First up, whats a LAN party? It’s where groups of people get together to play multiplayer games in a hired room/someones house etc. One of the other things that can go on at all of them is people show up with 200 gig hard drives and go ‘whatcha got?’ and much swapping of every type of digital thing ensues. Well in Belgium the police force have taken to swooping in and raiding these parties; like this raid in the small town of Bazel:

According to the Belgian Federal Computer Crime Unit, over 150,000 illegal files have been found, which amounts to a 75,000 Euro copyright violation. Organizers claim everything has been confiscated and that authorities regard this as a serious matter. Gamers above 18 faces serious charges for posession of pirated software. Juveniles will be facing a youth judge and milder penalties.

James Galvin isn’t sure this will be happening in Ireland any time soon:

Although I have heard stories of a harsh and frighteningly efficient Benelux police force, images of An Garda Síochána struggling to come to terms with a speedgun makes the scene in Bazel difficult to envisage. Clearly this was some elite Belgian squadron trained in the use of specialist firearms, Krav Maga, and Microsoft Windows.

Read the rest of his post on this, it’s entertaining.