Feds Shut Down Elite Torrents

honkimon writes "Cnn Money reports, "Government agents said the onslaught included 10 search warrants and the shut down of a central Web site used to coordinate all file-sharing activity on the Elite Torrents network. That Web site, Elitetorrents.org, had a selection of copyrighted works that government officials described as virtually unlimited.""

Department of Homeland Security was involved?

[SoCalChris]

I take it those dirty terrorists were trading copies of Star Wars again?

I definately feel safer knowing that DHS is tackling major problems like downloading movies.

infinite?

[Travelsonic]

I wonder if it is possible to have a near infinite number of copyrighted works available. I think it isn't.

Curses!

[funny-jack]

Dangit guys, how come I only find out about these great torrent sources after they get shut down?

Re:Department of Homeland Security was involved?

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe they misread it as Elite Terrorists??

Re:Department of Homeland Security was involved?

[Quasar1999]

If we don't protect the few people at the very top of society so that they can continue to rip off the common folk to make billions upon billions of dollars in profits, then by God, the America I know no longer exists. ( disclaimer: I'm a Canadian so I'm biased. )

Actually it was...

[Trikenstein]

one less than infinite.

Re:Curses!

[Anonymous Coward]

What made it great was that people like you didn't know about it. :)

Footage

[asadodetira]

Assuming there's video footage of the shutdown please someone post a torren... ...never mind

We don't need no steenkeng warrants

[WillAffleckUW]

We're From Homeland Insecurity!

All Your Torrents Are Belong To Disney!

Star Wars 3 Linked To?

[osewa77]

May be linked to the Release of Star Wars 3, any action against movie download sites at this time could be. Very great the financial impact of piracy on this particular film could be, therefore criticize the Feds for doing this now, we cannot. Open source principles on Open source movies should be applied. A commercial movie Star Wars is, and benefit from the Piracy is cannot, because knows about it everyone does already.

Re:Department of Homeland Security was involved?

[gordon_schumway]

You missed the punchline, dude.

If we don't protect the few people at the very top of society so that they can continue to rip off the common folk to make billions upon billions of dollars in profits, then by God, the terrorists have already won!

Re:Ugly site.

[grub]

Damn.. the FBI needs some better web designer. The site looks like crap and could cause a seizure.

It's probably the same person that designed slashdot's IT scheme [slashdot.org].

Re:infinite?

[chill]

I wonder if it is possible to have a near infinite number of copyrighted works available. I think it isn't.

What do you think those infinite number of monkeys are doing when not trying to bang out Shakespeare?

Re:RTJKJAS?

[Anonymous Coward]

dude did you try clicking on it? i instantly got catapulled into a secret network of spy computers that had access to every mainframe all over the world!!!

then i had sex with sandra bullocks and my day was complete

Re:RTJKJAS?

[mpcooke3]

It's so sad. I saw those hidden chars and tried a few url variations before realising that in fact I wasn't sandra bullock.

Re:It seems unreal...

[jumbledInTheHead]

Because when you download movies and music, your downloading communism. A friendly reminder from the RIAA and MPAA.

Re:RTJKJAS?

[Ralph Yarro]

What on earth is the hidden "RTJKJAS"

Return of The Jedi King, Jar-Jar Against Spiderman.

It's the next epic hollywood blockbluster which was leaked early and led to the site being taken down.

I for one...

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome our JOB PRODUCING overloards.

Another One Bites The Dust

[donnacha]

Damn, I had a great ratio at ET!!

If they bust Empornium next, they'll completely ruin my sex life.

How difficult would it be to host these trackers in China or any other country that the neo-cons in Washington don't have against the wall?

Latency shouldn't be such a problem, all the tracker has to do is hook the users up.

Re:Department of Shitty HTML involved?

[Anonymous Luddite]

>> Look at EliteTorrents.org

Sweet mother of God, what an ugly page. View source and it gets even scarier...

xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smartt ags"

I need to wash my eyes now.

Re:RTJKJAS?

[Kjuib]

it is probably a double Caesar Cipher then...

Re:Ripoff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop making people think here! You can't think and jerk your knee at the same time!

Come on, get back into the /. groupthink:

corporations = evil
profits = evil
US government = evil
Microsoft = evil

Just keep saying it and pretty soon you'll feel a lot better!

Re:Ripoff?

[LordSnooty]

Maybe they think it stinks, like everyone else in the world over 16?

Like pissing in the ocean

[nurb432]

Might make you feel better, but you dont make a dent..

The entire structure of copyright laws need to be revamped.

Of course i know that will never happen as long as the large corporations are in control of the government.

5 years in pound-your-ass

[isorox]

First-time offenders convicted of criminal felony
copyright laws will face up to five years in federal prison, restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

5 years, isn't that a bit extreme. Still, kiddnapping gets 10 years, and that's only slightly worse than downloading copyrighted works

Re:Ripoff?

[Paradise Pete]

Try reading some Marx...

I did. He lost me when he said "How the proletariat got in my pajamas I'll never know."

Re:Had copies?

[PseudononymousCoward]

If so, those guys are good. They even got the ICE homepage: http://www.ice.gov/graphics/ [ice.gov]

Re:Department of Homeland Security was involved?

[E Galois]

At the take-down, a DHS big-wig was heard to exclaim: "Commander, tear this server apart until you've found those copyrighted files! And bring me the infringing users, I want them alive!"

To which the sysadmin replied: "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a server is insignificant next to the power of the BitTorrent."

"If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father. .. He joined the Department of Homeland Security!" -- Apologies to Darth Vader

Re:Most people don't know any better...

[GMFTatsujin]

It's too bad the Brits didn't have a Slashdot-alike back in the day!

They'd probably have called it "Slashpoint" or "Slantdot" something, given the minor linguistic hurdles between the UK and America. But at least there'd be somewhere to gain karma by grousing.

What would Jesus do?

[Sathias]

Its lucky for Jesus that the FLAA (Fish and Loaf Association of America) weren't around in his day, they would have prosecuted him for illegal duplication of food during the Sermon on the Mount that put countless hard-working bakers and fishermen out of business.

Re:A better link for the punishment thing...

[Altima(BoB)]

I was in a hurry to get the post on here, so I missed the link in the geek.com story to the original article...

Sheesh, go easy on yourself for missing out on a link in your original post. Four links in one post is like the bibliography of a PhD disseration for Slashdot :)

Re:Most people don't know any better...

[syrion]

Slantfullstop: Information for Unsavvy Gents. Quintessence of quality.

Re:Ripoff?

[Sj0]

HEY! Who do you think you are? This is slashdot, where you're supposed to make a short, vague, insubstantiated claim about how the man is trying to keep you down, or company X is evil! How are we supposed to bicker amongst ourselves like the spoiled children we are, happily ignoring the sinister truths of this generation and it's overlords, while you deliver well thought-out and incisive jabs at a new culture which says only juggernaughts which can provide bland goods and services without any particular positive or negative aspects are the only businesses who deserve to continue to run because they make the most money with the least capital!

Next thing you know, you'll be telling us that the McDonaldization of jobs is detrimental to the economy, and the outsourcing of jobs added to it has and will continue to erode everything which makes our countries great, as everytone is either a burger flipper or a businessman telling chinese workers how to do their jobs over a video conference!

Re:Compulsory Buying, Eh?

[TheoMurpse]

I am going to push back, not sit around and take it like a @#$$Y.

What is an ahssy?