Justice Department Identifies Net Pirates

Last week's international sweep of piracy groups has identified more than 100 people in the U.S. and abroad involved in the theft of over $50 million in copyrighted material.

Synchronized searches by the FBI in 27 states and by other authorities in 10 countries beginning Wednesday resulted in the seizure of more than 200 computers, including 30 servers used as storage and distribution hubs for the material, Attorney General John Ashcroft said. One server contained over 65,000 titles.

The initiative, dubbed “Operation Fastlink,” is the largest of its kind undertaken by the Justice Department against piracy of intellectual property over the Internet. The film, music and software industries have been pushing for greater criminal prosecution while in some cases pursuing their own civil cases.

Read more of this story at the Star Tribune.