Warez suspects arrested
Major crackdown on internet piracy
British, Norwegian and Finnish police have joined with their counterparts in America and Australia to carry out a series of raids on suspected members of the infamous "Drink Or Die" warez group. British police have arrested six people and searched eleven properties, while on the other side of the pond American customs officials and FBI agents raided over a hundred sites, seizing a large number of computers from businesses, homes and universities in 27 cities across the country. American law enforcement agencies are still sifting through "a mountain of digital evidence", but anybody involved in spreading pirated software to warez sites could face prosecution for distribution of copyrighted material, a crime which brings a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count. The raids follow a year long investigation which successfully infiltrated the group, and the action is already being described as the biggest ever crackdown on internet piracy. Warez users around the world are thought to pirate upwards of $1bn worth of software each year, including DVD movies and computer games.