Given that piracy of movies, games, software, and music have become the norm, sometimes we download illegal content without thinking too much of it. Granted there have been cases where people have been arrested and slapped with massive fines, but those are pretty rare giving us a sense of “safety”. Well the bad news is that if you’re the type that loves to pirate often and actually hang out in forums and chatrooms dedicated to the practice, you might want to think twice as the owner of UploaderTalk has revealed that his entire website was merely a front that was used to gather information about the people using it.
Uploader Talk, for those unfamiliar, is a very popular pirate website where “professional pirates” (people who actually make money off pirating content, as opposed to offering it for altruistic reasons) hung out. According to the owner, WDF, his goodbye message reads:
Hello Reader,
UT is now closed.
For how long: This is a permanent closure
Why?:
UT was set up for a number of reasons. But mostly to be a sounding board, proof of concept (Hey Hawk a Year and it could have stayed online much longer), and to collect data.
That’s right the Biggest Swerve ever I, WDF, work for the Anti Piracy people! I have collected information on many of you. I collected info on file hosts, web hosts, websites.
How is it I was able to protect some sites and people? Because I was working for the other side!
How is it I knew so many things? Well think about it, I suckered shitloads of you.
I built a history, got the trust of some very important people in the warez scene collecting information and data all the time.
Look I became a WJ mod then smod rather quickly I became a influential figure there.
So what happens now? I am already working with different ID, a new persona, and still collecting data. Yo u never know who I will be or where I will turn up
I work for Nuke Piracy now, this is very bad for anyone profiting from piracy.
It is unclear as to what WDF plans to do with the information that he has gathered. Will he be turning it over to the authorities, who might then go after these pirates? Or will he use it as blackmail, or sell the information to someone else? Either way if you’re the type that does “naughty” things on the internet, this is a nice wakeup call.