Pre-Release Music Piracy: Further Arrests, Exec Loses Job
Written by enigmax on November 12, 2009During the summer, TorrentFreak learned that major online music piracy group DV8 suffered a serious setback after a music industry investigation led to arrests. In September our sources leaked information that a label executive had also been arrested. Now fresh details have emerged concerning his fate and news of yet more arrests.
Earlier this year, DV8, one of the busiest ‘Scene’ music piracy groups responsible for more than 3,000 single and album releases, suffered major setbacks.
A BPI investigation led to a police swoop on members of the group. They were subjected to searches, seizure of their computers and other assorted items, and later questioned at length.
The suspects were charged with Conspiracy to Defraud (the music industry), released on bail and ordered to reappear at later dates. One was later released with a police warning and told that charges would not be pressed against him.
In the meantime the alleged leader of DV8 had his bail pushed back to mid November pending further investigations. TorrentFreak’s previously-reliable sources positioned close to the case have now informed us that the individual answered his bail a few days ago and was subjected to another day of questioning. He has allegedly been charged with ‘defrauding the music industry’, although the conspiracy element appears to have been dropped.
Earlier we reported that two more arrests were made of suspected pre-release music suppliers to DV8. One of those individuals was an executive at a record label. Our information is that this executive has now lost his job, but no charges have been brought against him.
It was believed that the delay in charging the alleged leader of the group was due to the police needing more time to track down additional suppliers, one of which we were told works for a major media outlet. Indeed, we are now being informed that during the last few weeks there have been further raids on people linked to the group.
One is reportedly a writer at a music publication, who allegedly supplied music to the leader of the group. We are told he was raided 2 weeks ago.
Another is a US member of DV8 who left months before the first raid. He was arrested several weeks ago but is understood to have been released without charge.
Court dates are pending for those charged, but could arrive as quickly as early 2010.
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now thats the crooked side of things that should be stopped, not the simple sharing
so there was actually a good exec guy in the music industry, but no more. shame
@1 without the crooked sides there wouldn’t be sharing?!
Why should that be stopped?
It’s Execs sticking it to the man, going against the BS “ethics” the music industy lives by and sharing music for free, like it was always meant to be shared.
As Dan Bull puts it: “All music’s in the public domain.”
These people sound like they were in it to make money, thats the crooked side.
@4 thats a very romantic view
@5 you think DV8 were making money? Proves how clueless you are ;)
Tips to groups not wanting to endure the same fate.. All computers in use are to be encrypted completely.. No password is to be ever stored in the clear etc… No servers are to be hosted in the US ETC.. The more passwords and the more roadblocks the better.. I bet the person who got off had everything secure..
This case has progressed entirely too fast.. It should of been months if not years before the BPI etc should of been able to get court orders for bios \ partition etc passwords..
LORD DAVE = CLUELESS.
I’ve always said it: the music industry should take a look at its own before jumping on the rest of us. Leaks don’t magically appear out of nowhere.
via this way or via p2p: i keep thinking that 90% of these songs and movies are crap. what the world needs is people willing not to consume this crap. it actually makes people stupid, just as MCStupidDonalds and CocaCola and alike makes you sick…
every cent you spend on them, makes the corporations stronger!
so why no mention of court proceedings then? although the person concerned may well have lost his/her job, what is to be lost in salary is nothing in relation to the fines imposed on members of the public for so-called piracy.
@11 – Very true.
Its easier to prevent leaks that go after all those who downloaded the leaked file.
http://Pirlog.com
“Our information is that this executive was has now lost his job”
Was has?
While I feel bad for the individuals going through this, those feelings don’t go for the group as a whole. Scene releases are inferior anyway. They push things out so fast that there is no quality control. I’ve heard ticks and clicks on what are supposed to be scene releases. They are good for previewing purposes only. For a good rip, wait till someone actually takes the time to do it right, and to use some quality control before sharing. Quantity doesn’t always mean quality.
An executive sharer wow! I should start to respect them more for being less greedy!
Yes. The exec was giving away prerelease music for free. Not that he didn’t make a pile of money and a pension already. If you think some groups don’t pay or trade for material, you’re the ignorant one.
I suspect the one they released sang like a canary. That’s his prize.
@3 – I’m no exec. I simply buy the albums, rip them and upload the torrents to my favourite tracker. Am I crooked?
I really don’t like pre-releases. You should have the decency to wait until the information you share is public.
must be a rush to be a exec pirate.. ultimately not worth it.. but hope he got his kicks while it lasted.
People still care about music piracy?
Music has a ’scene’ lmao
The vast majority of ’scene’ groups within the MP3 circuit make no money at all, if anything it costs them money. Most of retail rippers buy the CDs to rip and the people who run the groups have to pay for the servers. There’s also a vast ammount of music journalists who rip the cds after reviewing the pomotional copies they are sent. The benefits are usually decent access to scene archives and various other groups sites. No profit involved at all.
who was the exec?
NOW watch the music sales really drop asd they get less advertsing out there HAHA gooooood one hollystupid
They don’t make any profit..?
They do it because…:-
– they can?
– they can’t stop?
– they want to share…the love
– they want to work as a free advertising tool for EMI Sony BMG Apple iTunes
cause more free dloads = more sales
- they just do?
Everyone has their own reasons. They may do it because they like it, because they do it for a cause, or earning reputation. It depends on the individual in question, it’s wrong to label them all as the same.
In other word the aholes that got caught are ratting everyone out faster than the police can pick them up. shameful
I’m the exec in question.
The truth is, I’ve been leading several double lives for a long time.
But we won’t get into all that.
that is probably the only good record exec in that whole industry.
bummer he could of still been sharing all that bad corporate music.
We all know where all these leaks come from, it’s not rocket science to figure it out.
Pay no mind to the rantings of tutame, he is an obvious maffia plant trying to infiltrate and be more like us. Don’t believe me, check out his other posts on the “Ink” story or the Zombieland post and others. He keeps ranting about how we are stealing. Or file sharing is illegal.
Starting to sound familiar?
Don’t feed this troll!
@tutame
Save your own a55 from Hell!
Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem!
Why were charges not brought against the exec? Did he blow somebody or what? Doesn’t seem right he just loses his job while the other guys lose their freedom.
by redbaron
“I suspect the one they released sang like a canary. That’s his prize.”
Yes, It’s the moment of truth now,
which reveals who is man and who isn’t.
Trying to get things leaked to the public is perhaps not a very good and necessary thing, but it certainly is not something you get arrested for. You get arrested for stealing, for beating someone up, for murder. Not for taking music files and distributing them among people.
I see nothing wrong with stopping internal leaks. That’s a way different scenario than sharing files.
Leaks and pre-releases probably do nothing but hurt our cause.
Ci vis pacem parabellum.(Or……..If you prefer.Let he who disires peace.Prepare for war!
The music exec only losing his job says it all.
I guess the first uploader of any torrent should be safe as being “the source” will only get you fired if you work for the wrong company.
However it probably has something todo with (a sudden?) lack of evidence.
@39: correct one is “Si vis pacem, para bellum” …
@ reasoned mind : that`s really no suprise…
but i have to agree w/ some here, pre-releases are not really needed for us…9 out of 10 times that`s what the maffia`s are looking for on BT, so just wait
look @ all of the peeps we`ve read @ who got caught grabbing a pre-release (or,in this case, distributing)
Here’s a crazy idea…BUY the music instead of stealing it. Music is no more part of the supposed “public domain” than the car in your driveway. Do you ever wonder why concert ticket prices are so high? It is because people keep stealing the musicians livelihood. This is how they make a living. If you continue to steal things, don’t be surprised when people steal from you.
@15 “Was has?”
Yes, it’s the past tense possessive pronoun of “Tiswas” ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiswas
I’ve known a lot of mp3-people in the last years and while there are some greedy assholes, most are not in it for the money.
Motivation for those people is mostly their love for music and because they enjoy being part of the scene.
Music IS part of the public domain, anyone can record from broadcasts, listen for free anywhere.
The solution “buy stuff, instead of steal it” (@43) is therefor not a real solution.
My idea would be to have a sort of music tax that could pay the artists, and make music freely available to anyone.
@43 “The Truth”
We aren’t the ones stealing from the artists, the likes of the RIAA, MPAA, etc. are. The artists collect but a minuscule portion of the “proceeds” they collect. I know because I have a cousin in the business and she complains all the time about how little she actually gets for her “hard work” as so many of you trolls put it. And she will be long dead before the “rights” revert back to her.
Screw you and your money thieving whore mongers!
why is it no one mentions the actuall musicians who have spent their lives, time, money for music equipment, recording equipment, money to gas-up for lousy places to play, sleep in vans—all those who actually “make” the music —musicians–everyone expects to have for free? Do you work for free? Try it sometime—like for years. Ever think why anyone should have to make something for “free”, for nothing, for zero, for nada? So all of you can be “entertained”?
Aren’t there some murderers or maniacs on the loose?
This whole operation reminds me of the hunt for Pablo Escobar
Enigmax, Wow, this is scary stuff. Thanks for sharing. I found your blog while searching for something.
Since it might be relevant to the folks on this thread, I also wanted to give a plug for a site Ive been working on that helps people share songs with their friends. http://www.myradeo.com Its free, easy and there’s no account signup. Login with Facebook. Hope you like it!
@clark wise: no but I wouldn’t expect to make money off my previous works, like say, in 10 years’ time.
You see it’s not your work that you get paid for, it’s selling your music.
Getting paid for your work would be, for example, when performing live or something like that. Or funded beforehand (pledging system, for instance). Not selling endless “copies”.
“Our information is that this executive has now lost his job”
I wonder how many execs have illegal copies of software, music, tv shows on thier home networks. Who’s watching the watchers?
[sarcasm]Well, offering an album b4 it’s released in TPB for free surely gives them loads of money.[/sarcasm]
I’m not sure I agree with stuff being available b4 the official goes out though. I mean, I like to try it b4 watching but at least let it be released to the public b4 uploading it lmao
I really hope that this is an incentive.. a big one, that’s letting the industry know they should look within them first.. hopefully they’ll notice that they’ve made many musicians loose all of their jobs since their creation. Or, something even better can heppen. They’ll just fire everyone and hopefully will soon disolve and disappear from the universe once and for all.
The music exec was most likely ordered to by his boss.
i have no problem with people downloading stuff here and there.
But, I’m a firm believer that if you do something on a major scale like these piracy groups do then you should be ready to do the time if you do the crime.
Just my thoughts
The fact that it was an exec doing it makes it even more wrong…
@56 (my previous post):
It’s not only that he wasinfringing copyright, it’s also that he was violating his company’s rules and policies. Even if they are the “greedy corporate bastards” you take them to be, that’s no excuse for somebody who’s legitimately inside their loop to betray them like that.
Same goes for any company or organization; if it were a pirate ratting his (or her?) group out, you wouldn’t be laughing so hard.
I totally think its messed that scene release group needs to be brought to “justice” like this. What about all the people that burn cds for others. The Scene is nothing more than a nascar race to see who gets it out fast. Quality is shotty if not straight poop. I would rather buy a cd and get the art work the lyrics and give something to the bands i know work for it . But its still nice to dl a shittier than cd quality copy to check ti out first. I always buy cds but i also know most that dl dont. And release groups never want there stuff on torrents its design for an different style of sharing ftp and the likes not torrents.
So Raisined Mind,
Why was the exec not arrested? Is he any less “guilty” than the others?
Why does he walk away with just a slap on the wrist, and the others get arrested?
Please enlighten us with your raisined opinion!
HAHA, my bitches, give me my music!
Same old arguments from both sides. One side believing that artists live in some kind of utopia where they can create all day long and have to get paid and the other thinking that they have to be the world’s copyright cops, mostly because they just like being bossy twats.
Artists do what they do for a living and deserve to get paid. I’m one of those creators and I kind of need to put food on the table and keep the lights on. But I’ve also never agreed with calling file sharing “piracy”. If anything, this “piracy” has helped me sell some of my work over the years in much the same way the film INK has gotten far more attention by being torrented than it could have ever hoped to buy. It’s time the industry as a whole realized how much money there is to be made because of P2P and started doing it instead of trying to roll back the clock to “the good old days” when the companies controlled everything, could buy DJ’s to play songs on the radio and generally rape any artist they could get to sign a contract.
ummm… for those saying scene has no quality control, ever heard of nukenets? it’s more quality control than p2p will ever have… also, scene groups are NOT organized ‘crime’, they’re just a bunch of kids that love music and buy cd’s, rip them, and pre them. anyone that says otherwise is clueless.
Arrests shmarrests. People fighting good causes have been arrested prosecuted, and/or imprisoned, etc., since time immemorial.
Continue file-sharing if you think it is right, and give a 1-finger salute (and more if you think you have to) to those who mean to trample on your rights.
Nov 14, 2009 at 15:47, Ozymundaneus wrote:
“Artists do what they do for a living and deserve to get paid. I’m one of those creators and I kind of need to put food on the table and keep the lights on.”
Based on what I understand from your post, I presume that you agree that your ostensible self-prescribed deservedness stops at the door of using draconian measures against others to ensure that you get what you think you deserve, right?
@64 I wonder what draconian measures you would use if you weren’t getting paid for your work…
@65 You’re talking about a mutli-billion dollar a year industry complaining they aren’t being paid for their work. So the multi-billions are…? What? Oh that’s right, they are getting paid more now annually for their trash than they did 15 years ago when the internet was still a dream and sharing was all about cassettes and VHS tapes… It’s just never, ever going to be enough.
This isn’t a case of a physical product either. In all cases it is a product with a set production cost being mass-marketed infinitely with no caps or boundaries whatsoever as to the amount of potential profit. This inspires the outrageous level of greed we are seeing now. Since it *should* be hugely profitable, they start seeing red when it isn’t. Maybe it’s because no one wants what they just wasted millions to produce? Tough luck. Get to know your audience a little better before you gamble on what they are willing to pay for.
Movies and music productions have flopped and ended up costing producers money rather than making it for them long before the first PC was even invented. It’s supposed to be a gamble for the bloodsuckers, not a guaranteed revenue stream, even when the product is lackluster. I have yet to see a movie in the last year that I felt was worth the cost of a movie ticket. Furthermore, the RIAA cooked and ate the golden egg-laying goose when they began suing individuals. I will never buy anything to support them again. Ever. If an artist wants my money, they’d damn well better sell direct and be willing to come put on a concert near me rather than from behind some thieving, litigious labels and industry shills.
The entertainment industries have flooded the market with garbage. Instead of 3-4 major blockbusters a year, we see double or triple that, and the overall quality has suffered dramatically. People are still spending the same amount(proportionately) on entertainment as in the heyday of the ’80s, so approximately 2/3 of all movies and music are seeking a paying audience from people who have no budget for *that much* entertainment. Something has to flop when you make so much crap in such high volume.
“The poor artists” means nothing when the artists should be paid up front or upon completion and be leaving the marketing gamble for the studios and labels to absorb when something flops and profit from when they find a winner. That’s why the labels are even allowed to exist, but have skirted their own responsibility to take a loss because that aspect of their own business is not profitable. Win some lose some. Sadly, they think they can be the house and always have the odds in their favor. You know, the companies who don’t actually contribute anything but are right there with hands outstretched when there’s any profit to be made from “The poor artists” they are fucking over en masse in the name of profit.
I think going out of business for bad business practices is exactly what is needed for these industries. The artists will thrive, and the end users will rejoice for the reduced costs of their entertainment in virtually unlimited quantities once we can finally see the real culprits behind the dilemma put to the gallows.
@Smokey
“I think going out of business for bad business practices is exactly what is needed for these industries.”
Sort of like what happened with the auto and housing and the other corporate greed monsters recently.
The music and record industry is next.
@46 very good point that “raisoned mind” has yet to touch on…which, sure doesn`t make file sharing any better or worse, but does explain how the industry has screwed over so many…but still, it will be a cold day in hell before i purchase ANY mainstream media…
http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/blog/2009/11/12/do-music-artists-do-better-in-a-world-with-illegal-file-sharing/
talking about industry vs artists, must read
Nov 13, 2009 at 20:55, Reasoned Brain wrote:
“…You see it’s not your work that you get paid for, it’s selling your music.
Getting paid for your work would be, for example, when performing live or something like that. Or funded beforehand (pledging system, for instance). Not selling endless ‘copies’.”
Good point and well said.
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