By Joda Thongnopnua

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (BNO NEWS) — An Illinois resident on Tuesday was sentenced for his participation in an online software piracy group.

Bryan Thomas Black, 30, of Waterloo, Illinois, was sentenced to three years of probation for conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement. Black pleaded guilty and told officials that, from 2001 to April 2004, he was a participant in a piracy ring that engaged in large scale reproduction, modification, and distribution of copyrighted software over the internet. The investigation stems from a multinational software piracy investigation known as “Operation Higher Education.”

Piracy rings have access to copyrighted software, video games, movies, and music, often before the general public due to internal leaks. The copyrighted material is given to participants who use their technical skills to circumvent or “crack” the copyright protection and digital rights management that exists on the material. Afterwards, the material is distributed to various FTP servers, a certain type of server using the file transfer protocol, which will be further distributed around the internet.

Black had access to several FTP servers from which he downloaded thousands of copies of pirated material, primarily computer software and games. In addition, Black was a member of a piracy group known as “Kalisto”; he provided his services to “Kalisto” by removing the copyright protection from software that would later be uploaded to various FTP servers.

“Operation Higher Education” is part of a global law enforcement action that spans twelve nations and has yielded seizures of more than 70 high-level targets that were conducted in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the United States, as well as Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Over 60 defendants have pleaded guilty to charges related to their participation in copyright infringement.