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 Leader of piracy ring sentenced to prison

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) ? A co-leader of what federal authorities say was one of 
the largest software piracy rings on the Internet was sentenced to nearly four 
years in prison Friday.

John Sankus Jr., 28, of Philadelphia, was the leader of DrinkOrDie, a piracy 
ring that authorities believe cost the software industry billions of dollars in 
sales each year.

His 46-month sentence is the largest ever for Internet piracy, U.S. Attorney 
Paul McNulty said at a news conference.

"This sentence sends a strong message to those that think they're invisible 
because of the anonymity of the Internet. We will find you," McNulty said. "You 
will serve years in prison."

Sankus, who worked for computer maker Gateway, apologized at his sentencing. 
"I'd like to apologize to the software companies I affected, and especially to 
my family for dragging them through this," Sankus said.

After the hearing, Sankus' attorney Harvey Sernovitz emphasized that Sankus 
made no money from his actions. He said group members specialized in cracking 
high-end technical software that was of little value to them.

But prosecutor Robert Wiechering said that "the effects of what Mr. Sankus did 
are very serious. There really are victims in this type of offense."

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema imposed the minimum sentence under federal 
sentencing guidelines. She waived the fine that could have been between $10,000 
and $100,000 because she said Sankus could not afford it.

Authorities say DrinkOrDie was effectively shut down in December with raids in 
27 U.S. cities and five countries as part of "Operation Buccaneer."

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the 
association found a 45% decrease in the number of Web sites offering pirated 
movies after the December raids.

DrinkOrDie, founded in Moscow in 1993, gained its fame by releasing a pirated 
copy of the Windows 95 operating system two weeks before it was even released 
by Microsoft.





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