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DrinkOrDie pirate sent to prison
By Lisa M. Bowman
Special to ZDNet News
May 2, 2002, 4:05 PM PT
URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-898063.html
A former security software engineer convicted of providing technology to a 
piracy group known as DrinkOrDie was sentenced Thursday to nearly three years 
in prison.

Barry Erickson, 35, of Eugene, Ore., pleaded guilty in federal court in 
Virginia to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. 
Erickson, who is scheduled to serve 33 months in prison followed by two years 
of supervised release, is the first person to be sentenced in the case.

U.S. attorneys said Erickson, who was an engineer at Symantec and a member of 
DrinkOrDie, provided his company's technology to the group's members so they 
could remove copyright protections on software and provide counterfeit copies 
via the Web.

"The prosecution of this defendant, and the lengthy prison term he has 
received, demonstrate the Department of Justice's resolve that the copyright 
laws will be enforced in the cyberworld," U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said in 
a statement announcing the sentencing. "It is yet another step in our 
initiative to make the Internet safe for individuals and businesses."

Members of the loosely knit DrinkOrDie group often came together only through 
the Internet to distribute pirated software and movies via secret Web sites and 
invite-only IRC (Internet relay chat) channels.

So far, several alleged DrinkOrDie ringleaders and members have pleaded guilty 
in the case and are awaiting sentencing. Officials in the U.S. Attorney's 
Office said they expect additional prosecutions.

Erickson's attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In his plea, Erickson agreed that he caused between $2.5 million and $5 million 
worth of damages.

Defense attorneys have long argued that it's impossible to determine exactly 
how much damage software pirates cause, which gives prosecutors a lot of 
leverage.

For example, Jennifer Granick, a defense lawyer who's also the litigation 
director of Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, said prosecutors can 
convince defendants to agree to large damages by threatening to ratchet up the 
numbers if they don't plead guilty.

"We're operating in this theoretical land of damages," Granick said.

However, copyright owners maintain strong law-enforcement action discourages 
piracy. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, 
has said that the number of pirated software sites of all types has declined by 
45 percent since police began cracking down on DrinkOrDie's activities in 
December.





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