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Schools Raided By FBI In Pirating Crackdown
Billy House, Monica Mendoza and Brent Whiting
The raids came on the same day that Justice Department officials in Washington announced the creation of a new Intellectual Property Task Force to step up copyright enforcement.
Some of the stolen copyrighted material being sought in the raids is suspected as having been distributed from overseas sources.
The raids are reflective of a new effort by the Justice Department to treat copyright enforcement as a higher priority, something that motion-picture and music-industry officials have been urging.
FBI agents raided the Deer Valley district's Administration Services Center, just south of Deer Valley High School in Glendale, at 6 a.m. and stayed most of the day. The site houses the district's information services and technology offices, essentially the "brains" of the district's computer system, said Timothy Tait, district spokesman.
No warning
School officials were not warned in advance and even the district's top officials, including Superintendent Virginia McElyea, learned of the search warrant only when computers went down. Classes were not disrupted, but computer use in the district office was limited with no Internet access or e-mail.
"We were very in the dark," Tait said.
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not comment on why the federal government was searching a school district's system and he would not identify the other sites in Arizona or elsewhere that were served with warrants. Bresson refused to comment on the raids at Deer Valley facility and elsewhere and would not say how targets were identified, noting the search warrants were under court-ordered seal.
Mum was the word at the Deer Valley site, where an FBI spokeswoman stood by the door and refused to give details.
"We can't talk about what we're looking for or the nature of the case," said Susan Herskovits, FBI spokeswoman.
Officials said a news conference spelling out more details of a nationwide operation could come as early as today in Washington.
In the past year, the recording industry has gone after people, including children, for illegally downloading music from the Internet. Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America subpoenaed the University of Arizona to provide the personal information of four students accused of illegally downloading music from university computers.
Last year, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on the link between international copyright piracy and organized crime, and the FBI has said that there is strong evidence that organized-crime groups have moved into intellectual-property crime, using the profit to pay for other activities.
On Wednesday in Washington, David Israelite, chairman of the Justice Department's Intellectual Property Task Force, announced the names of people who would serve with him on a new task force, created by Attorney General John Ashcroft. The task force will examine how the Department of Justice handles intellectual-property issues and develop recommendations for future efforts. The group expects to issue a report and recommendations to Ashcroft by the end of the year.
Internet contracts
In Deer Valley, school officials expect to have full access to computers today.
Tait said school officials are not planning any immediate changes to the district's Internet policy.
Every student, employee and volunteer in the Deer Valley school district must sign an Internet contract, which outlines expectations for use of the Internet on school computers. Among the expectations is that the Internet would only be used for educational purposes. Those who violate the contract will be banned from using computers with Internet access. "Some parents, especially of elementary students, don't want their kids accessing the Internet," Tait said.
Each person who uses a school computer must log in with a password, Tait said, which means every user can be tracked.
"It looks like the FBI is looking at actions of individuals within the district as opposed to the operations of the district," Tait said.
Deer Valley has blocked many sites from student use, including those where movies and music can be downloaded.
But with sites changing and with the sheer number of sites, "it's difficult to block all illicit sites," Tait said.
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