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 Two men convicted in a first peer-to-peer case
January 26, 2005
Two men have been convicted for piracy over peer-to-peer networks in the first case of its kind in the US. The pair, William Trowbridge from New York and Michael Chicoine of Texas, were running central hubs in a piracy community running over the Direct Connection P2P system. They had admitted infringing copyright by illegally sharing music, films and software.
The convictions of Trowbridge and Chicoine were the result of "Operation Digital Gridlock". The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000
The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. On the organization's Web page, the group has posted a message that reads, in part, "Peer-to-peer technology is engaged in a constant battle with those who fear change and innovation. The United States Government has recently joined the wrong side of this fight."
Users access the site by downloading Direct Connect software and then connecting to the Underground Network. There is no fee to join the network and members are provided with access to a list of hub sites on the network. The DoJ stressed that NeoModus, which develops the Direct Connect P2P software, is not a target of the investigation.
Trowbridge operated a hub called "Movie Room" from 2002 to 2004, and Chicoine operated a hub named "Achenon's Alley TM." The sites offered music, movies, software and computer games.
The two faced the charges following FBI raids last August, carried out as part of Operation Digital Gridlock, which is aimed at fighting copyright theft over P2P. The men are due to be sentenced on April 29.
During the August press conference, US Attorney General John Ashcroft said search warrants were executed in Texas, New York and Wisconsin in raids on five residences and an Internet service provider. During the raids, federal agents seized computers, software and computer-related equipment.
Ashcroft said the raids "disrupted an extensive peer-to-peer network suspected of enabling users to traffic illegally in music, films, software and published works."
"As today's pleas demonstrate, those who steal copyrighted material will be caught, even when they use the tools of technology to commit their crimes," Ashcroft said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon. "The Department of Justice is committed to pursuing and bringing to justice those who commit intellectual property theft."
The FBI, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, is conducting the ongoing investigation. The DoJ says theft through the illegal reproduction and distribution of movies, software, games and music is estimated to annually cost U.S. industries $19 billion worldwide
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