Can questions about Warez be posted? Question explained in post...

[yos]

Before the Moderator banns me, I want to make my question clear...
I am not asking for any links or sources...
I am not asking for trades or buys...
and I am not asking about anything that is illegal...

My question is, can someone explain the concept of Warez to me (at least what they know) and can someone tell me the reprocusions of warez. Also, if you were to have a warez OS, if the software comp that makes it can find out somehow through the net?

If any of this stuff is taboo on these forums, I am sorry and I will get rid of it. If not, does anyone have any insigth for me?

thanks,

-Yos

We certainly won't ban you for asking some legitimate questions. We are, however, locking this thread. AnandTech does not endorse the use or distribution of pirated software. Some of the respondents to your post apparently feel otherwise, and they are welcome to express their sentiments elsewhere.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[Soybomb]

I don't see anything wrong with what you asked so....

Warez are pirated software, perhaps cracked, perhaps just downloaded. You don't own it but you've got it. Warez are illegal, you get no tech support with warez, some software does phone home, and it could be virus infected or something more changed when it was cracked.

 

[ArkAoss]

uh some one some how gets a legitimate copy of a piece of software, and depending on who they are, they might make a program that they run once which edits out the piracy protection, or allows it to be bypassed. or they make a program which you apply to the coppied program after its installed which makes the software skip its fake cd correction. i dunno how they might track some one but i think theres ways, if i really want a game, i buy it, if i wanna check a game out i probly dont have time to dedicate to it so i rarely will try for a demo even. now os's are another thing. . . i usually know some one who has a legit copy and if i really need it a get it from them, (ms os's any ways) or i find a way to buy it from a legit distrib for as low as i can go, if i am just expirimenting with an os for an hr or so personal use, i might try a warez, but ms os's i only like 98se, and i own a copy, and since most linux or beos or other os's are free from the web, i can get em thru cable so, i never buy them from a store. but warez doo add to the cost of software, os's especially, or oem liscensed copys that get missused. also its a very seedy under culture, of people who get warez of programs, and never use em, they just get em to have. I knew a guy who had 200gb's on a server plus mountians of cd's. and another guy who dl'd stuff, burnt it and forgot it. . . just for the thrill, nvr has time to use it at all. .. . thats my take

 

[SmiZ]

I've been told, and I don't wanna sound like an expert, but:

There are many different levels to the 'warez' scene, but at the base are the different release groups. These groups, some of which have been around a number of years, compete to release as much software, mp3, games, movies, etc. as fast as they can. Different groups release different types of things.

These releases travel through many channels (0day sites, shell boxes, etc) before ending up on various crappy web pages linked to accounts on idrive and the like.

Warez is deffinately illegal and you can get in major trouble for pirating software. You also can't trust what you get because it wasn't released from a reputable company.....No one to complain to if that latest game you downloaded has a trojan in it.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Okay, I don't understand why if they are so illegal how can they stay in business? Is it a business, I mean do you have to pay them for pirated software? Surely if the big software companies are being hurt so badly they would prosecute and bring them down.

 

[Pretender]

As far as I know they don't charge. I think I've heard of things like warez groups selling "Warez CDs", for people who don't have broadband, but I doubt that would last long. Most warez sites, the "lower levels, where it's distributed to the masses, on crappy idrive sites", as SmiZ mentioned, either get shut down within months, or the owner loses interest because they don't make much money off it, and die off. The website owners usually put up ad banners on their sites, generally pornographic, because porn companies don't ask questions, considering the nature of their businesses.

As for the upper echelons of the warez community, I'm not sure how they work. I'd guess they don't pay for their superfast connections or large drives, but probably leech off the resources of wherever they work. I doubt they are rich (why would rich people need to, or want to condone, the spread of illegal bootleg materials), and I doubt they'd waste their own money to give others all this free stuff while they pay the out-of-pocket expenses, so I'm really stumped as to how they can afford to do it.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Ah well, crack's illegal too and we have plenty of that so there you go. It's tempting, I see Adobe Photoshop 6 for download. Getting caught is one good reason not to do it, but at the bottom of the page I see a teen pr0n banner and I just can't support that. I mean that girl was someone's daughter. Oh well, it's only $600 to buy it and be legit.

 

[urbantechie]

Right now, most people here are use to getting warez from Porn crapped over pages with half the links going to On-Line HDD drives and the other half just dead. This is how I was before. Once you actually get into the "Warez" scene, then webpages are no more. You get them from what are called "Pubs". Public FTPs (perhaps corprate FTPs) and they are usually very fast. OC connections plus. Warez you get from websites are called "Rips". All it is is the neccessary files to run that game or app. What I get are ISOs which are CD-Images. So they are around 700MB each.

 

[eyor]

Wandering into a Warez site is often an unpleasent experience. It seems somehow you always end up in an endless loop of voting for "The Gay Cafe" at "Top 50 Homosexual Websites." :Q

 

[eyor]

Lirion: As for why they don't get shut down, most of them aren't even real. But the ones that actually do have software you can download have like 43 different mirrors on all kinds of things like geocities and angelfire. It would be impossible to weed out all the Warez sites.