Friday February 4 5:18 PM ET U.S. Agents Attack Software Pirate Ring CHICAGO (Reuters) - One of the suspected leaders of an international ring of software pirates operating on the Internet has been arrested and charged with conspiring to violate the copyrights on thousands of computer programs, federal officials announced on Friday. Robin Rothberg, 32, who was arrested on Thursday in Boston, is suspected of being a ``council member'' of a group called ''Pirates with Attitude,'' an organization that disseminates bootleg copies of software, including some not commercially available, said U.S. Attorney Scott Lasser. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said Rothberg, of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, was charged with conspiracy to infringe the copyright of thousands of software programs. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Rothberg used an Illinois-based Internet Service Provider while conspiring to bootleg the software, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office said. Pirates with Attitude runs a Web site called Sentinel accessible only to those who enter by a secure Internet Protocol address. To use the site, the indictment naming Rothberg said, users must upload software files. In exchange they may then download files from a directory listing thousands of programs. One computer that supported the operation, located at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, was seized by Canadian authorities and the FBI last month, the announcement said. But it said the operation -- described as one of the longest-standing and most sophisticated of its kind -- is believed to have members and other distribution sites worldwide. The FBI said investigators found that thousands of commercially marketed software products from nearly every publisher had been uploaded to the Sherbrooke computer. Rothberg, who was released on $25,000 bond following his arrest in Boston, had connected to the Canadian site through Zenith Data Systems of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, the Internet service provider for his former employer, NEC Technologies, the complaint said.
