TheKult.net - Digital pirates and the "Warez" wars

"When terrorists knock down buildings, when drought wipes our farmers, when the economy threatens to come to a halt, even those who are ideologically hostile to the government turn to it, both logically and reflexively, for help. We suddenly trust Washingt" - Jacob Weisberg

[lost password]

Main Menu

Home
News Archive
Search Archives
Kult FAQ
Join Kult
Open NewsBox
Chat
Contact Us

Sites We Like

Digital pirates and the "Warez" wars
Posted by Paradoxx on Jan 24, 2002 09:04PM (PST) from the dumbassfeds dept.
"Every program you can think of can be found on the web, in a thousand different places in its complete version many weeks before it ever appears in the best shops, as everyone with the intelligence level of an eggplant soon discovers." -Fravia "The Reverser" The software on your computer -- the programs you use to send emails, write memos, surf the web, whatever -- are nothing but ones and zeros neatly arranged on a magnetic disk. As such, they are easily copied verbatim to another disk, or even a million other disks. That ease of distribution, what tech heads call "propagation," is both the basis for the multi-billion dollar software industry, and its biggest threat.
[ Post Comment ]

Digital pirates and the "Warez" wars \| Preferences \| 15 comment(s) \| Viewed 4328 times
hrm by Dysturbed on Jan 25, 2002 11:23AM (PST)
I wasn't yelling at you about anything, and I didn't offer any evidence because arguing with you and wally is getting old. But since you did say please..... "The millions spent on increasingly complex copy protection schemes have proved fruitless because for every new development, a new wave of hackers swoop in to undermine the protection." Crackers, not hackers. "While digital music piracy -- Napster and MP3s -- grabs the headlines day in and day out, a war is quietly brewing in the software underground" War? What war? "One increasingly powerful army in that war comprises highly knowledgeable software "gangs.'" What the hell's a software gang? A bunch of viruses with glocks and 40s? :-) In the "software underground" (a stupid name for it too) there are release groups and there are distro groups. Release groups obtain the software and crack it if neccesary. Distro groups spread it far and wide as quickly as possible. There's no goddamn "gangs". "Make no mistake - - these gangs are not your rogue technophiles from the MS-DOS days, but a large, highly organized movement interested in "cracking" every piece of software that sees the light of day." Pffffft. Yeah ok bud. "rouge technophiles" is exactly what they are. They do it for fun, for a challange, and to maintain a reputation. They're not interested in cracking every piece of software that sees the light of day, they're just interested in being the first to crack the newest software. Describing them like this guy does makes them sound like a terrorist network when they're more like a secret boys club with a treehouse to hang out in, a secret handshake, and all that other crap. "The hacked software they traffic is known as warez (pronounced like "where's")." You pronounce it how it's spelled! "Despite modest beginnings, DoD garnered a worldwide membership by 1995, when its hackers completed their first claim to fame - - releasing Windows 95 over the Internet two weeks before Microsoft could release the software to the public" Since when do you need a hacker in order to release windows 95? "But unlike many other piracy groups, this breed of hacker isn't in it for the money" This guy's on crack. Any piracy group that did it for the money would starve to death. And once again THEY'RE NOT HACKERS. "In the case of DrinkOrDie and similar groups, that scene is run with the efficiency of established corporations." Hardly "Hierarchies headed by chief executives, presidents, vice-presidents and directors ensure that cells within the larger organization are hard at work cracking the latest and soon-to-be- released commercial software packages." The titles he lists aren't used for the positions. Groups have founders, co-founders, and seniors for the most part, although group organizaton is done on an individual basis so they can have any type of structure they want. And there's no supervision. These people do it for fun, they're volunteers. You don't have one of the founders breathing down your neck demanding to know if you can meat your deadline. It just doesn't work that way. "Then again, it's all fun and games until someone gets busted" groan How corny is that? "In the near future, more warez hackers may find themselves meeting federal agents face to face." THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A WAREZ HACKER GODDAMIT! (just so I don't have to correct it every time, I'll mention that the phrase "warez hacker" is used 11 times in the article). "It's an endless cycle that can leave a company like PACE in the dust." No, it's an endless cycle that keeps companies like PACE in business. "Fravia, for one, goes as far as saying that hacking is necessary to preserve democracy. "Reverse engineering is the sine qua non for fighting back in a world that is getting more and more anti-democratic and oligarchic, where money counts more than knowledge," he says" Fravia's an idiot. But never mind, that's not the authors fault. "By downloading a warez file you get everything you would have gotten had you purchased the software at the store, except a manual and the fancy packaging" Not neccesarily. Depends if you're getting rips or ISO's. "Lists upon lists of serialz can be found for just about any program using serial protection. Since no skill is involved in serialz, warez hackers consider it a lower form of hacking. But it is perhaps the most common way that users pirate software." Oh God. I'm not even gonna get into the idiocy of that statement. Too blatant. "Keygens are programs that can generate valid serial numbers" How much do you want to bet he doesn't know what "keygen" stands tof? :-) "Once you hit a good site, the world of warez opens up. Thousands of serialz, mountains of crackz -- all primed for download." And billions of porn adds and trillions of popups. Using websites to aquire warez should be a last resort. "For hackers like Fravia, the answer is clear -- the war must go on, even if the most recent battle was lost. 'We will change the world,' Fravia says. 'We are already doing it.'" As stated earlier, Fravia's an idiot. But that's not the authors fault. Well that brings my review to an end. I just went through and sorrected the facts he got wrong, I didn't bother with any of the philosophical crap. Now please zersty, go away. I dun wanna argue with you and wally. I have walls in my house, if I feel like doing something useless, I'll argue with them.
[ Parent ]
not useless by Walpurgis on Jan 25, 2002 02:45PM (PST)
Dysturbed, Zoff does have a point about your confrontational attitude. Sometimes its useful, all the time, it isn't. But I found your above post very interesting. As I know fuck all about warez etc, I found your post to have cleared up plenty of issues & raised interesting questions - exactly the reason I'm here. Walpurgis
[ Parent ] wow by Dysturbed Jan 26, 2002 12:51PM i've noticed it too.. by Tanthrix Jan 25, 2002 04:08PM
useless? by zophiel on Jan 25, 2002 12:15PM (PST)
So you find simply ranting at people for being stupid and uninformed to be more useful than actually trying to explain why they're wrong? Or is it that insulting people makes you feel better? If this is so useless why post in the first place. Zophiel He who is not Zerst.
[ Parent ] my bad by Dysturbed Jan 25, 2002 12:53PM principle by Roto Jan 26, 2002 02:05AM

Poll

Should we change the name of "Kult" to "Counternet"?
57% (24) - Yes
43% (18) - No
[ Comments (42) ]
Total votes: 42

Front Page

Your Attention Please

Is There Anybody Out There?

What are you up to?

Tumbleweeds

Close the Door and Turn Out The Lights

What's going on?!

Virtual shocks produce real-world distress

Meetup in Massachusetts

Terrorism

Main Page