Wikileaks caught up in Swedish police raids Swedish police raided several addresses this morning, including an ISP linked to Wikileaks, while assisting a Belgian file-sharing probe. Four Swedish nationals were arrested following raids on residential addresses, Umea University and two ISPs. Computers and servers were seized but police stressed the investigation was …
I know of several things called "The Scene", though no "file sharing network". It could be, but it sounds more like it didn't really have a name and them coppers refused to believe that. Because, how can you chase something for four years if it doesn't even have a fancy name, eh? The heat can be a bit headstrong like that sometimes. But maybe not. More info needed.
The scene is the oldest file sharing network around, and has been since the days of BBSes. It's also the source for the majority of pirated content on the planet in one way or another. You could do worse than starting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene
The top of the graphic on that page has a balloon with "Release groups" in it, followed by one with "Top sites" in it, and so on. That implies --as was my understanding as well, having had a passing acquintance with that very "Warez Scene" back well before the aol event horizon, when the main transport was archive tapes, and is further spelled out in the wikipedia article-- that there is no single "group" as such. No single overarching leadership. And so on, and so forth. It's all very loosely associated.
Yet the el reg article clearly refers to "the group", singular, even a "Leaders of the group", again singular. Also note the just established missing leadership AND the lack of a single group. Hello?
That was my original point. El reg conveys a belief of existence of a single group and a centralised leadership that simply does not exist. This is apparently driven by the plod possibly to imply a criminal organisation that simply does not exist as the reporting leads us to believe. Thus I call police trumping-up shenanigans and LIES, DAMN LIES, EL REG REPORTING. Capisce?
I have to be careful not to piss myself laughing here given I am currently in the 1st class carriage of a train (would be embarrassing) but I had to comment on this.
"The Scene" is NOT a network by any stretch of the imagination. It is the generic name given to the ad hoc release tier of movie/music and software piracy. To suggest it is some massive underground network is ridiculous and it is anything but organised. The scene is made up of all the "release groups" and there is little to zero cohesion between any of them.
About the only thing that was ever officially called The Scene was the short set of movies made by someone back around the 2005 era (probably "The Industry") as an attempt to scare file sharers with stories of FBI infiltration, turncoats etc.
A news article referring to The Scene as some sort of file sharing entity is laughable and has made my day.
Sometimes I am truly staggered by the complete lack of understanding by media and "The Industry" about how file sharing works. Furthermore, "The Scene" ultimately begins with "The Industry" itself in most cases (although granted not with cams).
Please please please write more articles like this, we could all do with a good laugh every now and again.
"Leaders of the group get "credz" points for first seeding films onto the network. The next layer down is described as "topsites" and is spread around several IT firms and is where the copyrighted material is held, the paper reports."
Its actually a massive credit to sceners that statements like that exist. The various groups are isolated and insular, security is tight and the fact that this is how its believed to work is a credit to the scenes secrecy.
Monkey, because he knows his dump from his topsites and his couriers from his sceners ;)
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