[[Image:Warez-communism.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A spoof of MPAA/RIAA Anti-Downloading Ads from [http://themodernhumorist.com/ TheModernHumorist.com]]] Warez (pronounced like "wares") is a derivative for the English plural of the word "computer software" meaning copyrighted material traded in violation of its copyright license. The term generally refers to releases by organized groups, as opposed to peer-to-peer file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar interest using a Darknet. It normally does not refer to commercial for-profit piracy. Initially this term was only used by members of various computer underground circles, but has since become commonplace amongst more mainstream Internet users and the mass media. "Warez" is most common as a noun ("My neighbor downloaded 10 gigabytes of warez yesterday"), but can also be used as a verb ("The new Windows was warezed a month before the company officially released it"). People engaging in warez production and distribution are often called pirates, pirates in this sense being defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "those who take, make use of, or reproduce the work of another illicitly or without authorization". Although the use of this term is controversial, it is embraced by some groups such as Pirates With Attitude. (For more details on the controversy see Copyright infringement of software). The collection of warez groups is referred to globally as the ''warez scene'', or more ambiguously, ''The Scene''. Among warez users, there is often a distinction made between "gamez" (Computer game), "appz" (Application software), "crackz" (Software cracking), and "moviez or filmz" (films). ==How does it work?== Not to be confused with Warez, Profit-motivated piracy is both a large-scale and international phenomenon. Members of the Warez community openly detest and campaign against those making a profit from the copyrighted works of others. However, well-organized groups — often based in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Russia — illegally produce millions of bootleg copies of copyrighted software, which are regularly sold on city streets throughout most of Asia and Eastern Europe and if sold at retail would be worth several billions of dollars annually. While the selling of bootlegs is not as common in Western nations, it's popularity is growing. In Western nations, Warez are usually sold in specific areas, such as Chinatown in New York City and Pacific Mall in suburban Toronto. Pirates exploit the international nature of the copyright issue to avoid law enforcement from specific countries. In Russia, for example, the copying of software was once explicitly permitted by law when such software was not in the Russian language; this is no longer true, but prosecutions for copyright infringement are still very rare. While most copies of pirated software are manufactured in Asian factories, their distribution more often than not begins in Western nations such as the US and the European countries, where the largest international publishers of proprietary software are located. Software cracking groups (not to be confused with the mostly Asian-based bootleg CD manufacturers and the street vendors that sell "warez"), delegate tasks among their members. These members are mostly located in First World countries where high-speed Internet connections and powerful computers are readily available. For example: :# A popular new piece of commercial software is released :# A warez group might use one of its contacts to obtain a pre-release copy (or steals it from a CD pressing plant) :# It is then sent to a skilled software cracker/programmer to remove copy prevention :# It is then sent to a courier who transfers it around to many FTP servers. Distribution of warez is usually handled between groups using Topsites. The groups also have private sites for internal purposes, such as archiving their own releases and transferring the unmodified material between their members. Through the users of these sites the warez is delivered to people outside groups where it starts spreading through peer-to-peer networks or direct p2p, like BitTorrent(Direct P2P Connection) or Fasttrack Network (KaZaA) or the Gnutella/Gnutella2 network (Limewire, Bearshare, Shareaza, iMesh, and many others.), and becomes available to the public. Such releases of a software titles often come in two forms, full and ripped; a "rip" is a cut-down version of the title, typically lacking the portable document format manual, and other heavyweight additions included on the legitimate CD, In games the ripped version generally removes all in game video, and compresses the audio to MP3 or Vorbis which must then be decoded to its original form. In full form games and applications are generally released as CD or DVD-writable disk images (ISO image or ISO 9660 image files). ==Formats and standards== The modern warez scene deals with petabytes of data and thus the need for an efficient system of handling files was apparent. A typical 1 CD software release contains around 700 megabytes of data; sending a single 700 megabyte file over the Internet can present some challenges (this was especially true in the early days). The same applies even better to DVDs which are typically up to 4.7 GB in size. The warez scene made it standard practice to split releases up into many separate pieces using a file compression format, usually RAR. A 700 megabyte CD image had unnecessary content, such as user manuals and videos, and these files were often deleted (and sometimes released later as an add-on). The ISO image is then compressed and split into numerous smaller RAR files, which are then again compressed into another archive (ZIP (file format) or RAR). This could then be decompressed in two steps, and the original large file would be recreated. The sizes of the small archives within the distributed file vary: * 1.4 Megabyte * 2.88 MB * 5,000,000 bytes * 15,000,000 bytes (14.3 MB) * 50 MB Using 1.4MB-large elements was useful when diskettes were used, but today they are rare. Also, as the size of the entire collection grew to the size of a DVD or larger, there is little benefit from having too small individual parts. 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 CD image, so the overall file size is cut down, lessening the transfer time and bandwidth required. * If there is a problem during file transfer and data was corrupted, it is only necessary to resend the few corrupted rars instead of resending the entire large file. * In addition, this method creates the facility of uploading from many sources. File verification is accomplished using SFV files and this is sometimes integrated into the FTP server software so that files are verified automatically as they are uploaded. These methods were required by topsites and if a warez group failed to adhere to these procedures, their releases were nuked meaning they were void and not to be used. It is somewhat ironic, but the distribution methods used by the warez scene are very efficient and sometimes superior to the ones used by actual software companies. ==Movie piracy== Beginning around 1998, feature films began to be released by warez groups prior to their official release. These pirate versions come in many forms, Video CD, SVCD, KVCD, DivX, XviD and DVD-ripping (which is an image file intended for a writeable DVD). A notable example of which was American Pie (movie) [http://www.theisonews.com/release.php?releaseid=4262], this release in particular is notable for 3 reasons: #It was released in uncensored workprint format (the later theatrical release was cut down by several minutes and had scenes reworked to avoid nudity). #It was released nearly 3 months prior to its release in theaters (CNN Headline News reported on its early release). #It was listed by the movie company as one of the reasons it received an Unrated DVD edition. The most well-known form of a pirated movie is known as a "Cam" recording, typically made by an audience member who aims a camcorder at the screen to record the movie. The "Cam" recording is often low in quality. Other forms are typically higher in quality and more complex and involve an associate who either works for a movie theater, movie production company, or rental shop company. These are: * the "DVD-Rip" (reasonably common) – a final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often after one "release group" releases a high-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. (see DVD#Region codes). * the "Screener" (somewhat rare) – an early final theatrical release of a film (either on VHS or more commonly on DVD), typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy Award members, and executives for review purposes. A screener typically has a message indicating who manufactured it and a message similar to "the film you are watching is a promotional copy, if you purchased this film at a retail store please contact 1-800-NO-COPIES to report it." However, screeners are generally of extremely high quality, approximating that of a DVD-Rip. (Denoted by "SCR", "SCREENER", "DVD-" or "VHS-SCREENER".) * the "Telesync" (very common) – a camcorder mounted typically on a tripod for a more steady shot with a secondary audio recording done with a professional microphone or plugged directly into a sound source such as an Frequency modulation tuned to the frequency that a theater uses for a system designed to accommodate hearing-impaired customers. The audio and video are resynchronized during the digital encoding process. Often, a "Cam" is mislabelled as a telesync. (Denoted by "TS" or "TELESYNC".) * the "Telecine" (somewhat common) – a film projection camera used to frame by frame transfer film from its analog reel to digital format. These were rare because the telecine machine for making these prints is very costly and very large, however, more recently, telecines have become much more common. (Denoted by "TC" or "TELECINE".) * the "Workprint" (somewhat rare) – an early version of a film as produced by the studio, typically a workprint is missing effects overlays, and may not be identical to its theatrical release. Some workprints have a time index marker running in a corner or on the top edge. Sometimes these also have a watermark. Recently, a workprint of Star Wars Episode 3 was stolen and released onto the "warez scene". (Denoted by "WP" or "WORKPRINT".) ==Motivations== Unlike the pirated CD manufacturers and street vendors, cracking groups obtain no monetary profit from their actions. The motivation of these groups varies. Warez groups are competitive amongst each other, and a fast warez release is viewed as a social accomplishment. The morality of copyright infringement is also much more disputed than that of conventional property theft, and members of warez groups often view their actions as socially positive. Justifications include the alleged impossibility of copyright enforcement and the perceived injustice of not sharing information with those who could not afford to obtain it otherwise (and thereby comparing themselves to Robin Hood). They also claim that a warez release may actually increase the value of software through the network effect. Laws such as the draconian DMCA may also contribute to the motivations of those involved in warez, as user rights are increasingly threatened in the United States, and rights holders attempt to lock out consumers. ==Legality== The production and/or distribution of warez is illegal in many first world urban countries, and typically overlooked in poorer third world countries. (See: Copyright infringement of software for legal details). Sometimes, in addition to actual illegally copied data, warez dealers distribute Free software and documentation, copyrighted works whose copyright license specifies that the work may be legally redistributed. The free software community generally doesn't have any relation to the warez scene, however, many warez groups contribute free software to the public, including archival and compression tools, etc. Warez has also helped increase the popularity of formats such as DiVX, MP3, and is a significant factor in the domination of companies such as Adobe, Borland, and Microsoft, all of whom benefited from rampant piracy in the 1980s and 1990s (vast numbers of college students adopted applications from these companies as they were readily available; many went on to use them in their professional lives, purchasing legitimate licenses for business use). ==Warez groups== See List of warez groups == See also == * Copyright infringement of software * The iSO News * Crack intro == References == *Ursine:warez == External links == * [http://www.pinkmachine.com/PMP/nr12.pdf Ordered Misbehaviour — The Structuring of an Illegal Endeavor] by Alf Rehn. A study of the illegal subculture known as the "warez scene". (PDF) * [http://www.textfiles.com/piracy/ Piracy Textfiles] A historical collection of documents released by warez-related individuals. * [http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/LowSelfEsteem/LSE-11.TXT How to Become an Elite Warez Trader] A humorous take on the mid 1990s scene. * [http://wheresthebeef.co.uk/show.php/guide/ 2600 A Guide to Piracy] Article on the warez scene (ASCII plaintext and image scans from 2600: The Hacker Quarterly) * [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/topsite.html wired.com: The Shadow Internet] — An article about modern day warez "top sites". * [http://www.welcometothescene.com www.welcometothescene.com] — Internet released monthly tv-show based upon the "scene". Unconfirmed rumours suggests links with Sony. * [http://www.welcometotehscene.com www.welcometoTEHscene.com] - Parody of the above. Cracking Software Software licenses Internet slang Warez
This article strikes me as pretty biased as it stands. The way in which it is biased is somewhat subtle, or at least somewhat difficult to explain, and it's a kind of bias I think Wikipedians need to be on the lookout for. Warez groups are, not to put it nicely, criminal. Moreover, this is obvious to everyone except those who are morally or otherwise opposed to proprietary software, which would be 99% of the population that uses any software at all. When I say this, it appears to be with the intent of wanting to make you disrespect what script kiddies do; and while many people will recognize that script kiddies are literally criminals, they wouldn't want actually to ''say'' so. The present article, on the other hand, has the opposite approach: it simply reports that warez is "copyrighted software which is traded freely, in violation of the copyright license." What does it mean to trade copyrighted materials ''freely''? Does it mean pretending that they're free, or treating them as if they were free? It means, for example, stealing the bookkeeping software that your mother paid $50 for, from a company that hires bunches of programmers who have families to support. Moreover, to represent the ordinary reaction to the notion of "warez" adequately, the article should, fairly early on, make it clear that pirated software is distributed by only a small minority of software users, and that many (probably most) people in at least most of the Western world would have ''moral'' objections to this. Perhaps some light could be shed on the moral views (or lack thereof) of the warez kiddies, too. Instead, the article complains in the second paragraph that "the deliberate circumvention of software copyright protection" was outlawed in the U.S., as if copying copyrighted software was not illegal in the first place and as if ''that'' were not the issue that law-abiding and rights-respecting people would care about. By highlighting the fact this early on in the article, that warez tools are outlawed in the U.S., the article conveys the impression (to me, and I doubt I'm unique in this) that the authors of the article have some sympathy for those who use such tools to crack copyrighted software. This becomes all the more clear in the next paragraph: :Also known as warez d00dz. Members of warez groups are generally male high-school or undergraduate students who go by aggressive handles, and may be referred to derogatorily as warez kiddies. (See script kiddies.) Who calls them "warez d00dz" other than the "warez d00dz" themselves? The moniker should be attributed. And what is an "aggressive handle"? I would instead write: "Members of warez groups call themselves 'warez d00dz' (i.e., with '0' in place of 'o'), while their detractors refer to them to derogatorily as "warez kiddies." Members of warez groups are generally male high-school or undergraduate students who go by nicknames ("handles") such as [examples of "aggressive handles"]." For me, there's an immediate difference I hope you can see too: we do not espouse the terminology of people that we, as fully responsible adults, might consider to be silly adolescent hoodlums. I'd add the parenthetical remark, by the way, in order to distance the authors of the article from silly adolescent orthography. :0-day warez is released the same day as the commercial release, and is a mark of accomplishment within the community. Oh, isn't that nice--Wikipedia recognizes that warez groups constitute ''communities'' (I'd use the word "group," which is more neutral and less approving--but not disapproving, either). And Wikipedia officially cares that infringing copyright is "a mark of accomplishment" according to this "community." Isn't that nice. I would write instead: "Warez groups dub '0-day warez' any copyrighted materials illegally distributed by warez groups on the same day as the commercial release. Warez groups regard this as a mark of accomplishment." :Negative-day warez (that is, works released by warez groups before commercial release) are even more impressive but (as of 2001) becoming somewhat commonplace in the field of motion pictures. Similar remarks and revisions would apply. "Even more impressive"! Oh, I'm ''so'' impressed! Another funny thing about the above is the faux formalism involved: "becoming somewhat commonplace in the field of motion pictures." By describing warez kiddies' behavior in this formal sort of way (which is bad writing style in any case), the reader is distanced from the full meaning of what the warez kiddies ''do.'' I might write instead: "Warez groups dub "negative-day warez" any works--software and software-encoded media--that are distributed illegally by warez groups ''before'' their commercial release. Increasingly as of 2001, software hacking techniques are applied to digitally-released films obtained before their release in theaters. For example, in [date], [film name] was distributed on the [name] warez network [n] days before it was released on theaters. Warez groups are even more impressed by this 'negative-day warez' [note the scare quotes--very important] than by 'zero-day warez'." The following, added as an afterthought to the end of the present article, strikes me as bizarre: :Software piracy :Warez are considered "software piracy" by business and government officials. How did the authors managed to convince themselves that the reader would be sympathetic to their views, so much so that they would buy the notion that ''only business and government officials'' are worth mention as regarding "warez" as "software piracy"? So, nobody else regards it that way either? And notice the scare quotes around "software piracy." And notice that this is at the ''end'' of the article. Oy. Not only should the more common view of warez--which is not, fantasy notwithstanding, just the view of business and government officials--be fully represented, indeed it should have more "air time" than the hacker view, because it is indeed the more ''common'' view! Moreover, I think there should be mention of the ''moral'' views associated with warez groups and with copyright holders and others opposed to them (including the ordinary decent people who see nothing wrong with actually spending money for software--i.e., most of us). That might seem uncool to script kiddies, but y'know, we are or should be trying to act like adults on Wikipedia. So I think some mention should be made of the fact that what warez groups do is, on the view of the vast but silent majority, ''morally wrong.'' (Of course, they love being called morally wrong, but no matter...) Why didn't I just fix the article? Because this article as it stands illustrates very well a not-uncommon twist on the standard bias problem, and I'd like to let it sit up there as an example of how not to write an unbiased article. I'll fix it later, in light of any comments. --user:Larry Sanger I agree that the article is biased. But your characterization as "criminal" is not completely neutral either, in light of the fact that software has only been protected under copyright since 1980, and copying software without profit motive has only been a crime since 1997 in the US (and is not a crime in most other countries). In most countries (and in most cases in the US), copyright infringement is not a crime but an actionable civil matter between copyright holder and infringer. See http://www.cybercrime.gov/ipmanual/03ipma.htm#III.A. user:AxelBoldt ---- Why is it that when I state my opinions in talk pages, people sometimes accuse me of being biased? It's very strange. Talk page discussions needn't be unbiased. ''Articles'' are supposed to be unbiased. I can be as biased as I like on talk pages. :I don't know why people sometimes accuse you of being biased; I preemptively pointed out an imprecise use of the word "criminal" because you said you were planning to rewrite the article. user:AxelBoldt I really don't care what the recent changes to the laws are. I admit I was using the word "criminal" too loosely to avoid confusion (or pedantic responses :-) ). If someone were to publish and sell copies of some profitable novel to the detriment of the profits of the legitimate publisher, I'd consider that stealing and hence criminal behavior, regardless of whether the applicable law was criminal law or not. The fact that the issue would have to be settled in civil court rather than criminal court doesn't matter to me, or not to the point I was making anyway. Stealing is stealing. And if you disagree with this philosophical point, that's your prerogative. (Obviously, I'm not a legal positivist.) --user:Larry Sanger :I'm going to disagree with you here. Stealing is stealing, and stealing is illegal and copyright infringement is illegal, but copyright infringement is not stealing. You're not depriving the original copyright owner of his property when you pirate software. You're (insert: possibly --User:67.68.10.3 14:58, 11 May 2004 (UTC)) depriving them of the opportunity to make money by duplicating the expression of their work and selling it at the price of their choosing. Copyright expires, property rights don't. The laws legislating both are entirely different. Do you also consider patent infringement theft? Whilst the original article, as you said, was biased, but I believe that you are drawing too broad an analogy between two seperate crimes. :In any case, the discussion of software piracy shouldn't be on this page anyway. It should be on a page entitled "software piracy", as "warez" consists of only a fraction of the pirated media out there. In my view this article should be restricted to discussion the "warez" groups, their methods, and their justifications, with the more general issues dealt with elsewhere. --user:Robert Merkel :But warez, as opposed to other pirated software, is distributed for free without profite motive, which raises interesting legal and moral issues. user:AxelBoldt The example "If someone were to publish and sell copies of some profitable novel" does not seem to be relevant since the very definition of warez implies distribution for free. I think the distinction between criminal and civil court is important: it can mean the difference between 3 years in a federal penitentiary compared to mere monetary damages (which one can always get out of by declaring bankruptcy). user:AxelBoldt -- I think the term pirate is misleading (do software pirates rape and pillage?) and pejorative when refering to copyright infrindgers. It is more accurate and neutral, in my opinion, to refer to them as copyright infrindgers since that is exactly what they are. The article can of course make mention of the fact that some people call them pirates, and also mention, as I have already put, that this word game is a thinly veiled attempt for business to cast the free flow of information conversation in their favor. --User:ShaunMacPherson 14:58, 11 May 2004 (UTC) ---- The term "warez d00dz" is probably a pejorative invented by Eric_S._Raymond for the jargon_file. It should probably be dropped, it's rather infantile. * Do you have any evidence to back up such a prepostorous claim, Mr. Anonymous? Didn't think so. User:Radman1 01:54, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC) == List of warez groups == Someone just removed the list of warez groups, posting no comment or explanation. I'm inclined to put them back in, as there hasn't been any discussion and the list links to other Wikipedia articles or interest. * I have restored the warez groups subsection which were censored by an anonymous user. If someone has a gripe they can bring it to the Talk page first. -- Radman1 There was a sub-stub with a short list of warez groups. I have changed it to a redirect to this article. However, four groups are not in the main article. Please check whether there are really groups and add them. Thanks. * Myth * CLASS * RELOADED * Hoodloom --User:Edcolins 11:19, Jan 8, 2005 (UTC) The list has been reintroduced as List of warez groups and is no longer a sub-stub. Check it out. —user:Radman1 (User_talk:Radman1) 07:38, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- User:Lucky 6.9 01:39, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
This category is for Warez-related articles. *Warez groups go into the Warez groups subcategory. *Warez related raids go into the Raids subcategory. *Software cracking related articles go into the Cracking subcategory. Software Subcultures Copyright law
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Warez:
Warez
Warez
Warez
Warez
Warez-communism.jpg
Warezboy
Warezed_Capacitors
Warez_group
Warez_groups
Warez_images
Warez_scene
Warez
[[Image:Warez-communism.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A spoof of MPAA/RIAA Anti-Downloading Ads from [http://themodernhumorist.com/ TheModernHumorist.com]]] Warez (pronounced like "wares") is a derivative for the English plural of the word "computer software" meaning copyrighted material traded in violation of its copyright license. The term generally refers to releases by organized groups, as opposed to peer-to-peer file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar interest using a Darknet. It normally does not refer to commercial for-profit piracy. Initially this term was only used by members of various computer underground circles, but has since become commonplace amongst more mainstream Internet users and the mass media. "Warez" is most common as a noun ("My neighbor downloaded 10 gigabytes of warez yesterday"), but can also be used as a verb ("The new Windows was warezed a month before the company officially released it"). People engaging in warez production and distribution are often called pirates, pirates in this sense being defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "those who take, make use of, or reproduce the work of another illicitly or without authorization". Although the use of this term is controversial, it is embraced by some groups such as Pirates With Attitude. (For more details on the controversy see Copyright infringement of software). The collection of warez groups is referred to globally as the ''warez scene'', or more ambiguously, ''The Scene''. Among warez users, there is often a distinction made between "gamez" (Computer game), "appz" (Application software), "crackz" (Software cracking), and "moviez or filmz" (films). ==How does it work?== Not to be confused with Warez, Profit-motivated piracy is both a large-scale and international phenomenon. Members of the Warez community openly detest and campaign against those making a profit from the copyrighted works of others. However, well-organized groups — often based in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Russia — illegally produce millions of bootleg copies of copyrighted software, which are regularly sold on city streets throughout most of Asia and Eastern Europe and if sold at retail would be worth several billions of dollars annually. While the selling of bootlegs is not as common in Western nations, it's popularity is growing. In Western nations, Warez are usually sold in specific areas, such as Chinatown in New York City and Pacific Mall in suburban Toronto. Pirates exploit the international nature of the copyright issue to avoid law enforcement from specific countries. In Russia, for example, the copying of software was once explicitly permitted by law when such software was not in the Russian language; this is no longer true, but prosecutions for copyright infringement are still very rare. While most copies of pirated software are manufactured in Asian factories, their distribution more often than not begins in Western nations such as the US and the European countries, where the largest international publishers of proprietary software are located. Software cracking groups (not to be confused with the mostly Asian-based bootleg CD manufacturers and the street vendors that sell "warez"), delegate tasks among their members. These members are mostly located in First World countries where high-speed Internet connections and powerful computers are readily available. For example: :# A popular new piece of commercial software is released :# A warez group might use one of its contacts to obtain a pre-release copy (or steals it from a CD pressing plant) :# It is then sent to a skilled software cracker/programmer to remove copy prevention :# It is then sent to a courier who transfers it around to many FTP servers. Distribution of warez is usually handled between groups using Topsites. The groups also have private sites for internal purposes, such as archiving their own releases and transferring the unmodified material between their members. Through the users of these sites the warez is delivered to people outside groups where it starts spreading through peer-to-peer networks or direct p2p, like BitTorrent(Direct P2P Connection) or Fasttrack Network (KaZaA) or the Gnutella/Gnutella2 network (Limewire, Bearshare, Shareaza, iMesh, and many others.), and becomes available to the public. Such releases of a software titles often come in two forms, full and ripped; a "rip" is a cut-down version of the title, typically lacking the portable document format manual, and other heavyweight additions included on the legitimate CD, In games the ripped version generally removes all in game video, and compresses the audio to MP3 or Vorbis which must then be decoded to its original form. In full form games and applications are generally released as CD or DVD-writable disk images (ISO image or ISO 9660 image files). ==Formats and standards== The modern warez scene deals with petabytes of data and thus the need for an efficient system of handling files was apparent. A typical 1 CD software release contains around 700 megabytes of data; sending a single 700 megabyte file over the Internet can present some challenges (this was especially true in the early days). The same applies even better to DVDs which are typically up to 4.7 GB in size. The warez scene made it standard practice to split releases up into many separate pieces using a file compression format, usually RAR. A 700 megabyte CD image had unnecessary content, such as user manuals and videos, and these files were often deleted (and sometimes released later as an add-on). The ISO image is then compressed and split into numerous smaller RAR files, which are then again compressed into another archive (ZIP (file format) or RAR). This could then be decompressed in two steps, and the original large file would be recreated. The sizes of the small archives within the distributed file vary: * 1.4 Megabyte * 2.88 MB * 5,000,000 bytes * 15,000,000 bytes (14.3 MB) * 50 MB Using 1.4MB-large elements was useful when diskettes were used, but today they are rare. Also, as the size of the entire collection grew to the size of a DVD or larger, there is little benefit from having too small individual parts. 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 CD image, so the overall file size is cut down, lessening the transfer time and bandwidth required. * If there is a problem during file transfer and data was corrupted, it is only necessary to resend the few corrupted rars instead of resending the entire large file. * In addition, this method creates the facility of uploading from many sources. File verification is accomplished using SFV files and this is sometimes integrated into the FTP server software so that files are verified automatically as they are uploaded. These methods were required by topsites and if a warez group failed to adhere to these procedures, their releases were nuked meaning they were void and not to be used. It is somewhat ironic, but the distribution methods used by the warez scene are very efficient and sometimes superior to the ones used by actual software companies. ==Movie piracy== Beginning around 1998, feature films began to be released by warez groups prior to their official release. These pirate versions come in many forms, Video CD, SVCD, KVCD, DivX, XviD and DVD-ripping (which is an image file intended for a writeable DVD). A notable example of which was American Pie (movie) [http://www.theisonews.com/release.php?releaseid=4262], this release in particular is notable for 3 reasons: #It was released in uncensored workprint format (the later theatrical release was cut down by several minutes and had scenes reworked to avoid nudity). #It was released nearly 3 months prior to its release in theaters (CNN Headline News reported on its early release). #It was listed by the movie company as one of the reasons it received an Unrated DVD edition. The most well-known form of a pirated movie is known as a "Cam" recording, typically made by an audience member who aims a camcorder at the screen to record the movie. The "Cam" recording is often low in quality. Other forms are typically higher in quality and more complex and involve an associate who either works for a movie theater, movie production company, or rental shop company. These are: * the "DVD-Rip" (reasonably common) – a final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often after one "release group" releases a high-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. (see DVD#Region codes). * the "Screener" (somewhat rare) – an early final theatrical release of a film (either on VHS or more commonly on DVD), typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy Award members, and executives for review purposes. A screener typically has a message indicating who manufactured it and a message similar to "the film you are watching is a promotional copy, if you purchased this film at a retail store please contact 1-800-NO-COPIES to report it." However, screeners are generally of extremely high quality, approximating that of a DVD-Rip. (Denoted by "SCR", "SCREENER", "DVD-" or "VHS-SCREENER".) * the "Telesync" (very common) – a camcorder mounted typically on a tripod for a more steady shot with a secondary audio recording done with a professional microphone or plugged directly into a sound source such as an Frequency modulation tuned to the frequency that a theater uses for a system designed to accommodate hearing-impaired customers. The audio and video are resynchronized during the digital encoding process. Often, a "Cam" is mislabelled as a telesync. (Denoted by "TS" or "TELESYNC".) * the "Telecine" (somewhat common) – a film projection camera used to frame by frame transfer film from its analog reel to digital format. These were rare because the telecine machine for making these prints is very costly and very large, however, more recently, telecines have become much more common. (Denoted by "TC" or "TELECINE".) * the "Workprint" (somewhat rare) – an early version of a film as produced by the studio, typically a workprint is missing effects overlays, and may not be identical to its theatrical release. Some workprints have a time index marker running in a corner or on the top edge. Sometimes these also have a watermark. Recently, a workprint of Star Wars Episode 3 was stolen and released onto the "warez scene". (Denoted by "WP" or "WORKPRINT".) ==Motivations== Unlike the pirated CD manufacturers and street vendors, cracking groups obtain no monetary profit from their actions. The motivation of these groups varies. Warez groups are competitive amongst each other, and a fast warez release is viewed as a social accomplishment. The morality of copyright infringement is also much more disputed than that of conventional property theft, and members of warez groups often view their actions as socially positive. Justifications include the alleged impossibility of copyright enforcement and the perceived injustice of not sharing information with those who could not afford to obtain it otherwise (and thereby comparing themselves to Robin Hood). They also claim that a warez release may actually increase the value of software through the network effect. Laws such as the draconian DMCA may also contribute to the motivations of those involved in warez, as user rights are increasingly threatened in the United States, and rights holders attempt to lock out consumers. ==Legality== The production and/or distribution of warez is illegal in many first world urban countries, and typically overlooked in poorer third world countries. (See: Copyright infringement of software for legal details). Sometimes, in addition to actual illegally copied data, warez dealers distribute Free software and documentation, copyrighted works whose copyright license specifies that the work may be legally redistributed. The free software community generally doesn't have any relation to the warez scene, however, many warez groups contribute free software to the public, including archival and compression tools, etc. Warez has also helped increase the popularity of formats such as DiVX, MP3, and is a significant factor in the domination of companies such as Adobe, Borland, and Microsoft, all of whom benefited from rampant piracy in the 1980s and 1990s (vast numbers of college students adopted applications from these companies as they were readily available; many went on to use them in their professional lives, purchasing legitimate licenses for business use). ==Warez groups== See List of warez groups == See also == * Copyright infringement of software * The iSO News * Crack intro == References == *Ursine:warez == External links == * [http://www.pinkmachine.com/PMP/nr12.pdf Ordered Misbehaviour — The Structuring of an Illegal Endeavor] by Alf Rehn. A study of the illegal subculture known as the "warez scene". (PDF) * [http://www.textfiles.com/piracy/ Piracy Textfiles] A historical collection of documents released by warez-related individuals. * [http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/LowSelfEsteem/LSE-11.TXT How to Become an Elite Warez Trader] A humorous take on the mid 1990s scene. * [http://wheresthebeef.co.uk/show.php/guide/ 2600 A Guide to Piracy] Article on the warez scene (ASCII plaintext and image scans from 2600: The Hacker Quarterly) * [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/topsite.html wired.com: The Shadow Internet] — An article about modern day warez "top sites". * [http://www.welcometothescene.com www.welcometothescene.com] — Internet released monthly tv-show based upon the "scene". Unconfirmed rumours suggests links with Sony. * [http://www.welcometotehscene.com www.welcometoTEHscene.com] - Parody of the above. Cracking Software Software licenses Internet slang Warez
Warez
This article strikes me as pretty biased as it stands. The way in which it is biased is somewhat subtle, or at least somewhat difficult to explain, and it's a kind of bias I think Wikipedians need to be on the lookout for. Warez groups are, not to put it nicely, criminal. Moreover, this is obvious to everyone except those who are morally or otherwise opposed to proprietary software, which would be 99% of the population that uses any software at all. When I say this, it appears to be with the intent of wanting to make you disrespect what script kiddies do; and while many people will recognize that script kiddies are literally criminals, they wouldn't want actually to ''say'' so. The present article, on the other hand, has the opposite approach: it simply reports that warez is "copyrighted software which is traded freely, in violation of the copyright license." What does it mean to trade copyrighted materials ''freely''? Does it mean pretending that they're free, or treating them as if they were free? It means, for example, stealing the bookkeeping software that your mother paid $50 for, from a company that hires bunches of programmers who have families to support. Moreover, to represent the ordinary reaction to the notion of "warez" adequately, the article should, fairly early on, make it clear that pirated software is distributed by only a small minority of software users, and that many (probably most) people in at least most of the Western world would have ''moral'' objections to this. Perhaps some light could be shed on the moral views (or lack thereof) of the warez kiddies, too. Instead, the article complains in the second paragraph that "the deliberate circumvention of software copyright protection" was outlawed in the U.S., as if copying copyrighted software was not illegal in the first place and as if ''that'' were not the issue that law-abiding and rights-respecting people would care about. By highlighting the fact this early on in the article, that warez tools are outlawed in the U.S., the article conveys the impression (to me, and I doubt I'm unique in this) that the authors of the article have some sympathy for those who use such tools to crack copyrighted software. This becomes all the more clear in the next paragraph: :Also known as warez d00dz. Members of warez groups are generally male high-school or undergraduate students who go by aggressive handles, and may be referred to derogatorily as warez kiddies. (See script kiddies.) Who calls them "warez d00dz" other than the "warez d00dz" themselves? The moniker should be attributed. And what is an "aggressive handle"? I would instead write: "Members of warez groups call themselves 'warez d00dz' (i.e., with '0' in place of 'o'), while their detractors refer to them to derogatorily as "warez kiddies." Members of warez groups are generally male high-school or undergraduate students who go by nicknames ("handles") such as [examples of "aggressive handles"]." For me, there's an immediate difference I hope you can see too: we do not espouse the terminology of people that we, as fully responsible adults, might consider to be silly adolescent hoodlums. I'd add the parenthetical remark, by the way, in order to distance the authors of the article from silly adolescent orthography. :0-day warez is released the same day as the commercial release, and is a mark of accomplishment within the community. Oh, isn't that nice--Wikipedia recognizes that warez groups constitute ''communities'' (I'd use the word "group," which is more neutral and less approving--but not disapproving, either). And Wikipedia officially cares that infringing copyright is "a mark of accomplishment" according to this "community." Isn't that nice. I would write instead: "Warez groups dub '0-day warez' any copyrighted materials illegally distributed by warez groups on the same day as the commercial release. Warez groups regard this as a mark of accomplishment." :Negative-day warez (that is, works released by warez groups before commercial release) are even more impressive but (as of 2001) becoming somewhat commonplace in the field of motion pictures. Similar remarks and revisions would apply. "Even more impressive"! Oh, I'm ''so'' impressed! Another funny thing about the above is the faux formalism involved: "becoming somewhat commonplace in the field of motion pictures." By describing warez kiddies' behavior in this formal sort of way (which is bad writing style in any case), the reader is distanced from the full meaning of what the warez kiddies ''do.'' I might write instead: "Warez groups dub "negative-day warez" any works--software and software-encoded media--that are distributed illegally by warez groups ''before'' their commercial release. Increasingly as of 2001, software hacking techniques are applied to digitally-released films obtained before their release in theaters. For example, in [date], [film name] was distributed on the [name] warez network [n] days before it was released on theaters. Warez groups are even more impressed by this 'negative-day warez' [note the scare quotes--very important] than by 'zero-day warez'." The following, added as an afterthought to the end of the present article, strikes me as bizarre: :Software piracy :Warez are considered "software piracy" by business and government officials. How did the authors managed to convince themselves that the reader would be sympathetic to their views, so much so that they would buy the notion that ''only business and government officials'' are worth mention as regarding "warez" as "software piracy"? So, nobody else regards it that way either? And notice the scare quotes around "software piracy." And notice that this is at the ''end'' of the article. Oy. Not only should the more common view of warez--which is not, fantasy notwithstanding, just the view of business and government officials--be fully represented, indeed it should have more "air time" than the hacker view, because it is indeed the more ''common'' view! Moreover, I think there should be mention of the ''moral'' views associated with warez groups and with copyright holders and others opposed to them (including the ordinary decent people who see nothing wrong with actually spending money for software--i.e., most of us). That might seem uncool to script kiddies, but y'know, we are or should be trying to act like adults on Wikipedia. So I think some mention should be made of the fact that what warez groups do is, on the view of the vast but silent majority, ''morally wrong.'' (Of course, they love being called morally wrong, but no matter...) Why didn't I just fix the article? Because this article as it stands illustrates very well a not-uncommon twist on the standard bias problem, and I'd like to let it sit up there as an example of how not to write an unbiased article. I'll fix it later, in light of any comments. --user:Larry Sanger I agree that the article is biased. But your characterization as "criminal" is not completely neutral either, in light of the fact that software has only been protected under copyright since 1980, and copying software without profit motive has only been a crime since 1997 in the US (and is not a crime in most other countries). In most countries (and in most cases in the US), copyright infringement is not a crime but an actionable civil matter between copyright holder and infringer. See http://www.cybercrime.gov/ipmanual/03ipma.htm#III.A. user:AxelBoldt ---- Why is it that when I state my opinions in talk pages, people sometimes accuse me of being biased? It's very strange. Talk page discussions needn't be unbiased. ''Articles'' are supposed to be unbiased. I can be as biased as I like on talk pages. :I don't know why people sometimes accuse you of being biased; I preemptively pointed out an imprecise use of the word "criminal" because you said you were planning to rewrite the article. user:AxelBoldt I really don't care what the recent changes to the laws are. I admit I was using the word "criminal" too loosely to avoid confusion (or pedantic responses :-) ). If someone were to publish and sell copies of some profitable novel to the detriment of the profits of the legitimate publisher, I'd consider that stealing and hence criminal behavior, regardless of whether the applicable law was criminal law or not. The fact that the issue would have to be settled in civil court rather than criminal court doesn't matter to me, or not to the point I was making anyway. Stealing is stealing. And if you disagree with this philosophical point, that's your prerogative. (Obviously, I'm not a legal positivist.) --user:Larry Sanger :I'm going to disagree with you here. Stealing is stealing, and stealing is illegal and copyright infringement is illegal, but copyright infringement is not stealing. You're not depriving the original copyright owner of his property when you pirate software. You're (insert: possibly --User:67.68.10.3 14:58, 11 May 2004 (UTC)) depriving them of the opportunity to make money by duplicating the expression of their work and selling it at the price of their choosing. Copyright expires, property rights don't. The laws legislating both are entirely different. Do you also consider patent infringement theft? Whilst the original article, as you said, was biased, but I believe that you are drawing too broad an analogy between two seperate crimes. :In any case, the discussion of software piracy shouldn't be on this page anyway. It should be on a page entitled "software piracy", as "warez" consists of only a fraction of the pirated media out there. In my view this article should be restricted to discussion the "warez" groups, their methods, and their justifications, with the more general issues dealt with elsewhere. --user:Robert Merkel :But warez, as opposed to other pirated software, is distributed for free without profite motive, which raises interesting legal and moral issues. user:AxelBoldt The example "If someone were to publish and sell copies of some profitable novel" does not seem to be relevant since the very definition of warez implies distribution for free. I think the distinction between criminal and civil court is important: it can mean the difference between 3 years in a federal penitentiary compared to mere monetary damages (which one can always get out of by declaring bankruptcy). user:AxelBoldt -- I think the term pirate is misleading (do software pirates rape and pillage?) and pejorative when refering to copyright infrindgers. It is more accurate and neutral, in my opinion, to refer to them as copyright infrindgers since that is exactly what they are. The article can of course make mention of the fact that some people call them pirates, and also mention, as I have already put, that this word game is a thinly veiled attempt for business to cast the free flow of information conversation in their favor. --User:ShaunMacPherson 14:58, 11 May 2004 (UTC) ---- The term "warez d00dz" is probably a pejorative invented by Eric_S._Raymond for the jargon_file. It should probably be dropped, it's rather infantile. * Do you have any evidence to back up such a prepostorous claim, Mr. Anonymous? Didn't think so. User:Radman1 01:54, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC) == List of warez groups == Someone just removed the list of warez groups, posting no comment or explanation. I'm inclined to put them back in, as there hasn't been any discussion and the list links to other Wikipedia articles or interest. * I have restored the warez groups subsection which were censored by an anonymous user. If someone has a gripe they can bring it to the Talk page first. -- Radman1 There was a sub-stub with a short list of warez groups. I have changed it to a redirect to this article. However, four groups are not in the main article. Please check whether there are really groups and add them. Thanks. * Myth * CLASS * RELOADED * Hoodloom --User:Edcolins 11:19, Jan 8, 2005 (UTC) The list has been reintroduced as List of warez groups and is no longer a sub-stub. Check it out. —user:Radman1 (User_talk:Radman1) 07:38, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Warez
- User:Lucky 6.9 01:39, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Warez
This category is for Warez-related articles. *Warez groups go into the Warez groups subcategory. *Warez related raids go into the Raids subcategory. *Software cracking related articles go into the Cracking subcategory. Software Subcultures Copyright law
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
W
WA | WB | WC | WD | WE | WF | WG | WH | WI | WJ | WK | WL | WM | WN | WO | WP | WR | WS | WT | WU | WX | WY | WZ |Words begining with Warez:
Warez
Warez
Warez
Warez
Warez-communism.jpg
Warezboy
Warezed_Capacitors
Warez_group
Warez_groups
Warez_images
Warez_scene
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