Warez groups are teams of individuals who have participated in the organized unauthorized publication of films, music, or other media, as well as those who can reverse engineer and crack the digital rights management (DRM) measures applied to commercial software. This is a list of groups, both web-based and warez scene groups, which have attained notoriety outside of their respective communities. A plurality of warez groups operate within the so-called warez scene, though as of 2019 a large amount of software and game warez is now distributed first via the web. Leaks of releases from warez groups operating within the "scene" still constitute a large amount of warez shared globally. Between 2003 and 2009 there were 3,164 active groups within the warez scene, with the majority of these groups being active for no more than two months and with only a small fraction being active for many years.[1] The warez scene is a very competitive and volatile environment, largely a symptom of participation in its community being illegal in most countries. Groups are generally not driven by profit, but by reputation.[2]
3DM is a Chinese video game cracking group. Their founder and leader is reported to be Su Feifei, more commonly known by the pseudonym "不死鸟" (pinyin: bù sǐ niǎo; meaning in English: Phoenix). Little else is known about Su, other than that her year of birth is speculated to be 1979. Unusual for piracy groups, 3DM's members have public profiles on the social network Sina Weibo, and use a blog to inform the public about their activities. Some members of 3DM have previously been part of NETSHOW (now known as ALI213), a group which released Chinese language copies of games using stolen cracks directly to warez scene FTP sites.
Irc Warez Ftp 0day 20
CONSPIR4CY (releasing mostly as CPY) is a warez group founded in 1999 in Italy. They rose in notoriety after releasing Rise of the Tomb Raider and Inside in August 2016 under the name of CONSPIR4CY,[4] though they resumed using the 'CPY' tag shortly thereafter with the release of their cracked copy of Doom in September 2016.[5] They became the first group to create proper cracks for games protected by the third iteration of Denuvo DRM software.
They cracked Resident Evil 7: Biohazard only five days after its release, at the time the shortest amount of time taken to develop a crack for a Denuvo DRM-protected game.[6] They also cracked Mass Effect: Andromeda,[7] only ten days after its release. In July 2017 the warez group SKIDROW criticized the methods used by CONSPIR4CY to crack games using Denuvo DRM.[8] In early 2018, CPY released cracked copies of Assassin's Creed Origins and Far Cry 5, which were compiled with the most recent version of Denuvo DRM, and had additional anti-modification and anti-debugging features through the use of VMProtect software and EasyAntiCheat. In November 2018 CPY released cracks for HITMAN 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, A Way Out, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Pro Evolution Soccer 2019, FIFA 19 - all of which featured the latest version of Denuvo DRM, with some using additional custom DRM or off the shelf DRM such as EACore and VMProtect. In December 2018, CPY published a cracked copy of Just Cause 4, which used the latest version of Denuvo DRM, on the day after its release. They also released a crack for Battlefield V on December 22, days after its official release. In January 2019, CPY released cracked copies of Ace Combat 7, Mutant Year Zero, and Strange Brigade, as well as the first episode of Life Is Strange 2 (titled "Roads") - all 4 titles using the latest versions of Denuvo DRM.
Kalisto is a console warez group established in March 1998 which specializes in the release and distribution of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 ISO images, briefly moonlighting on the Dreamcast platform in mid-to-late 2000.
PARADOX is well known for developing a utility known as "Preee",[21] which automates the creation of NFO files and the packaging of warez releases into multi-part RAR archives and subsequent creation of ZIP archives containing those RAR files depending on the warez scene rules being followed.
In July 2017, in a statement released to commemorate their 10th consecutive year of releases since re-emerging in the PC game cracking scene, SKIDROW made cryptic remarks that the techniques used by CONSPIR4CY, STEAMPUNKS, and members of the Steam Underground warez forum to crack modern copy protections are not proper.[8] These criticisms were themselves criticized on the web, as SKIDROW's apparent standards for a proper crack would seemingly disqualify both their most notable crack of Ubisoft's persistent online connection requiring DRM, which they emulated, and their most recent notable release of a Denuvo-protected game, which they cracked by modifying the executable from another game.[37]
CLASS (also known as CLS) was a warez group which was the target of federal raids such as Operation Fastlink. They were a global group with members worldwide, often releasing game "rips". The group ceased operations in 2004 after their 1,234th release.[38]
One of the most prolific warez groups active from 1998 to 2006. Their dissolution has been described as the end of an era, and the current affiliation of ex-DEViANCE members is a reoccurring argument between groups.[52][53][54] Describing members of a modern warez group as ex-DEViANCE became something of a joke within the warez scene.
International Network of Crackers (also known as INC) was one of the premier cracking/releasing warez groups for the IBM PC during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The majority of their releases during 1993 were educational games for children. By early 1994, INC had completely disappeared from the warez scene.
The Pirates With Attitudes (also known as PWA) were a major international warez release group from 1992 until 2000. The group was formed by two former INC members known by the pseudonyms Orion and Bar Manager. PWA members were the subjects of law enforcement raids after the passing of the No Electronic Theft or "NET" Act.[68][non-primary source needed]
Tristar and Red Sector, Inc. (also known as TRSI) began as an alliance between two warez groups: Tristar and Red Sector Incorporated. They were formed in 1990 as a cooperative Commodore 64 demo coding and cracking group. TRSI migrated from the Commodore 64 release platform to the Amiga and IBM-PC, and eventually branched off into the console gaming scene before finally disbanding their warez division. In late 2003, TRSI became inactive and remains so today.[third-party source needed]
The United Software Association (also known as USA) was a prominent IBM PC games and applications warez group during the 1990s. USA formed an alliance with the PC warez division of Fairlight which was known as "USA/FLT". In late January 1992, several members of USA were arrested by the United States Secret Service and the Farmington Hills, Michigan police for credit card fraud.
ViTALiTY (also known as VTY) was founded in May 2005. It has been suggested they were former members of DEViANCE.[53] The group was considered blacklisted by many in the warez scene in October 2007,[70] something ViTALiTY claims was orchestrated by rival groups RELOADED[71] and FAiRLiGHT,[72] though the latter claim they were against it.[73] ViTALiTY was accused of either reporting or threatening to report members of other groups to the FBI,[70] though ViTALiTY claimed a senior member of RELOADED threatened to do the same to them.[71] ViTALiTY's last release was an update to Dragon Age: Origins on 7 January 2011.[74]
Topsite is a term used by the warez scene to refer to underground, highly secretive, high-speed FTP servers used by release groups and couriers for distribution, storage and archiving of warez releases.[1]Topsites have very high-bandwidth Internet connections, commonly supporting transfer speeds of hundreds to thousands of megabits per second; enough to transfer a full Blu-ray in seconds.[2] Topsites also have very high storage capacity; a total of many terabytes is typical.[3][4][5] Early on these warez sites were mainly distributing software such as games and applications after the release groups removed any protections. Now they are also a source of other copyright protected works such as movies and music. It is strictly prohibited for sites to charge for access to the content, due to decreased security, and sites found doing so are shunned by the topsite community.[6][7]
Along with an "official name", most topsites are also known in the warez scene by an abbreviation that is two or three letters long. Knowledge of the abbreviation as well as the official name is not shared, even between different scene members. For example, a topsite with the hypothetical name "Blackbox" could be abbreviated as "BBX" and subsequently referred to as "B**" during an IRC conversation between those with knowledge of the site.
A warez group may gain access to a topsite as an affiliate (or "affil"), thus making the site among the group's primary distribution points. Affiliation benefits the warez group as the site will grant a certain number of leech accounts to the group (the number usually depending on the reputation of the group), and the site benefits by becoming one of a collection of sites that has first access to the releases of the group, thus improving its own reputation. Typically, groups will affiliate with several topsites, in order to maximize efficient distribution by couriers to other (non-affiliated) topsites. A group will choose topsites based on geographical location, mostly by country but sometimes by region, such as Northern Europe or Western US. Barring extraordinary circumstances, a group selects just one site for each location.
While these sites are protected with technologically advanced schemes, law enforcement operations such as Operation Buccaneer (December 2001) and Operation Fastlink (April 2004) have been able to gain access and shut down sites by infiltrating the copyright infringement groups that operate on them. The group DrinkOrDie was busted during Operation Buccaneer. Tens of thousands of copies of software, games, movies and music were on leech sites reserved for their members only, having the names Lake of Fire, Packet Storm, Fatal Error and High Octane. One eventually grew to 1 terabyte in size.[13] As of June 2005[update], Operation Site Down was the latest significant law-enforcement attack on the warez scene. There were also busts in June 2006, with one US.biz site being busted, and several co-located servers being seized. 2ff7e9595c
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