San Diego GOP chairman co-founded international piracy ring

[babsbunny]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/San_Diego_GOP_chairman_cofounded_international_0425.html

Miriam Raftery
Published: Tuesday April 29, 2008




Any job applicant knows that background checks are routine – especially for jobs involving authority or oversight of money. So why didn’t the San Diego Republican Party do a simple Google search before naming Tony Krvaric as its chairman?

Online research reveals that Krvaric is the co-founder of Fairlight, a band of software crackers which later evolved into an international video and software piracy group that law enforcement authorities say is among the world’s largest such crime rings. After co-founding Fairlight in Sweden, Krvaric established U.S. operations for the organization, including an arm headquartered in Southern California—a major center for the computer and video game industry.

Krvaric has also been appointed by California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring to head up the state party’s budget committee. RAW STORY's investigation reveals the California GOP has put an alleged pirate in charge of its treasure trove.

[Richard Steele]

1. The modern GOP is an organized criminal enterprise, so this is not surprising. K&R

[aquart]

3. Bet he had great references.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. I think they're only allowed in if they do something terribly dishonest.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. SOP... and by the way I expect this to be the banner headline

on the San Diego Union Trib... no? Really?

[Liberty Belle]

7. Why don't you send it to them and inquire why they haven't covered this yet?

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. You live in this town, you know better. That rag ain't even good

enough for bird poop!

[Liberty Belle]

18. I use it to line my litter box. That said...

I'm thinking Dean Calbreath might be interested, the guy who wrote about Duke Cunningham.

The UT will dig up dirt on GOP officeholders -- but usually only AFTER some other publication breaks the ice first. They knew the North County Times and Voice of San Diego were onto the Cunningham story and would eventually spill all the beans, so figured they might as well jump in, take the credit and snag a Pulitzer.

Or maybe CityBeat would have the guts to cover this...

[Initech]

4. So it is time to boycott Chinese software bootlegs yet?

:popcorn:

[angstlessk]

5. I am quite sure they know exactly who they hired...a pirate..perfect for the GOP

a hacker...to hack votes?? perhaps.

on edit: forgot the silent e

[malaise]

6. Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner :D

[Liberty Belle]

8. Ah, vote hacking? Interesting prospect, given San Diego's new registrar and her assistant:

Registrar Seiler sold voting machines for Diebold;
Assistant Registrar Michael Vu used to be in charge of elections in Cuyahoga County Ohio, where 2 of his assistants were convicted of felony election rigging in the presidential recount.

:kick:

[mod mom]

13. It's easier to blackmail a criminal who is attempting to hide it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Nah, you don;t say....

that freaking conspiracy thinking¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Exactly where did I l put my tinfoil hat?

Oh wait, are we paranoid or are they really out to get us?

:-)

[Liberty Belle]

9. Funny comments at Fark! See here:

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3571491

[KamaAina]

10. I guess he'd be listed as "Krvaric(Arrrrrrr!)"

oh, sorry, wrong kind of pirate :P

[Liberty Belle]

11. Fairlight "one of most notorious online piracy release groups in the world"

Fairlight grew to become a major crime syndicate:
According to the Center for Digital Government, an international advisory group, after Krvaric’s reported departure from Fairlight PC, Fairlight grew to become one of the “most notorious online piracy release groups in the world,” specializing in “the illegal distribution of computer games, including PC and console games.”

An article at DVD Recordable in 2004 described Fairlight as “the most sophisticated criminal syndicates on the planet, trading in a commodity worth hundreds of millions of pounds…They are part of the highly secretive 'warez scene' - an online community of hi-tech criminals responsible for pirating 90 per cent of the world's music, computer software and DVD movies.”

Globally, piracy is big business. Pirated PC software approached $50 billion in value in 2005, according to a study by the Business Software Alliance.

The pirate-turned politician was astoundingly brazen:

Ever a buccaneer at heart, he even lists an e-mail address with his pirate nickname ([e-mail]) at his business listing under Tony Krvaric with the San Diego County Businesses directory. Krvaric provided the e-mail address [e-mail] in his League of Women Voters information materials when he ran for the San Diego Republican Party central committee in 2006. Running for reelection in 2008, Krvaric currently lists [e-mail] with the Registrar of Voters.

More interesting news:

Fairlight co-founder Bacchus (Pontus Berg) implicated Krvaric as still in charge of in charge of Fairlight PC and C64 activities in an interview published in 2004—shortly before international stings by law enforcement.

[cascadiance]

14. California GOP has a lot of these sort of problems... Not long ago they hired illegal immigrants...

... or at least foreign nationals with questionable U.S. credentials to run the party here. I guess since they were Canadian and Aussie though, they weren't brown skinned enough to get them in trouble with their voter base.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501644.html

Boy, I guess they really must want to keep with their tradition of hiring outlaws... :)

[Liberty Belle]

17. Same guy, Ron Nehring, hired those guys as well as Krvaric.

I'm wondering why the rank and file Republicans haven't mutineed by now.