DrinkOrDie

DrinkOrDie

DrinkOrDie ASCII .nfo header. Their slogan reads "warez bearz from Russia and beyond".
Formation	1993
Extinction	2001
Purpose	Warez
Location	Russia
Origin	Moscow
Founders	deviator CyberAngel Jimmy Jamez

DrinkOrDie (DoD) was one of the most prestigious underground software piracy group and warez trading network during the 1990s. On December 11, 2001, a major law enforcement raid - known as Operation Buccaneer - forced it to close under criminal charges of infringement. DoD, as a rule, received no financial profit for their activities. The DoD network - which primarily consisted of university undergraduates - was also supported by software company employees, who would leak copies of software and other digital media. DoD was also actively involved in illicit file-trading with other networks.

DrinkOrDie was founded in 1993 in Moscow by a Russian with the handle "deviator" aka "Jimmy Jamez" and a friend who went by the code name "CyberAngel." By 1995, the group was global with Jimmy Jamez as leader.

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.

In 2001 the group was busted in a U.S. Customs operation called Operation Buccaneer. The global raids were initiated after information was given to United States Customs by James Cudney, known as Bcrea8tiv. Cudney quickly rose up the ranks of DOD council where he spent many years working undercover for US Customs, logging conversations in chat rooms and channels visited on IRC. He also carried out undercover operations in the UK, France, and the US prior to the arrests collecting detailed information on DOD members and members of other online warez groups. e.g., screenames, ftp locations, nationalities. At the time, DrinkOrDie allegedly had two leaders, one in the United States and another in Australia.