Warez

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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the computing term related to distribution of copyrighted works. For the village in Ukraine, see
Waręż. For the city in Mexico, see Ciudad Juárez
.

Demonstration in support of "fildelning" (file sharing, including of warez), in Sweden in 2006.

Warez is a common computing and broader cultural term referring to

copyright laws and agreements. The term warez covers supported as well as unsupported (abandonware
) items, and legal prohibitions governing creation and distribution of warez cover both profit-driven and "enthusiast" generators and distributors of such items.

Terminology

Warez, and its leetspeak form W4r3z,[2] are plural representations of the word "ware" (short for computer software),[2][3] and are terms used to refer to "[p]irated software distributed over the Internet,"[4] that is, "[s]oftware that has been illegally copied and made available"[5][6] e.g., after having "protection codes de-activated".[2] "Cracking", or circumventing copy protection, is an essential part of the warez process,"[7] and via this commonality, the definition focused on computer software has been extended to include other forms of material under copyright protection, especially movies.[7] As Aaron Schwabach notes, the term covers both supported and unsupported materials (the latter unsupported, termed abandonware), and legal recourses aimed at stemming the creation and distribution of warez are designed to cover both profit-driven and "enthusiast" practitioners.[7] Hence, the term refers to copyrighted works that are distributed without fees or royalties and so traded in general violation of copyright law.[8]

The term warez, which is intended to be pronounced like the word "wares" (/ˈwɛərz/), was coined in the 1990s;[5] its origin is with an unknown member of an underground computing circle,[citation needed] but has since become commonplace among Internet users and the mass media.[citation needed] It is used most commonly as a noun:[5] "My neighbour downloaded 10 gigabytes of warez yesterday"; but has also been used as a verb:[8] "The new Windows was warezed a month before the company officially released it".[8] The global collection of warez groups has been referred to as "The Warez Scene," or more ambiguously "The Scene."[9]: p.72 [10][6]

While the term 'piracy' is commonly used to describe a significant range of activities, most of which are unlawful, the relatively neutral meaning in this context is "...mak[ing] use of or reproduc[ing] the work of another without authorization".[11] Some groups (including the GNU project of the Free Software Foundation, FSF) object to the use of this and other words such as "theft" because they represent an attempt to create a particular impression in the reader:

Publishers often refer to prohibited copying as "piracy." In this way, they imply that illegal copying is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them.[12]

The FSF advocates the use of terms like "prohibited copying" or "unauthorized copying", or "sharing information with your neighbor."[12] Hence, the term "software pirate" is controversial; FSF derides its use, while many self-described pirates take pride in the term,[citation needed] and some groups (e.g., Pirates with Attitudes) fully embrace it.[citation needed]

Direct download [DDL] sites are web locations that index links to locations where files can be directly downloaded to the user's computer; many such sites link to free

file hosting services, for the hosting of materials.[13]
DDL sites do not directly host the material and can avoid the fees that normally accompany large file hosting.

Motivations and arguments

The production and/or distribution of warez is illegal in most countries due to the protections provided in the

third world countries, and other countries with weak or non-existent protection for intellectual property.[15] Additionally, some first world countries have loopholes in legislation that allow the warez to continue.[16][17]

There is also a movement, exemplified by groups like

The Mises Institute, that the very idea of intellectual property is an anathema to free society.[18][19][20] This is in contrast to some of the more traditional open source advocates such as Lawrence Lessig, who advocate for middle ground between freedom and intellectual property.[21]

Legality

Further information: Copyright infringement § Legality

Generally, there are four elements of criminal copyright infringement: the existence of a valid copyright, that copyright was infringed, the infringement was willful, and the infringement was either substantial, or for commercial gain (at levels often set by statute).[22][23][24] Offering warez is generally understood to be a form of copyright infringement that is punishable as either a civil wrong or a crime.[22]: 6 [7]: 307 

Often, sites hosting torrent files claim that they are not breaking any laws because they are not offering the actual data; rather, the sites only offer a link to other places or peers that contain the infringing material.[

NET Act and other statutes), for movie and software pirating in particular, with a number of individuals being imprisoned, including some enthusiast traders.[7]: p.308 [26]

However, laws and their application to warez activities may vary greatly from country to country;[

hosting them inside Iran).[citation needed] The same policy has been adopted by Antigua,[citation needed] and others.[citation needed
]

Distribution

Main article: Warez scene
Warez scene hierarchy.

Warez are often distributed outside of

one-click hosting websites.[27]
In the early 1990s, warez were often published on bulletin boards that had a warez section.

Rise of software infringement

Unauthorized copying has been an ongoing phenomenon that started when high quality, commercially produced software was released for sale. Whether the medium was cassette tape or floppy disk, cracking enthusiasts found a way to duplicate the software and spread it without the permission of the maker. Bootlegging communities were built around the

Atari 8-bit family, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari ST and other personal computers. Entire networks of BBSes sprang up to traffic illegal software from one user to the next. Machines like the Amiga and the Commodore 64 had an international network, through which software not available on one continent would eventually make its way to every region via bulletin board systems
.

It was also common in the 1980s to use physical floppy disks and the

Eastern bloc
countries to receive new Western software for their computers.

A screen shot of pftp logged into several ftp sites. This tool was used by couriers to quickly and easily move large amounts of software from one site to many others. Since couriering was competitive, using this tool was considered cheating.

Copy-protection schemes for the early systems were designed to defeat casual duplication attempts, as "crackers" would typically release a copied game to the "pirate" community the day they were earmarked for market.

A famous event in the history of software copyright policy was an

Broadcast Music Incorporated
(BMI).

Today most warez files are distributed to the public via

One-click hosting sites. Some of the most popular software companies that are being targeted are Adobe, Microsoft, Nero, Apple, DreamWorks, and Autodesk, to name a few. To reduce the spread of illegal copying, some companies have hired people to release "fake" torrents (known as Torrent poisoning), which look real and are meant to be downloaded, but while downloading the individual does not realize that the company that owns the software has received his/her IP address. They will then contact his/her ISP, and further legal action may be taken by the company/ISP.[clarification needed
]

Causes that have accelerated its growth

Similar to

information age. As the use of computers increased, so had software and cyber crimes
.

In the mid-1990s, the average

animations and movies
.

In the past, files were distributed by

BitTorrent
, downloaders help the uploader by picking up some of its uploading responsibilities. There are many sites with links to One-click hosting websites and other sites where one can upload files that contribute to the growing amount of warez.

Distribution via compromised FTP servers

Prior to the development of modern peer-to-peer sharing systems and home broadband service, sharing warez sometimes involved warez groups scanning the Internet for weakly secured computer systems with high-speed connections. These weakly secured systems would be compromised by exploiting the poor FTP security, creating a special directory on the server with an unassuming name to contain the illegal content.[28][29]

A common mistake of early FTP administrators was to permit a directory named /incoming that allows full read and write access by external users, but the files themselves in /incoming were hidden; by creating a directory inside /incoming, this hidden directory would then allow normal file viewing.[citation needed] Users of the compromised site would be directed to log in and go to a location such as /incoming/data/warez to find the warez content. Messages could be left for other warez users by uploading a plain text file with the message inside.[citation needed]

Hackers would also use known software bugs to illicitly gain full administrative remote control over a computer, and install a hidden FTP service to host their wares.[citation needed] This FTP service was usually running on an unusual port number, or with a non-anonymous login name like "login: warez / Password: warez" to help prevent discovery by legitimate users; information about this compromised system would then be distributed to a select group of people who were part of the warez scene.[citation needed]

It was important for warez group members to regulate who had access to these compromised FTP servers, to keep the network bandwidth usage low.[citation needed] A site that suddenly became very popular would be noticed by the real owners of the equipment, as their business systems became slow or low on disk space; investigation of system usage would then inevitably result in discovery and removal of the warez, and tightening of the site security.[citation needed]

Automated warez distribution via IRC bots

As the ability to compromise and attain full remote control of business servers became more developed, the warez groups would hack a server and install an

FTP service, or the IRC bot would provide file sharing directly by itself. This software would intelligently regulate access to the illicit data by using file queues to limit bandwidth usage, or by only running during off-hours overnight when the business owning the compromised hardware was closed for the day.[28]

In order to advertise the existence of the compromised site, the IRC software would join public IRC warez channels as a bot and post into the channel with occasional status messages every few minutes, providing information about how many people are logged into the warez host, how many files are currently being downloaded, what the upload/download ratio is (to force users into contributing data of their own before they can download), which warez distributor is running the bot, and other status information.[30]

This functionality still exists and can still be found on IRC warez channels, as an alternative to the modern and streamlined P2P distribution systems.[31][32] The opportunity to find and compromise poorly secured systems on which to create an illicit warez distribution site has only increased with the popular use of broadband service by home users who may not fully understand the security implications of having their home computer always turned on and connected to the Internet[citation needed]

Types

There is generally a distinction made between different sub-types of warez. The unusual spellings shown here were commonly used as directory names within a compromised server, to organize the files rather than having them all thrown together in a single random collection.

  • Apps – Applications: Generally a retail version of a software package.
  • Cracks – Cracked applications: A modified executable or more (usually one) and/or a library (usually one) or more and/or a patch designed to turn a trial version of a software package into the full version and/or bypass copy protections.
  • Dox – Video game add-ons: These include NoCDs, cracks, trainers, cheat codes etc.
  • EBook –
    E-books
    : These include unlicensed copies of e-books, scanned books, scanned comics, etc.
  • Games – Video games: This scene concentrates on both computer and console games, often released as
    ISO
    or other format disk image.
  • Hacks – Simplified/Specific Hacking Tools: Programs designed to perform specific hacks at the click of a button, typically with a limited scope, such as AOHell and AOL4Free.[33][34]
  • Keygens – Keygen software are tools that replicate the registration/activation process of a genuine software product and generate the necessary keys to activate the software.
  • Movies – Movies: Unauthorized copies of movies, can be released while still in theaters or from CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray prior to the actual retail date.
  • MP3s – MP3 audio: Audio from albums, singles, or other sources usually obtained by ripping a CD or a radio broadcast and released in the compressed audio format MP3.
  • MVs/MVids –
    Music videos
    – Can be ripped from TV, HDTV, DVDs or VCDs.
  • NoCD, NoDVD, FixedExe – A file modification that allows an installed program to be run without inserting the CD or DVD into the drive.
  • RIP – A game that doesn't have to be installed; any required registry entry can be included as a .reg file. RIP games can be ripped of music and/or video files, or, for video games, ROMs, thus decreasing the size of the download.[35] RIPs with nothing ripped out sometimes are referred to as DP (direct play).
  • Portables –
    MoleBox
    .
  • Scripts – Scripts: These include unlicensed copies of commercial scripts (such as vBulletin, Invision Power Board, etc.) coded by companies in PHP, ASP, and other languages.
  • Subs – Subtitles: can be integrated in a TV-Rip or Movie.
  • Serials – Refers to a collection of
    serial numbers
    made available for the purpose of activating trial software, without payment.
  • Templates –
    Web templates
    : These include leaked commercial website templates coded by companies.
  • TV-Rips –
    Television programs
    : Television shows or movies, usually with commercials edited out. Commonly released within a few hours after airing. DVD Rips of television series fall under this sub-type.
  • XXX – Pornography: These can be imagesets, paysite videos or retail movies.
  • Zero-day or 0-day – Any copyrighted work that has been released the same day as the original product, or sometimes even before.[36] It is considered a mark of skill among warez distribution groups to crack and distribute a program on the same day as its commercial release.

Movie infringement

Main article: Pirated movie release types

compression
software, thus lowering the video quality significantly. At that time, the largest copyright violation threat was software.

However, along with the rise in

Amazon Unbox
.

Because of this, cameras are sometimes forbidden in movie theaters.

File formats

Further information: Standard (warez)

A

megabytes
or 100 megabytes, however it is common to find disks up to 200 megabytes.

This method has many advantages over sending a single large file:

  • The two-layer compression could sometimes achieve almost a tenfold improvement over the original DVD/CD image. The overall file size is cut down and lessens the transfer time and bandwidth required.
  • If there is a problem during the file transfer and data was corrupted, it is only necessary to resend the few corrupted RAR files instead of resending the entire large file.
  • This method also allows the possibility of downloading separate ‘disks’ from different sources, as an early attempt at modern segmented downloading.
    • In the case of One-click hosting websites, downloading multiple files from one or several sources can significantly increase download speeds. This is because even if the source(s) provides slow download speeds on individual disks, downloading several disks simultaneously will allow the user to achieve much greater download rates.

Despite the fact that many modern ftp programs support segmented downloading, the compression via RAR, ZIP, and breaking up of files has not changed.

Releases of software titles often come in two forms. The full form is a full version of a game or application, generally released as CD or DVD-writable

PDF manuals, help files, tutorials, and audio/video media) are omitted. In a game rip, generally all game video is removed, and the audio is compressed to MP3 or Vorbis, which must then be decoded to its original form before playing. These rips are very rare today, as most modern broadband
connections can easily handle the full files, and the audio is usually already compressed by the original producer in some fashion.

Warez and malware

There is a common perception that warez sites represent high risk in terms of malware.[37] In addition, there are several papers showing there is indeed correlation between warez/file sharing sites and malware. In particular, one study[38] shows that out of all domains the study classified as pirate, 7.1% are infected (while out of random domains only 0.4% were infected); another study[39] maintains that '"maliciousness" of the content for sites they classified as pirate (which specifically included warez sites) is the highest among all the researched site categories. Domains related to anti-copy protection tools are among the most malicious sites.[40][41] Another study specifically targeted anti-copy protection tools such as cracks and key generators. They conclude that the majority of these programs aim to infect the user's computer with one or more types of malware. The chance of the end-user being exposed to malicious code when dealing with cracked applications or games is more than 50%.[40]

Infected warez directly from the warez scene on the other hand, is a very unusual occurrence. The malicious content is usually added at a later stage by third parties.[42]

Demographics

Warez traders share many similarities to both hackers and crackers. Primary warez distribution groups include a single cracker that renders all copy protected technologies in a warez inoperable. Unlike the typical age of a hacker and cracker, the general age and demographics of a warez trader are older and married IT professionals. The need for attention is another similarity between the groups as well as the belief that digital property should be free.[43][44]

See also

References

  1. S2CID 150417186
    .
  2. ^ a b c Staff at Collins (2014). "Warez [redirects from W4r3z]". Collins English Dictionary, Complete and Unabridged (12th ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. Retrieved 26 August 2016. Note, this definition, contrary to this article statements and statements at the Oxford citation, suggests that the term's origin and pronunciation were "influenced by the anglicized pronunciation of Juarez, a Mexican city known for smuggling."
  3. ^ Sutherland, John (1999-06-17). "Hacking away at our ethics". The Guardian. it's "wares", crossed with "Juarez", the Mexican smuggling capital across from El Paso
  4. ^ "PCMag Encyclopedia, Definition of: warez". PC Magazine. New York, NY: Ziff Davis–PCMag Digital Group. 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  5. ^ a b c Staff at Oxford Dictionaries (2016). "Warez". US English Dictionary. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2016. Note, this definition is also identical to that in the British English version of this publisher's dictionary.
  6. ^
    S2CID 15919355
    . Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1851097319
    ., with same publisher and access date. Pages referenced at 247f are to the 2014 edition, while pages referenced to 307ff are to the 2006 edition, in both cases with page number appearing in superscript, in "rp" markup.
  8. ^ a b c "Warez (Scene) Related".
  9. ISBN 978-0698152526
    . Retrieved 26 August 2016. Pages are as appear in the superscripted "rp" markup, inline.
  10. S2CID 46154259
    .
  11. ^ Eds. of the AHD. "Pirate". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Bartleby.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-29. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  12. ^ a b See 'piracy' and 'theft' on Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing Free Software Foundation
  13. ^ sharky (2008-02-02). "Advanced Searching for Copyrighted Content – Part IV – 'DDL' Websites". FileShareFreak. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
  14. ITU
    . p. 15. Copyright infringement is a civil offence in most jurisdictions.
  15. ^ Smith, Michael W. (1999). "Bringing Developing Countries' IntellectualProperty Laws to TRIPS Standards: Hurdles andPitfalls Facing Vietnam's Efforts to Normalize anIntellectual Property Regime". Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. 31 (1): 211, 223–235. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  16. S2CID 150417186
    .
  17. ^ Penenberg, Adam L. "Cracking loopholes". Forbes. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  18. ^ Huebert, Jacob H. (3 February 2011). "The Fight against Intellectual Property | Libertarianism Today". Mises Institute. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  19. ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (2019-06-07). "Piracy is Ethically Acceptable To Many Harvard Lawyers, Research Finds". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  20. ^ Kopraleva, Iva (20 January 2017). "Are Pirate Parties relevant to European politics?". European Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Interview with Lawrence Lessig". World Intellectual Property Organization. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  22. ^ a b Goldman, Eric (2004-01-18). "Warez Trading and Criminal Copyright Infringement". Santa Clara University School of Law: 2–5. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  23. ^ 17  U.S.C. § 506
  24. ^ Loren, Lydia Pallas (January 1999). "Digitization, Commodification, Criminalization: The Evolution of Criminal Copyright Infringement and the Importance of the Willfulness Requirement". Washington University Law Review. 77 (3): 866–867. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  25. ^ a b [Maxwell,] Andy (2015-04-11). "Sentenced to Jail, Warez Operator Faces $30m Damages Claim". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  26. SSRN 487163. See also, Goldman, Eric (2004-01-07), "Warez Trading and Criminal Copyright Infringement," Working Paper, see [1] or [2]
    .
  27. ^ Roettgers, Janko (2007-06-17). "Piracy Beyond P2P: One-Click Hosters". Gigaom. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  28. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57870-281-7. (View cited page using Google Books
    )
  29. ISBN 1-932266-98-4, Chapter 7 – The Distribution Chain, Pages 144–145 (View cited pages using Google Books
    )
  30. ISBN 978-1-932266-98-6. (View cited pages using Google Books
    )
  31. ISSN 1556-5068
    .
  32. ^ "A Road to No Warez: The No Electronic Theft Act and Criminal CopyrightInfringement, 82 Or. L. Rev. 369 (2003)". Eric Goldman. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
  33. ^ Nicholas Ryan (1997-04-17). "The Truth – by Nicholas Ryan". Yale Herald (David Cassel). Archived from the original on 2016-07-03. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
  34. ^ David Cassel (1997-04-22). "AOL4FREE Culprit Tells His Tale". Wired. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
  35. ISBN 1-932266-98-4, Chapter 4 – Crackers, Pages 88–90 (View cited pages using Google Books
    )
  36. ^ Gehring, Verna V. (2004-08-01). "Chapter 3: Do Hackers Provide a Public Service". The Internet In Public Life. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 47.
    ISBN 978-0-7425-4234-1
    . Ideally, a warez d00d tries to release "0-day warez", copies of commercial software copied, cracked, and re-released on the first day the software is available for retail sale.
  37. ^ Leyden, John (2005-04-21). "Warez site riddled with mobile malware". The Register.
  38. ^ Alexander Moshchuk; Tanya Bragin; Steven D. Gribble & Henry M. Levy (February 2006), A. Moshchuk, T. Bragin, S. D. Gribble, and H. M. Levy. A crawler-based study of spyware in the web. (PDF), In Proceedings of the 13th Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS '06), archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-08, retrieved 2013-07-02
  39. ^ Ikinci, Ali (May 2007), Monkey-Spider:Detecting Malicious Web Sites (PDF), University of Mannheim, Laboratory for Dependable Distributed Systems
  40. ^
    S2CID 3423843. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2015-08-14. Retrieved 2013-07-03.
  41. ^ Ali Ikinci; Thorsten Holz; Felix Freiling (2008). "Monkey-Spider: Detecting Malicious Websites with Low-Interaction Honeyclients" (PDF). In Proceedings of Sicherheit, Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2013-07-03.
  42. ^ Andy (2013-11-11). "Piracy Release Group Has Been Spying on Downloaders For 9 Months". TorrentFreak.
  43. SSRN 652702
    .
  44. ^ "Turning Zero-Day into D-Day for Cybersecurity Threats". itBusinessEdge. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2016-10-08.

Further reading

External links

Look up warez in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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