The iSONEWS
The iSONEWS was a warez news website. It was originally created by orm who later deferred management of the website to krazy8 and mandarin.[2] TheiSONews supplied release details and NFOs of warez games and programs, without actually supplying them, or supplying any information on where to find them.[3][4][5] Later it was also called a fan site that has become an unofficial hub of DivX news.[6]
Type of site | Internet forum, a former Database |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Created by | orm[1] |
URL | www |
Commercial | No |
Registration | Required for posting |
Launched | December 7, 1998[1] |
Domain seizure
On February 28, 2003 the United States Department of Justice seized the isonews domain name (isonews.com),[7] however its servers remained intact. A number of iSONEWS mirrors sprung up as a result, including izonews.com, theisonews.com, and stolemy.com, an expression of retaliation from the iSONEWS community caused by the Department of Justice's actions. The closure of the isonews.com domain brought more attention to the site, and after the site was back up on mirror sites, the membership and the user activity on the forums increased.
Approximately one year following the seizure, visitors to iSONEWS.com were redirected to the United States Department of Justice cybercrime.gov[8] website. As of November 16, 2004, the original domain, isonews.com, is owned by DomainSpa LLC and used to advertise video game sales and rentals.
David "krazy8" Rocci got a sentence of 5 months in federal prison and a $28,500 fine for selling modchips on isonews.com.[9] Krazy8 later indicated that modchips was the 'official' modus operandi, but every question I was ever asked related to ISONews and had nothing to do with modchips.[10]
Current status
From being a release site for the warez community, the site has evolved into a broader message board, concentrating mostly on PC gaming. The PC games forum on the site contains everything from rumors, latest news, hints, tips and tweaks to various games. As of June 2007, the releases are never updated, however the forums are still (barely) in use.
See also
References
- "Early isonews about page". Archived from the original on 1999-04-27.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- inphi (2006-06-19). "History Of ISOnews". The iSONEWS.
- Wilson, Steve (1999-07-29). "Online Piracy: From Music to Film". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
- Sutherland, John (1999-06-17). "Hacking away at our ethics". The Guardian.
-
Vankin, Jonathan (1999-06-23). "Invasion of Piracy". LA Weekly.
ISO News includes a page of information about each release, listing quality of sound and picture, method of capture (i.e., screener or camera job) and basic production info about the film.
- Cave, Damien (2000-05-31). "The MP3 of movies?". Salon.
- BBC News "US seizes bootleg games site"
- "Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS)". cybercrime.gov.
- Kushner, David (May 2004). "Let your Xbox loose". Popular Science: 132.
- krazy8 (2005-07-05). "New Busts (June 2005)". The iSONEWS.
External links
- theisonews.com
- Site Returns After Piracy Crackdown
- The Register DoJ seizes ISOnews site over Xbox mod chip sales
- Put a Z in ISONews - DoJ seizure is 'illegal and abusive'
- McCullagh, Declan (2003-02-26). "U.S. crime-fighters seize Web sites". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
- U.S. Department of Justice (2003-02-25). "Justice Department Seizes Top Internet Site Involved in Copyright Piracy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. - US DoJ press release on bust
- Nasheri, Hedi (November 2004). "Addressing Global Scope of Intellectual Property Law" (PDF).
- Borland, John (2000-10-04). "Sega wants to silence advice on hacker sites". CNET News.
- Rötzer, Florian (2003-02-27). "Das US-Justizministerium übernimmt Websites".
- Ziegler, Peter-Michael (2003-02-27). "US-Justiz besetzt Domain-Namen".