The iSONEWS

The iSONEWS
Type of site
Internet forum, a former Database
Available inEnglish
Created byorm[1]
URLwww.theisonews.com
CommercialNo
RegistrationRequired for posting
LaunchedDecember 7, 1998; 25 years ago (1998-12-07)[1]

The iSONEWS was a warez news website originally created by orm who later deferred management of the website to krazy8 and mandarin.[2] TheiSONews supplied release details and NFOs of warez games and programs, without actually supplying them, or supplying any information on where to find them.[3][4][5] Later it was also called a fan site that has become an unofficial hub of DivX news.[6]

Domain seizure

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On February 28 2003, the United States Department of Justice seized the isonews domain name (isonews.com),[7] however its servers remained intact. A number of iSONEWS mirrors sprung up as a result, including izonews.com, theisonews.com, and stolemy.com, an expression of retaliation from the iSONEWS community caused by the Department of Justice's actions. The closure of the isonews.com domain brought more attention to the site, and after the site was back up on mirror sites, the membership and the user activity on the forums increased.

Approximately one year following the seizure, visitors to iSONEWS.com were redirected to the United States Department of Justice cybercrime.gov[8] website. As of November 16, 2004, the original domain, isonews.com, is owned by DomainSpa LLC and used to advertise video game sales and rentals.

David "krazy8" Rocci got a sentence of 5 months in federal prison and a $28,500 fine for selling modchips on isonews.com.[9] Krazy8 later indicated that modchips was the 'official' modus operandi, but every question I was ever asked related to ISONews and had nothing to do with modchips.[10]

Current status

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From being a release site for the warez community, the site has evolved into a broader message board, concentrating mostly on PC gaming. The PC games forum on the site contains everything from rumors, latest news, hints, tips and tweaks to various games. As of June 2007, the releases are never updated, however the forums are still (barely) in use.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Early isonews about page". Archived from the original on 1999-04-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ inphi (2006-06-19). "History Of ISOnews". The iSONEWS.
  3. ^ Wilson, Steve (1999-07-29). "Online Piracy: From Music to Film". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  4. ^ Sutherland, John (1999-06-17). "Hacking away at our ethics". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Vankin, Jonathan (1999-06-23). "Invasion of Piracy". LA Weekly. ISO News includes a page of information about each release, listing quality of sound and picture, method of capture (i.e., screener or camera job) and basic production info about the film.
  6. ^ Cave, Damien (2000-05-31). "The MP3 of movies?". Salon.
  7. ^ BBC News "US seizes bootleg games site"
  8. ^ "Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS)". cybercrime.gov.
  9. ^ Kushner, David (May 2004). "Let your Xbox loose". Popular Science: 132.
  10. ^ krazy8 (2005-07-05). "New Busts (June 2005)". The iSONEWS.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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