-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The warez scene is so fascinating
- Thread starter theaffection
- Start date
I would respect someone if they downloaded a car. Would be pretty fucking cool.
"How Music Got Free" is a good book about the old music warez scene. Lots of interesting first hand accounts from both those in the scene and music professionals. Book serves mainly as a history of the mp3, but about a third of it deals with piracy and the main guy they talk to leaked a ton of huge records from major labels.
Technically true. They are separate crimes, legally speaking. As far as I understand, at least.
Finale Fireworker
Member
Hey now, slow down! You wouldn't download a car, would you??
habithipster
Member
The memories.
crisdecuba
Member
A friend of mine in high school was involved in this. I found about it around the time I got my first computer. At the time I thought it was really cool and he seemed to enjoy the status of being the guy who could get you anything.
He showed me how to access whatever I wanted (I remember downloading Duke Nukem over dial-up hahaha).
Years later I found out that he was caught and plead guilty, admitting to about 400 different software applications and games he was involved in preparing for distribution (often, via his connections, he would get software out before the games were available at retail). He was sentenced to 3 years probation, 6 months home confinement, and a $7,500 fine.
From what I can tell now, he's a legit lawyer.
He showed me how to access whatever I wanted (I remember downloading Duke Nukem over dial-up hahaha).
Years later I found out that he was caught and plead guilty, admitting to about 400 different software applications and games he was involved in preparing for distribution (often, via his connections, he would get software out before the games were available at retail). He was sentenced to 3 years probation, 6 months home confinement, and a $7,500 fine.
From what I can tell now, he's a legit lawyer.
br0ken_shad0w
Member
Technically sure, but they are viewed the same by the copyright holder, and I think that is the bigger point that poster was trying to make.
I remember people saying that about limewire.
Fried Food
Banned
it was way cooler in the early days, when I was a kid, or maybe I've been out of the receiving end of the game for to long.
Incandenza
Banned
PC or Amiga side?
I had a friend who coded for the Fairlight demo group, but warez, no not really.
I do remember the C64 and Amiga copy parties though....we have those now too, but it's legal since we buy the cheap ass indie games and it's called a backlog now.
Man I loved Virtual Dreams. Alien was my hero
That's a factual statement. Copyright infringement is not theft. It's not. Period.
I mean, we can debate the greater issues around copyright infringement, that's cool, but that first post got the topic wrong straight from the get-go.
BlackSalad
Member
fucking blown
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
I have no idea what's going on but these are cool.
Yeah. Along with The Humble Guys, INC, and Fairlight. A young and dumb teen in the 80s with BBSes and meetups. Didn't know there was anything bad about it then.
Snowybreak
Member
I kinda figured what the origin was, but I always gave it a flair in my mind because "warez" sounds less interesting than "Wah-rez".
It's a bit weird when people talk about Limewire because my first file-sharing experiences were torrents. And when I was young, all I really torrented was live concerts. The people who would upload them ran in the same circles as deadheads, who have their own interesting subculture with trading tapes of Grateful Dead shows.
Now if you want to take a deep dive into a weird underground culture, look into deadhead tape swaps.
Used to trade Dead and Phish tapes via Usenet groups.
There's also keygenjukebox. The original site was unfortunately shut down but it seems that someone else took the torch and is hosting all the songs.
That's a word I haven't read in a long time. Back in my pirate days, I used to visit one from Chile. So many games and soundtracks and animes I downloaded then through illegal means. They even forced me to pay for some of those download services like... Megaupload.
Of course, now that I have a job, I have bought almost all those games.
Of course, now that I have a job, I have bought almost all those games.
Those are amazing!
There was absolutely nothing bad about it then.
It was the implications of what happened when it became mainstream that made it bad.
Chaos
Member
The retro hour done a podcast a while back which was interesting about the old piracy scene.
"Did piracy kill the Amiga? How did the big cracking groups operate, and who in the industry helped them? We chat to Galahad from legendary piracy groups LSD & Fairlight."
http://www.theretrohour.com/the-retro-hour-episode-11-piracy-on-the-amiga-with-galahadfairlight/
"Did piracy kill the Amiga? How did the big cracking groups operate, and who in the industry helped them? We chat to Galahad from legendary piracy groups LSD & Fairlight."
http://www.theretrohour.com/the-retro-hour-episode-11-piracy-on-the-amiga-with-galahadfairlight/
Play me some Red Dragon BBS mud, downloading porn on by 2400 baud US Robotics modem cradle.
Do you also respect pedophiles for finding something they're passionate about while remaining underground/in a secret club?
Audioboxer
Member
Maybe some of the stuff back in the early era was "fascinating". Nowadays my only real point of interest is seeing how tech whizzes somehow manage to crack/emulate some of the seriously expensive and lavish DRM that gets used. It's a pretty fascinating game of cat and mouse not to mention some amount of effort and skill must go into some of it. The notorious Sim City/EA debacle was hilarious. Some push back to ridiculous DRM is good, even if it comes from dubious places.
Or I guess it was "fascinating" how the Dreamcast just didn't seem to give a fuck and just played backups. I didn't own a Dreamcast till like a year ago, but was it ever explained why Sega didn't bother with any sort of protection?
Or I guess it was "fascinating" how the Dreamcast just didn't seem to give a fuck and just played backups. I didn't own a Dreamcast till like a year ago, but was it ever explained why Sega didn't bother with any sort of protection?
theaffection
Member
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
For whatever reason I came in assuming the OP horribly misspelled Juarez when I saw the title, lol
Snowybreak
Member
Oh coolsies. I think my dad used the site Dimeadozen primarily. Usenet was a foreign concept to him.
For the Dreamcast I read in a book.about Segas history, the use of GD ROMs rather than CD ROMs was their piracy protection.
cyborgnumberblue
Member
I'd love a documentary on keygen music composers. Opening a keygen to hear some rad tunes was a trip.
DroneBrother
Banned
IRC, FTP, FTP secret password sharing, JavaScript manipulation within HTML chatrooms, Sub 7, napster, notepad - oh those were the glory days when I would stay up all night listening to trance all night lol
Then I'm not sure why you'd have "major respect" for the thieves for those reasons alone.
edit: OK, the post above has a good point about "culture preservation." I guess I can get behind that.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
It's just piracy.
The only interesting thing about it is whether it's pronounced as "wares" or "waa-rez" which is how my friend always pronounced it.
The only interesting thing about it is whether it's pronounced as "wares" or "waa-rez" which is how my friend always pronounced it.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
Pirating Wind Waker isn't the same as pedophilia.
NekoFever
Member
Think "show me your wares", but with a z because it was the 90s.
holy shit I'm gonna throw up from laughing
yes all of these things are equal
I agree. The fact that some people think piracy and pedophilia are on the same level really says a lot about their perspective of and relation to pedophilia, as well as minority hate groups.
I guess the biggest problem with cataloging things related to the warez scene is that people probably were attempting to do the opposite of keep records.
It's been so long since I've read a piracy argument. Thanks for the nostalgia.