back to article Wikileaks caught up in Swedish police raids

Swedish police raided several addresses this morning, including an ISP linked to Wikileaks, while assisting a Belgian file-sharing probe. Four Swedish nationals were arrested following raids on residential addresses, Umea University and two ISPs. Computers and servers were seized but police stressed the investigation was …

COMMENTS

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  1. Rogerborg

    Come on, every major campaign needs a catchy title to attract budget

    Operation Restore Artificial Scarcity?

    Operation Genie Bottling?

    Must.. know... codename.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The Scene"?

    I know of several things called "The Scene", though no "file sharing network". It could be, but it sounds more like it didn't really have a name and them coppers refused to believe that. Because, how can you chase something for four years if it doesn't even have a fancy name, eh? The heat can be a bit headstrong like that sometimes. But maybe not. More info needed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      lern2irc

      Read title. Thanks.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They definitely got the name right

      The scene is the oldest file sharing network around, and has been since the days of BBSes. It's also the source for the majority of pirated content on the planet in one way or another. You could do worse than starting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene

      1. Captain Save-a-ho
        Big Brother

        Re: They definitely got the name right

        You forgot to mention how The Scene is actually a hacker front for the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and the Pentaverate.

        /sigh

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        If they got the name right, they're still clueless.

        The top of the graphic on that page has a balloon with "Release groups" in it, followed by one with "Top sites" in it, and so on. That implies --as was my understanding as well, having had a passing acquintance with that very "Warez Scene" back well before the aol event horizon, when the main transport was archive tapes, and is further spelled out in the wikipedia article-- that there is no single "group" as such. No single overarching leadership. And so on, and so forth. It's all very loosely associated.

        Yet the el reg article clearly refers to "the group", singular, even a "Leaders of the group", again singular. Also note the just established missing leadership AND the lack of a single group. Hello?

        That was my original point. El reg conveys a belief of existence of a single group and a centralised leadership that simply does not exist. This is apparently driven by the plod possibly to imply a criminal organisation that simply does not exist as the reporting leads us to believe. Thus I call police trumping-up shenanigans and LIES, DAMN LIES, EL REG REPORTING. Capisce?

  3. Mike Hanna
    FAIL

    What? Why?

    Why is Wikileaks in the title? That's like saying that someone in my street has had kiddie porn found on their computer, and because he lives in the same postcode as me, El Reg points the finger in my direction.

    Come on El Reg...

  4. Graham Dawson Silver badge
    Flame

    Oi!

    It's Umeå! That little circle isn't just for decoration, you know.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Headmaster

      oh FFS

      you'll be moaning about Gothenburg next

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    umm, gullible?

    Sounds like plod believed every word little johnny/sven/luc said and spurted it out to the media verbatim.

    Epic lulz indeed!

  6. JaitcH
    Unhappy

    This is nothing ...

    Wait until the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is in action. See: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement >.

    For some of the nitty gritty read: < http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4829/125/ >. Not very nice.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If they raided the Scene

    They have all the credz

  8. patrick_bateman

    Scene is real

    It actually does exists and goes:

    Scene > other FTP > torrent > Http download > then lowest of the gnutella style network. I wondered we would start hearing about scene takedowns.

  9. Alexander Hanff 1
    FAIL

    "The Scene" lolz

    I have to be careful not to piss myself laughing here given I am currently in the 1st class carriage of a train (would be embarrassing) but I had to comment on this.

    "The Scene" is NOT a network by any stretch of the imagination. It is the generic name given to the ad hoc release tier of movie/music and software piracy. To suggest it is some massive underground network is ridiculous and it is anything but organised. The scene is made up of all the "release groups" and there is little to zero cohesion between any of them.

    About the only thing that was ever officially called The Scene was the short set of movies made by someone back around the 2005 era (probably "The Industry") as an attempt to scare file sharers with stories of FBI infiltration, turncoats etc.

    A news article referring to The Scene as some sort of file sharing entity is laughable and has made my day.

    Sometimes I am truly staggered by the complete lack of understanding by media and "The Industry" about how file sharing works. Furthermore, "The Scene" ultimately begins with "The Industry" itself in most cases (although granted not with cams).

    Please please please write more articles like this, we could all do with a good laugh every now and again.

    1. Captain Save-a-ho
      Big Brother

      I was laughing...

      until I read that it took them four years to prep for the takedown...more tax dollars "hard at work".

  10. Subban
    Troll

    "The Scene" is not a group.

    "Leaders of the group get "credz" points for first seeding films onto the network. The next layer down is described as "topsites" and is spread around several IT firms and is where the copyrighted material is held, the paper reports."

    Its actually a massive credit to sceners that statements like that exist. The various groups are isolated and insular, security is tight and the fact that this is how its believed to work is a credit to the scenes secrecy.

    Monkey, because he knows his dump from his topsites and his couriers from his sceners ;)

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