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DrinkOrDie was founded in 1993 in Moscow by a Russian with the handle "deviator" and a friend who went by "CyberAngel." By 1995, the group was global. One of its earliest major accomplishments was the Internet release of Windows 95 two weeks before Microsoft released the official version. It is also known for its DoD DVD Speed Ripper released in 1999 shortly before DeCSS. The activity of the DoD group diminished after 1996, and they were not considered major players in the warez scene by 2000. The DrinkOrDie network is considered criminal for copyrightA copyright is a form of intellectual property that grants its holder the sole legal right copying their works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, computer program, or industrial design, for a infringementCopyright infringement is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.. As a rule, they made no financial profit from their activities.

In 2001 the group was busted in an FBI operation called Operation BuccaneerOn December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as "Operation Buccaneer", law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries. law enforcement agents, led by the United St. At the time, DrinkOrDie had two leaders, one in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in and another in AustraliaAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count. Members include Dezzy, Hackrat, and ForceKill (who Customs agent Allan Doody claimed was a top software cracker). The network primarily consisted of universityA university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. A university provides both tertiary and quaternary education. University is derived from the Latin universitas meaning corporation since the first medieval undergraduateIn most educational systems, an undergraduate is a post-secondary student pursuing a Bachelor's degree. Students of higher degrees are known as postgraduates (or often simply graduates). In the United States, most undergraduate education takes place at fos, but was supported by software company employees, who would leak copies of software and other digital media. DoD most likely received such files indirectly, from other networks. Among the people targeted were also corporate executives, university employees, and government workers. The Australian leader Hew Raymond Griffiths , a.k.a. "Bandido", has been involved in legal action in Australia involving possible extradition to the USA.

The DrinkOrDie archives, like most other warez archives, included business software as well as movies including Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Behind Enemy Lines, Monsters Inc., and Spy Game.