Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Razor Bust

Razor1911, one of the oldest and most notorious video game piracy groups, has been busted. The Feds finally nabbed Razor1911’s leader, 38-year-old Sean Breen, and sentenced him to a staggering 4-years in prison. Breen created the group in 1991, eons…
March 10, 2004

Razor1911, one of the oldest and most notorious video game piracy groups, has been busted. The Feds finally nabbed Razor1911’s leader, 38-year-old Sean Breen, and sentenced him to a staggering 4-years in prison.

Breen created the group in 1991, eons before anyone even thought about game piracy; we’re talking pre-Wolfenstein. Over the years, Breen assembled a sprawling and devout network of pirates from Stockholm to Seattle; they’d pose as game reviewers or the editors of some new gaming magazine, in order get early code.

Once they got the goods, a team of crackers would circumvent the copyright protection wares. Then a team of distributors would release the stuff in password protected IRC chat rooms. At last count, there were more than 10,000 games in Razor1911’s treasure cove. The video game industry loses about $3 billion per year to pirates, and Razor1911 were the chief offenders. They were also the most brazen, running an elaborate website touting their feats - and producing their own razor-wielding superhero cartoons online.

But it turns out Breen was up to much more than these games. Shortly after being busted, he confessed to bilking Cisco Systems out of $600,000 worth of hardware. In an elaborate scheme, he posed as one of Cisco’s customers, and had the goods FedExed to a storefront he rented, specifically for this purpose, in Oakland. Once he got the stuff, he sold it cheap on the grey market.

But, despite this bust, surely the piracy will wage on…

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”

ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it

The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.

Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives

The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.

Learning to code isn’t enough

Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.