Would-be Modern Warfare 2 pirate busted

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Nov 6, 2009 6:09 pm PT

Private investigation firm helps Activision track down hacker who leaked upcoming shooter, leading to arrest of 18-year-old.

With Activision proclaiming next week's launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be the biggest debut in entertainment history, tech blog VentureBeat has provided a look at the efforts to address prerelease piracy of the highly anticipated game and how it landed one young hacker in jail.

According to the blog, the story began last week, when an ad for Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles surfaced on Craigslist. When Activision spotted the ad, it contacted Dallas-based private investigation firm IPCybercrime.com, which arranged to purchase two such bundles from the seller. IPCybercrime also spotted a separate ad for the bundle with the seller claiming to be a stock boy for a major game retailer, identified the two sellers as friends based on an online social network, and turned their information over to Activision.

Modern Warfare 2 is just the latest in a long line of games to be leaked and pirated before launch.

When confronted by Activision, the two sellers admitted they had swiped a crate of the Modern Warfare 2 systems, and their case was then turned over to the retailer's loss prevention staff. The story might have ended there, if not for one of the seller's other customers.

IPCybercrime found a post by a user on an Xbox piracy forum asking people to donate money so he could buy one of the Craigslisted bundles, rip the game, and distribute it online. Investigators cross-referenced the user's e-mail address with a Facebook account, which had his cell phone number listed, and determined his identity to be 18-year-old Christian Del Amo. They turned the information over to the Miami-Dade police department, who arranged to purchase a pirated copy of the game and bust the hacker in the process.

Christian Del Amo.

Police obtained the game from a "runner," who led them back to Del Amo. The 18-year old was arrested yesterday and is currently incarcerated in Miami's Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. IPCybercrime told VentureBeat that Del Amo was set up to sell thousands of illegal copies of Modern Warfare 2.

According to VentureBeat, Del Amo had a history of piracy, selling modded 250GB Xbox 360 hard drives preloaded with 125 hacked games through auction site iOffer.com. At retail, the games could cost thousands of dollars, but Del Amo sold the hard drives for $150.

While an arrest was made in the case, it didn't come quick enough to prevent piracy of the game. Illegal copies of Modern Warfare 2 have been appearing on peer-to-peer file-sharing services since earlier this week, potentially costing publisher Activision thousands of lost sales.

1069 Comments

  • FrankTheFrank

    Posted Nov 18, 2009 4:37 pm PT

    Man you guys are dense.

    Look. I am NOT saying "I wouldn't have bought it anyways so it is ok to steal it." I am saying "I wouldn't have bought it anyways, so IF I pirate it, it is NOT a loss for the company." If a company has infinite fries that cost nothing to create.( IE: They have SOMETHING which cost NOTHING (which is the case of game copies; as you can create infinite copies for nothing - only disks etc cost money.) And they want a dollar per fry, and I say no thanks but go home and eat a fry. It does not hurt the company. Because I would never have bought the fries from them in the first place.

    When I would never buy the game. It can't be said to be a lost sale. It costs the company nothing IF I pirate a game I would never have bought. The flip side of it is, the company GAINS if I PLAY a game and buy it because I played it. The downside is that the Company also loses some legitimate sales. I would be VERY surprised though if those were significant to any games bottom line. Check out Sins of a Solar Empire for an example of a game that did extremely well, from a small publisher, with no DRM and more or less 'free' to pirates. I bought my first and only collectors edition of a game after playing the 'free' copy for a month.

    this kid deserved his stuff. Your average pirate, and more importantly the scene, does nothing wrong.

  • SopranosFan

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 6:00 pm PT

    I am truly shocked at how many people have suddenly came to the defense of this kid. I feel sorry for the kid because he made a mistake and I hope that whatever punishment he gets is enough to make him learn from his mistake. To act like piracy is a victimless crime that should go unpunished is nonsense. Game developers and publishers are closing their doors daily and unlike in the past their doesn't seem to be as many replacing them because of the high cost of entry. Yes I know that MW2 made a fortune and correct me if I'm wrong but I have a feeling that less successful games are also being pirated as well. So do me a favor and stop defending the kid's actions to make yourself feel better about the crimes you commit.

  • CosmicTerror

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 7:38 am PT

    First thing: I went to school with this kid, he was in my class. LOL

    Piracy is usually done as inconspicuously as possible, just throwing the stuff onto the internet for people to grab, mostly, for free. Still illegal but much harder to get in trouble. The problem arrives when you try to sell the media, and make the minimum-effort buck. The media isn't yours to sell, you don't have the license and you didn't get permission from the film/game company/publisher. Even doing this sort of thing for movies gets you a "5year/250k" sentence/fine.

    Is jail-time a harsh punishment for this kid? I suppose so. He did profit off of piracy, but he wasn't wide-scale.

    /shrug

  • _DeadlyFred_

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 2:03 am PT

    Sheesh, the thing sold FOUR POINT TWO MILLION and they're still crying "potential lost sales" from piracy. Say it with me, folks -- leeches don't BUY things... that's why they pirate junk in the first place.

  • hobobobo00

    Posted Nov 14, 2009 9:25 pm PT

    im surprised he had a "runner" deliver the game, that was pretty smart of him too bad he still got caught

  • featheon

    Posted Nov 13, 2009 4:15 pm PT

    Let me clarify instead of sounding like a newf*g. Most parties involved in actually pirating (i.e. cracking the game code) do not attempt to make money off of their efforts and distribute the game online anonymously. This kid left a trail right to himself my trying to turn a profit. You will not end up in jail for downloading a movie, so most of your analogies are not pertinent.

  • torogdl

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 10:25 pm PT

    @TongLong

    Amen brother! and don´t think too much, protected??? just... big companies, big crime/drug lords and corrupt politicians!! everyone else just for ourselves.. ding ding ding ding!!

  • TongLong

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 7:34 pm PT

    What a crock. People get mugged, raped and murdered every day, and those things go unsolved, but an 18 year old kid busts out a game that people will have to pay $60+ for early, and gets nailed to the wall for it. I wonder who is really being protected in our societies?

  • madSomnambulist

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 5:00 pm PT

    It's a shame that one person getting royally busted on this isn't going to change much, but it's still a good case and shamefully rather funny. Maybe other companies will get the hint and realize how ridiculously easy it is to hunt down this kind of stuff via Craigslist.

    Worth remembering: We've seen for a decade of somewhat constant levels of punishment. Smaller-scale distribution enforcement is very rare, probably getting a fine. Once someone is actually raking in cash from it, publicly flaunting their actions and there's an organized structure to assist the crime (such as the HDDs in this case) it completely changes the situation and the accused is typically charged with a felony. When money gets involved it changes the charges quite a bit.

  • mesk14

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 3:05 pm PT

    @dcregulator no piracy should NOT carry a jail sentence...we need that space to jail child molesters,rapists&murderers.it is ridiculous that there r ppl in jail for marijuana possesion while a child rapists gets out cause the jail is out of space----not that i think the pirate should get off scott free but honestly who wins\benefits from sending him to prison?do the developers get back any of their lost profits?no they dont i do believe he should be hit with 5,000-15,000$in restitution to the developer then things are gained.sending a kid to prison for a non-violent\almost victimless crime is just wrong

  • DCRegulator

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 12:48 pm PT

    Makes me laugh how many people don't have a problem with what this moron did. I was just thinking...I really want a Porsche, but they charge way too much for their cars. On top of that, I think they are evil and make business decisions that I don't agree with. Even though I can only afford a Civic, I see no reason why I am not entitled to drive such a luxury car. My solution is to steal a nice new one from a dealership. I'll tool around in it for awhile then I'll sell it to a like-minded fool for $5,000. I just got to drive a Porsche and make a little money on the side. It doesn't hurt anyone, right? Porsche makes way too much money to care about that sort of thing. I bet they wouldn't even care if I figured out a way to "copy" Porsches and sell them all for just $5,000, right? Most importantly, If I got caught, jail would be unacceptable. Really? I fear the future when these kids have to take over...

  • jonzilla_basic

    Posted Nov 12, 2009 3:59 am PT

    Wow it sure would suck to be that guy....

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Nov 11, 2009 3:46 pm PT

    funny thing is im pretty sure he just got this from a scene release ... and did none of the hacking himself... just goes to show, crime doesnt pay lol ahahhaha

  • Trinity567

    Posted Nov 11, 2009 3:36 pm PT

    The guy was selling pirated copies of games which is a bit different from your average pirate. I don't agree that pirates necessarily cost companies money because that is based on the presumption that the pirate would give you their money otherwise. Just seems like you would be getting ahead of yourself to assume that

  • SineFato posted Nov 11, 2009 3:33 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    SineFato

    Posted Nov 11, 2009 3:33 pm PT (hide)

    @holyghost87
    You're retarded. When you are bringing in god knows how many millions of dollars in revenue from selling millions of copies of a game, 20,000 people pirating you're game isn't gonna put you under. Or even really put a dent in it.

    A lot of the people pirating, are people that wouldn't have played/watched the game/movie if they hadn't pirated it. And just as many pirate it, enjoy it a lot, then go out and buy it anyways.

    Piracy should NEVER lead to a jail sentence. Other forms of punishment such as house arrest, probation, etc etc, yes. A jail sentence, never.

  • Kajiuro

    Posted Nov 11, 2009 2:45 pm PT

    Piracy of media should not lead to incarceration.
    I really like this movie, I think I'll download it, and spend 5 years in prison with violent prisoners who will ass rape me continuously and ruin my life forever.

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