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Feds bust Intel insiders for $1 million piracy blag

Pirates with attitude

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Five Intel workers from Satan Clara are amongst a gang of seventeen were charged yesterday in what the FBI describes as "The most significant investigation of copyright infringement involving the use of the Internet conducted to date." The group is alleged to have hijacked 5000 pieces of software valued at more than $1 million. The piracy ring, based in Canada at Quebec's Sherbrooke University, called itself "Pirates with Attitude" and also included members in Sweden and Belgium. Four Intel employees are accused of supplying hardware to the crooks in 1998 and a fifth with distributing the illegal software they received in return. Operating systems, applications software, games and MP3 files were all stolen by the group. Also charged was an ex-Microsoft employee, who was accused of supplying the group with illegal software and access to the Redmond internal network. The culprits face a maximum sentence of five years jail, plus a fine of up to $250,000. Intel was unavailable for comment at press time.

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