United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

FLORIDA MAN INVOLVED IN SOFTWARE PIRACY CONSPIRACY IS SENTENCED

Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that STEVEN FIATARONE, also known as “kidzap,” 55, of Spring Hill, Florida, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to three years of probation for conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement.  Judge Burns also ordered FIATARONE to pay a fine in the amount of $2000.  FIATARONE pleaded guilty to the charge on July 8, 2008.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, FIATARONE and others participated in the “warez scene,” which is an underground online community consisting of individuals and organized groups who use the Internet to engage in the large-scale, illegal distribution of copyrighted software.  In the warez scene, certain participants (known as “suppliers”) are able to obtain access to copyrighted software, video games, DVD movies, and MP3 music files, often before those titles are even available to the general public.  Other participants, known as “crackers,” then use their technical skills to circumvent or “crack” the digital copyright protections.  Others, known as “couriers,” then distribute the pirated software to various file storage sites (“FTP sites”) on the Internet for others to access, reproduce, and further distribute.  The leading warez groups competed with one another to attain the reputation as the fastest, highest quality providers of pirated materials.

In approximately 2001, FIATARONE, with the assistance of a co-conspirator, began operating a warez server known as “Nite Ranger Hideout” (NRH).  The NRH server was located at a school in Virginia and FIATARONE served as the site administrator.  From approximately November 2002 through approximately 2003, FIATARONE uploaded approximately 23,572 files and downloaded approximately 40,487 files from the NRH site.

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Edward Chang of the District of Connecticut and Clement J. McGovern from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov