The early hours of December 12 saw the Australian Federal Police (AFP), in conjunction with US Customs, strike seven premises across Australia and seize computer equipment as part of a global investigation and the execution of 60 search warrants worldwide.
At the time the AFP said that it would take a -couple of weeks" to analyse the equipment and data seized.
When contacted today, some three weeks after the strike on elusive crackers, the police admitted it still hasn't finalised the investigation and told ZDNet Australia to contact them in another few weeks time for an update on the situation. -I don't suspect they've made much progress" due to the Christmas break, an AFP spokesperson said.
ZDNet Australia previously reported on the indecision between the AFP and US Customs as to who would be ultimately responsible for prosecuting those found to be involved in the local piracy scam. A majority of ZDNet readers polled -- 87.5 percent of almost 400 respondents -- have resolved that the police swoop will in fact have little affect on the online racket.
-...you'll all see that such action against Warez will do nothing," one ZDNet reader said. -I don't see any structured body that has been able to successfully stem out any form of illegal Internet activities because the people responsible constantly change hosts and IP addresses...You can't stop Internet piracy because these pirates pillage the companies that everyone hates."
The AFP refused to comment on whether or not last month's invasion of premises had had any impact on the local Warez cult. -That's a better question to pose to US Customs," the AFP spokesperson said. -It's [Warez] a worldwide organisation and we're just a very small part of that."
US Customs confirmed that there have been no additional search warrants executed in Australia on the back of December's dawn raids, but would not rule out the possibility that more raids were in the pipeline.
-We are currently evaluating and analysing the evidence," US Customs spokesperson Kevin Bell told ZDNet Australia in an e-mail interview. -It will take several months for us to go through it all. We've seized an enormous amount of evidence so far. We anticipate more raids in the future against the Warez community as a whole. But when and where, I can't and won't say. Additional raids may take place in Australia, but I can't confirm that," he added.
ZDNet Australia would be interested in speaking to anyone directly affected by the AFP's investigation. E-mail edit@zdnet.com.au
While the US blocks imports of our primary products why are we being so silly to help them rip us off in the exports of their tertiary goods