN party murder: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?Stor...18-020542-5266r Quote
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