May 1, 2008
The Raw Story has a lengthy expose on Tony Krvaric, head of San Diego's GOP committee.According to the report, the 37-year-old Krvaric, a naturalized US citizen who was born in Sweden, was the co-founder of Fairlight, a warez group formed in 1987. From Raw Story:
Fairlight... 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, known in the cracking community as "Strider," got his start pirating games for the Commodore 64, but apparently left Fairlight in 1992. In 2004, the ring was taken down following an international investigation which resulted in the arrest of 120 people. Krvaric was not among them, although another group member alleged that he remained involved.
Although Krvaric would not respond to The Raw Story's request for comment, he discounted the allegations in an e-mail to fellow Repubicans:
Apparently there’s a hit piece floating around on me, “exposing” my wild high school, teenage years where I was in a computer club where we swapped Commodore 64 games (similar to how kids swap mp3 music files these days). This was in the 80’s, on a computer that’s long since defunct!
...I don’t know who is spreading this, but just wanted to let you know what’s going on out there. Likely it’s someone who wants us to take our eye off the ball in 2008, be it the democrats, labor or someone else. Either way, we’re not going to let them get away with it.
Via: Laws of Play
Comments
I doubt it will have much effect on him, as most of the people who would be likely to care are not going to really understand what it is he was a part of.
Not like the dims are "better", they just use a different lube.......
As negative a view as some have of the pirating community, having been involved with a long standing trustworthy organization certainly can't be seen as a bad thing to those constituants who are accepting of pirating. After all, there are far worse groups to have been a member of.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
What we have here is a politician downplaying his involvement by comparing it to MP3 file sharing... tell me again how the government is reacting to that? Oh, right, massive legislation... by the way, how is RIAA reacting to that? Oh, right, massive litigation.
It seems to me either own up that what you did was wrong, or stand up for those who are sharing MP3's now, you can't have it both ways.
Also, point of fact: being the head of a 120 person internation piracy ring is a TINY bit different then swapping a game with your friend or borrowing a tape of a vinal recording.
Just wait, kids, in another few years the big story will be "Democratic Nominee Admits To Downloading English Patch For Mother 3."
Fangamer
IF (and that's a big if) he was one of the founders of that piracy group, he's been involved in organized piracy. That's the stuff that "funds terrorism", remember? Going after organized piracy rings is one of FBI's top priorities these days.
Furthermore, he's in California. The home of the MPAA, Silicon Valley and incredible amount of US based intellectual property production. If he was one of the co-founders of Fairlight, he's in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Say what you say, but if what's alleged is true, it's WAY more serious than some dumbass saying macaca on camera.
I can't really find anything in depth on this guys views. Maybe i just didn't look hard enough, but I have yet to find anything stating his opinions on the current state of copyright.
Maybe you could point me to your source?
What i did find was that he has voted against bans on burning the US flag. Something that has pissed of many a person.
He's also a naturalized Swedish immigrant.
I think a more accurate analogy would be to a kid who works for BestBuy, "borrows" newly released DVDs, cracks their copy protection on his home computer, and then passes out free copies to his friends.
@nightwing2000
Forgive the flippancy, but I expect there are some "high quality" and "trustworthy" underground associations that trade in kiddie porn too. I don't think any sort of "honor among thieves" reputation will (or should) carry over to mainstream politics -- at least not in a way that's good for the "thief." (Is this what you were suggesting, or did I misunderstand post?)
Then again, the reality is that guy did NOT pass around kiddie porn or pirate DVDs -- he pirated computer games that would have been lucky to sell 10,000 copies in their time, published by relatively tiny companies, 20 years ago. The mainstream won't understand any relevance, and even if it did, it probably wouldn't care.
If a woman's political career can be ruined by being in a Gril's Gone Wild video...
If a private group of Bush supporters can make up lies about McCain and Kerry to sabotage the presidential race...
If Clinton's college pot smoking is a political issue....
Then this guy deserves to be drummed out of politics for all of the same reasons.