Operation Buccaneer is an "ongoing international copyright piracy investigation and prosecution" undertaken by the United States federal government.
[5] Information obtained led to a subsequent raid at the Rochester Institute of Technology,[6] described by "warez gadfly 'ttol'" as one of "the two major hubs for communications between pirate groups" (along with the University of Twente in the Netherlands).
[6] "The Customs Service said it had singled out DrinkOrDie because it was considered one of the most sophisticated of the rings operating within a loose, global network.
[5] However, Farhad Manjoo wrote in a Wired magazine article that others were puzzled why the group was targeted; Manjoo characterized them as "small potatoes in the world of software theft", while an anonymous Australian infringer was quoted as saying, "they aren't the first to come to mind when you think to yourself 'who's the big deal in the scene?
As of October 2002, 17[14] people have been convicted of felonies in the United States, with 13 given federal prison terms of up to 46 months.