The October issue of Wired Magazine has a story about Randy Guthrie, a US citizen arrested in China for DVD piracy. What makes this story unique is how Guthrie was busted. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent heard about Guthrie’s web site, ThreeDollarDVD.com, where Guthrie was selling pirated DVDs for $3. All the agent did was go to WhoIs and search the domain name. Guthrie’s e-mail address popped up: randyguthrie@yahoo.com. Bingo, there’s your man. In fact, you can still see this WhoIs record (click here to see it).
I’m surprised that someone doing something illegal online would neglect to consider the WhoIs database to cover their trail (not something I condone regardless). But Guthrie doesn’t sound very smart. Born to a wealthy family, Guthrie hads many failed business endeavors before moving to China and starting his bootleg DVD company. He sent all of his DVDs with his actual return address on the envelopes. He scoffed at letters from US customs telling him to stop sending DVDs into the US. He really didn’t do much at all to cover his tracks.
It’s an interesting story. Pick up the latest issue of Wired.
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