DrinkOrDie pirates go to jail

A City banker at the heart of the DrinkOrDie software piracy ring has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison today at the Old Bailey in London.

Alex Bell, 29, was one of four criminals involved in the DrinkOrDie group which cracked encryption and digital rights management code on software. Two of the others were handed lesser sentences while a third was released on a suspended sentence. The maximum penalty would have been 10 years.

Although they billed themselves as latter day Robin Hoods the judge at the centre of the case said their motives were not benevolent but owed more to self-promotion and the kudos in tech circles linked to such criminal activity.

The Business Software Alliance investigator who worked on the case, told silicon.com: "We are very pleased with the result. While we believe the sentence could have been higher it gets the message out there and sends a deterrent."

Judge Paul Focke told the defendants their actions "struck at the heart of the software trade". He described the damages caused to the rightful owners of the intellectual property as "staggering".

The BSA investigator, who spoke to silicon.com on the guarantee of anonymity, said: "Not only does this case show that people will get caught it shows it is almost impossible to hide. The people were very difficult to track down. They were using highly sophisticated technology to protect themselves and cover their tracks but we still got them."

He also praised the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit for its hard work in securing the conviction and ensuring all forensic evidence needed was collected and presented correctly to the court.

He also praised the judge for showing a level of understanding of this case which went above and beyond the understanding of many senior judges in the UK courts system.