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[CHC]

Why do you respect these thieves?

Because work is work, even if it is illegal, and stuff like cracking Denuvo definitely does take a lot of know how and plain hard work. And because thy have their own strange and interesting culture and codes of etiquette.

"Respect" probably isn't the best word to pick, but it there are definitely reasons to be fascinated by the community. Even the question of why people go to such lengths to pirate media can have fascinating answers unto itself. Or the question of why people who are capable of cracking world class DRM do it for a community of leechers instead of collect bug bounties or just take a cushy programming job.

 

[Jotaka]

When I was in college, I developed a software to sell in the internet. it had good sales (for a college student anyway) but one day it almost stopped... the reason? someone upload it to a warez site and boom, no more sales.

I gave up on development because it was kinda pointless to try keep it up date if soon a new version was released, it was available in many warez sites to download.

So.. Fuck You Warez!

 

[plainr_]

Heh I also remember these from the PS1 era.

Do you remember the marijuana boot logo? lol

 

[theaffection]

theaffection is busy downloading a car as we speak

Winners Don't Download Cars!

 

[Anteater]

didn't sega pay some iso ripping group to stop releasing their DC games? or did the warez group make that up?

 

[Just_myles]

Wow. I haven't heard that word in a long time. Back in the day those were available locally on BBS'. That came from sites on the web or usenet... whatever.

didn't sega pay some iso ripping group to stop releasing their DC games? or did the warez group make that up?

I never heard of that. But, I recall everyone having a boot-loader . DC and subsequently the xbox original were huge with piracy because they were so easy to do. Sucks too because DC was hurtin back in the day and needed every sale.

 

[Evil John Locke]

I really liked that part of Sicario too

 

[Dehnus]

Why do you respect these thieves?

Oh don't be so dramatic, there is a certain tradition to it too, ever since the home computers in Europe. Maybe not in the USA, but you keep telling yourself "RAAH VIDJA GAME CRASH! NIntendo saved us!" as if it was about the whole world (The rest of the world was just enjoying their C64's, Spectrums, BBC Micros, etc ).



The warez scene did some great demos and many of them push the hardware (the Demo Scene and the Warez scene have some overlap ). Especially some of the music written by the scene is legendary. Yes much of the music was often ripped, but there are a few gems that was written in the scene itself, or by the demo scene . It was a bit of a romantic time that I sadly was too young for actually having experienced it . Wasn't even born when the C64 launched. But you read about it, and damn, it had a certain romance to it . Very different from these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFqBkSJOYOQ

 

[kyser73]

Netflix and VOD > extracting a video file from 29 .R03 files, which sometimes extracts to a ZIP file.

The weirdest thing about the old school warez scene were the demos and musical whatevers groups would put out, they got wildly insane on stuff like the Amiga. The origins of EDM?

Modern 'EDM' started in 1974 when Kraftwerk released Autobahn, disco producers like Moroder and then later the original development of house music at the Warehouse in Chicago.

I do remember the Amiga & C64 demo scenes tho.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I feel like I'm back in the 1990's with this throwback hacker lingo

 

[SoRuffShoNuff]

The Warez scene isn't a secret, anyone who had a dreamcast knows of it. It's just that people don't care where the pirated material comes from, they just want it for free.

 

[Stoop Man]

I'm atoning for all the games I pirated in my late teens/early twenties by assembling a huge backlog of legally purchased games I'll never get around to playing.

 

[kitsunelaine]

I'm atoning for all the games I pirated in my late teens/early twenties by assembling a huge backlog of legally purchased games I'll never get around to playing.

same but I also have a backlog of pirated games I never get around to playing because I'm poor as shit and they weren't on sale (Generally I've found how accepting of piracy people are tends to be relative to how much disposable income they personally have)

I mean, usually I buy them anyway, to the point where I basically elminate every pirated game from my drive completely once I see them at a reasonable price and actually have disposable income. And still never play them.

Either way I think the developement of digital media (steam, PSN, anything really) owes a lot to just how possible warez showed digital distribution to be.

 

[Farsi]

I haven't heard the term Warez used in forever. Feels like I'm back in the early 2000s.

I know right, I got a huge nostalgia boner.

 

[PSqueak]

I remember the early warez sites were always full of porn ads.

How did porn become synonymous with warez?

porn sites give no fucks of where their ads are put.

What kind of non embarrassing business would legit accept to advertise on illegal sites?

 

[rocketskates]

Man, that first page is weird. Since when is copyright infringement is the same as being a violent racist or petty theft? They are doing the wrong things but they are incredibly talented at what they do. I also think the camadrie the various groups have are neat too. I don't see anything wrong in admiring what they are good at if you know that what they are doing is wrong and you should never perpetrate like that yourself.

Sometimes you gotta respect the hustle.

Neogaf and weird generations.

I'd download a car.

 

[kitsunelaine]

Neogaf and weird generations.

I'd download a car.

With 3D printing, you can!

 

[Vice]

Man, that first page is weird. Since when is copyright infringement is the same as being a violent racist or petty theft? They are doing the wrong things but they are incredibly talented at what they do. I also think the camadrie the various groups have are neat too. I don't see anything wrong in admiring what they are good at if you know that what they are doing is wrong and you should never perpetrate like that yourself.

Sometimes you gotta respect the hustle.

Yeah, people have been interested in how criminals operate, there's tons of movies, books, and.tv shows about crimes and the people who committed them. Warez is one of the tamer things you could interested, in terms of crime.

 

[lethial]

I really doubt anyone would admit to software piracy on here or being apart of it lol. Warez comes from software. Some of the groups did pretty amazing things like ripping out fmvs, music, etc and still released a working game which came out to fit on 100 floppies.

 

[Kaako]

With 3D printing, you can!

Wonder if you can download/build an even bigger 3D printer with a tiny one? I'd build my way up from a pocket-size to a full grown hippopotamus-size in a week.

 

[polyh3dron]

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.

it's like GIF and JIF.

If you use the latter, you are an awful human being and I don't want to know you.

 

[AmFreak]

The weirdest thing about the old school warez scene were the demos and musical whatevers groups would put out, they got wildly insane on stuff like the Amiga. The origins of EDM?

They are still doing it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqvRx6PUSk

 

[kitsunelaine]

I really doubt anyone would admit to software piracy on here or being apart of it lol. Warez comes from software. Some of the groups did pretty amazing things like ripping out fmvs, music, etc and still released a working game which came out to fit on 100 floppies.

It's the thing you pretend to hate while totally partaking in it. Which is totally fine, sometimes you just gotta take a moral stance to try and promote a healthier culture.

 

[pretty done]

Do you also respect pedophiles for finding something they're passionate about while remaining underground/in a secret club?

Comparing downloading an episode of Game of Thrones to downloading child porn... nice

 

[whiteninja]

I loved some of the nfos they would include.

"How can I contact you if I want to join?"

"You can't, if your worthy, we'll find you."

 

[BlackRainbowFT]

Yes, I do find it fascinating.

The gang-like inter-group relations: trying to show you're the best, dissing groups in your nfos (text file that describes your release), virtual graffiti (Ascii-art in the nfo, chiptune and animations in keygens and cracktros), the very elaborate lingo ...

And at the same time it's a rule-heavy scene, sometimes absurd in how specific: naming conventions, compression software/algorithm used, release splitting (often multiple rars), etc.
If you don't follow this, your release gets nuked, somebody else is then allowed to claim the release by releasing their "proper" version and you're basically shamed publicly.

Then there's also the more technical aspects like how they distribute the stuff... I don't know if they still scour the web to find vulnerable servers and basically squatting them... Maybe it's an obsolete technique.

In any case, I used to play a lot of pirated Amiga games and always loved the cracktros and the demoscene... I've always thought these guys were cool.

 

[shaneo632]

I find the whole scene a bit pathetic really. The race to be first is fine, but how seriously they take it all is just embarrassing, calling each other out and that.

I remember when one scene group complained about another using their line audio without permission. We're talking about a stolen movie here...

Also those fucking awful midi themes they'll attach to video game installs. Oh god.

 

[Chanser]

Yes, I do find it fascinating.

And at the same time it's a rule-heavy scene, sometimes absurd in how specific: naming conventions, compression software/algorithm used, release splitting (often multiple rars), etc.
If you don't follow this, your release gets nuked, somebody else is then allowed to claim the release by releasing their "proper" version and you're basically shamed publicly.

https://pastebin.com/A3z4MrPA

 

[jayu26]

I was unaware of the term "warez". You learn something new everyday.

 

[BriareosGAF]

Buddy ran a two-node ringdown, Rzr911 0-7 drop site. Had a two page ANSI intro screen of a skeleton with a rose done by one of the guys in iCE (what up cephalon tsurfer!). Remember downloading 29 disks worth of Windows 95 betas, cackling as I uploaded it elsewhere to pump my ratio.

I ran my own board, too, but it was more about arguing politics and what not then software.

Let's talk about FidoNet next, and door games!

 

[Lautaro]

 

[border]

Getting into the warez scene just generally means you wind up with a massive collection of movies you never watched, games you barely played, and software you hardly use. If you pay for stuff you'll appreciate the things you have more.

Do people still run ratio-based FTP servers? Or is everything pretty much torrents and newsgroups now?

 

[commedieu]

Getting into the warez scene just generally means you wind up with a massive collection of movies you never watched, games you barely played, and software you hardly use. If you pay for stuff you'll appreciate the things you have more.

Do people still run ratio-based FTP servers? Or is everything pretty much torrents and newsgroups now?

You tell me, narc.

 

[DietRob]

It's always funny to see how far some posters on GAF go to bend around and sniff their own assholes whenever discussions of piracy come up.

To OP I wouldn't necessarily say I respect the people doing it but I do find it all fascinating. I always have wondered how people are able to get a hold of bluray quality films and such while they are still in the theaters. My best guess is the 'top warez' people probably work at the studios themselves.

 

[Corpsepyre]

I used to be a server, back in the day, on several underground extreme metal channels on IRC. Ripped and distributed my own DVDs for the most part, and worked with music video groups such as HDPvidz, Urban Chaos, Media Burial Vidz and more. Was quite the scene back then for us, and then it just finished off slowly. I guess with the coming of YouTube, things changed drastically. Haven't been in contact with the guys in close to 12 years now.

 

[Fularu]

Buddy ran a two-node ringdown, Rzr911 0-7 drop site. Had a two page ANSI intro screen of a skeleton with a rose done by one of the guys in iCE (what up cephalon tsurfer!). Remember downloading 29 disks worth of Windows 95 betas, cackling as I uploaded it elsewhere to pump my ratio.

I ran my own board, too, but it was more about arguing politics and what not then software.

Let's talk about FidoNet next, and door games!

RZR1911 used to advertise their BBS (all located in Sweden at the time) in their cracktros and demos

Voyager has a long ass list of BBS numbers

Getting into the warez scene just generally means you wind up with a massive collection of movies you never watched, games you barely played, and software you hardly use. If you pay for stuff you'll appreciate the things you have more.

Do people still run ratio-based FTP servers? Or is everything pretty much torrents and newsgroups now?

The scene never really moved from FTP servers (only bigger and faster). Traders within the groups are responsible for spreading the release and gathering the other groups ones. Obviously ratio is still a thing.

No legitimate group does Torrent/Newsgroup releases.

 

[PSYGN]

I haven't seen the word warez in a loooong time.

 

[Uhyve]

Are there any documentaries, stories, books, etc on this kind of stuff?

Not a documentary, but The New Yorker had a really great article (The Man Who Broke the Music Industry) about Dell Glover of the music piracy group RNS.

He worked at a music CD manufacturing factory, leaked stuff by hiding CDs behind an oversized belt buckle.

 

[gabbo]

The term is something I haven't come across in a long time, but I do recall keygen music being ridiculous. There are even playlists on youtube I've just learned. I was never involved in the scene, though learning about it and the competition between the groups was intriguing.

These guys, for better or worse were preserving and making available games that were otherwise relegated to history's dust bin before the likes of GOG and the idea of rereleasing old games to run on modern hardware, but otherwise unchanged. I respect them for that. I don't like what they also lead to (starforce, securom, denuvo) for a large portion of the first decade of the millennium, but for allowing old games to survive, i tip my hat

 

[rocketskates]

Not a documentary, but The New Yorker had a really great article (The Man Who Broke the Music Industry) about Dell Glover of the music piracy group RNS.

He worked at a music CD manufacturing factory, leaked stuff by hiding CDs behind an oversized belt buckle.

My herooooooo

 

[border]

Not a documentary, but The New Yorker had a really great article (The Man Who Broke the Music Industry) about Dell Glover of the music piracy group RNS.

He worked at a music CD manufacturing factory, leaked stuff by hiding CDs behind an oversized belt buckle.

God damn, I really can't imagine risking my job and risking getting arrested just so I can give leaked music to pirates.

 

[Get'sMad]

I got my families AOL account banned temporarily for downloading some stupid shit as a dirtbag young teen in the late 90s that gave our computer a trojan horse so I could do like syringe and dick asciis in AOL chats

no regrets

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Lol. What?

You're wrong.

If American companies (Disney) are going to bastardize the copyright law. Then I say fair game.

 

[Mondrian]

I do not condone piracy at all, but in the early 90s the BBS warez scene was fascinating to my young teenage mind. However, I was more interested in the ANSi art scene that came along with it. While not specifically about warez, there's a "BBS documentary" on YouTube that covers quite a few topics of the BBS scene.

 

[FormallyFamicom]

I wasn't officially involved but I did cruise around the periphery of many music warez groups and Efnet IRC channels from the late 90s/early 2000s, and I agree that it was a very fascinating time. Groups like RNS, EGO, KSI, REV, CMS, WHOA and countless others from back then.

Early on it used to be very open. You could join, chat, go in the bot room, download whatever. Get friendly with a few people and maybe get invited onto some private FTPs with no waiting. I found out about them by searching the group tags in the filenames of music I saw on Napster, learned how to IRC and I was in there.

Some of the stories/beefs groups shared in the nfo files were wild. One of the weirdest ones I (vaguely) remember was Cam'ron's SDE album, it was leaked onto the internet 6 months early and allegedly was stolen off a bedroom dresser. Something like that.

It was thanks to those groups that I could hear the original versions of Ghosface Killah's Supreme Clientele and Bulletproof Wallets, when the CDs I bought in the store didn't match the tracklists on the packaging! I loved the really rare stuff. It wasn't why I originally got involved but it was mainly why I stuck around for a while. Ultimately it wasn't that long in hindsight, because around late 2001 almost all of the music channels kicked everyone out and went private, supposedly there was a crackdown scare and people were covering their tracks. I got spooked and never went back.

A buddy of mine stuck around though, and kept his connections tight. To the point that the people he stayed close with all still keep in touch today in a Facebook group, where they still discuss how to get music free despite access being easier than ever. Old habits die hard.

 

[PezDispenser]

Indeed; I have not any!

 

[The Faceless Master]

There is a fictional series called:

Welcome to the scene.

Witch I think is partly based on a true story but with own filled in stories.
Even though its from the mid 00's I think its very good you should watch it

YT playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIs_5nfJKu4&list=PLC2FCB2871C396459

came here to post this.

still love that intro song.

 

[toneroni]

What year is it

lol I feel like I just dialed into aol on win 95..

 

[alejob]

What year is it

Thats what I was thinking.

 

[kingsamj]

People talking about pirating movies.. *old man voice* in my day movies were waaay too big to pirate over the shit internet that was available.

When I was like 12 or 13 and eager to make mods for games I remember cruising warez sites to get a pirated copy of 3DS Max 3 or something (it was like a 40mb download, took ages).

I'm an adult now and buy my stuff but when you're a penniless teen those warez sites ruled.