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Software cracking is an act of removing copy protection from a software. Copy protection can be removed by applying a specific crack. A crack can mean any tool that enables breaking software protection, a stolen product key, or guessed password. Cracking software generally involves circumventing licensing and usage restrictions on commercial software by illegal methods. These methods can include modifying code directly through disassembling and bit editing, sharing stolen product keys, or developing software to generate activation keys. Examples of cracks are: applying a patch or by creating reverse-engineered serial number generators known as keygens, thus bypassing software registration and payments or converting a trial/demo version of the software into fully-functioning software without paying for it. Software cracking contributes to the rise of online piracy where pirated software is distributed to end-users through filesharing sites like BitTorrent, One click hosting (OCH), or via Usenet downloads, or by downloading bundles of the original software with cracks or keygens.
StarForce Technologies is a Russian software developer with headquarters in Moscow. Its main activities are information security, protection against unauthorized copying, modification, and analysis (decompilation).
PARADOX (PDX) is a warez–demogroup; an anonymous group of software engineers that devise ways to defeat software and video game licensing protections, a process known as cracking, which is illegal in most jurisdictions. They distribute cracks, keygens, and pre-cracked versions of entire programs. Over the years, distribution methods have changed, starting out with physically transported floppy disks and BBS distribution. Today most of their files reach the public over various peer-to-peer file networks.
RedFox is a software development company based in Belize. The company is most prominently known for its software AnyDVD, which can be used to bypass copy protection measures on optical media, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc media, as well as CloneCD, which is used to back up the contents of optical discs.
NeoGAF is an Internet forum primarily dedicated to the discussion of video games. Founded as an adjunct to a video game news site under the name Gaming-Age Forums, on April 4, 2006 it changed its name to NeoGAF and became independently hosted and administered.
"You Wouldn't Steal a Car" is the first sentence of a public service announcement that debuted on July 27, 2004, which was part of the anti-copyright infringement campaign "Piracy. It's a crime." It was created by the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the Motion Picture Association of America in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, and appeared in theaters internationally from 2004 until 2007, and on many commercial DVDs during the same period as a clip before the main menu or other previews appear, as either an unskippable or skippable video.
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM), such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies govern the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works and of systems that enforce these policies within devices. DRM technologies include licensing agreements and encryption.
Video game piracy is the unauthorized copying and distributing of video game software, and is a form of copyright infringement. It is often cited as a major problem that video game publishers face when distributing their products, due to the ease of being able to distribute games for free, via torrenting or websites offering direct download links. Right holders generally attempt to counter piracy of their products by enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, though this has never been totally successful. Digital distribution of pirated games has historically occurred on bulletin board systems (BBS), and more recently via decentralized peer-to-peer torrenting. In terms of physical distribution, Taiwan, China and Malaysia are known for major manufacturing and distribution centers for pirated game copies, while Hong Kong and Singapore are major importers.
Reloaded is a warez group founded in June 2004 from the ex-members of DEViANCE. They released and cracked Spore 4 days before its release date and a beta version of The Sims 3 15 days before its release date. On February 29, 2008, Reloaded released a cracked version of Assassin's Creed, a month before its release on March 28. However, this release was later nuked for not being the final retail version as well as having crashing issues. The retail version was released by them more than a month later.
Digital Ai is an American technology company specializing in anti-tamper and digital rights management (DRM) for Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, and other applications. Arxan's security products are used to prevent tampering or reverse engineering of software, thus preventing access or modifications to said software that are deemed undesirable by its developer. The company reports that applications secured by it are running on over 500 million devices. Its products are used across a range of industries, including mobile payments & banking, automotive, healthcare and gaming.
Always-on DRM or always-online DRM is a form of DRM that requires a consumer to remain connected to a server, especially through an internet connection, to use a particular product. The practice is also referred to as persistent online authentication. The technique is meant to prevent copyright infringement of software. Like other DRM methods, always-on DRM has proven controversial, mainly because it has failed to stop pirates from illegally using the product, while causing severe inconvenience to people who bought the product legally due to the single point of failure it inherently introduces.
Denuvo Anti-Tamper is an anti-tamper and digital rights management (DRM) system developed by the Austrian company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH. The company was formed from a management buyout of DigitalWorks, the developer of SecuROM, and began developing the software in 2014. It was introduced with FIFA 15 in September. In addition to Denuvo Anti-Tamper, Denuvo Software Solutions has developed the anti-cheat system Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, which attempts to prevent Nintendo Switch games from being emulated. The company was acquired by Irdeto in January 2018.
RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites. It was ranked 4th as of January 2023. The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.
3DM was a Chinese video game piracy group – a group of individuals specialized in cracking the digital rights management (DRM) applied to commercial PC video games. It was "one of the world's biggest" such groups in and around 2016, according to Kotaku.
2Dark is a stealth adventure horror game directed by Frédérick Raynal, known for developing Alone in the Dark.
Resident Evil Village is a 2021 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom. It is the sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017) and the tenth main game of the Resident Evil series. Players control Ethan Winters, who searches for his kidnapped daughter in a village filled with mutant creatures. Village maintains survival horror elements from previous games, with players scavenging environments for items and managing resources while adding more action-oriented gameplay, with higher enemy counts and a greater emphasis on combat.
Hogwarts Legacy is a 2023 action role-playing game developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games under its Portkey Games label. The game is part of the Wizarding World franchise, taking place a century prior to the events chronicled in the Harry Potter novels. The player controls a student enrolled in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who learns to wield an array of magical abilities and objects. With the assistance of fellow students and professors, the protagonist embarks on a journey to unearth an ancient secret concealed within the wizarding world.
FitGirl Repacks is a website distributing pirated video games. FitGirl Repacks is known for "repacking" games – compressing them significantly so they can be downloaded and shared more efficiently. TorrentFreak listed FitGirl Repacks at sixth in 2021 and at ninth in 2020's Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites lists.
Emulators of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo's current eighth-generation video game console, have been in development since 2017, less than a year after the console's release. Multiple emulators have been in development, the most well-known being the now-defunct Yuzu, and Ryujinx. Switch emulators have been widely noted by video games journalists for the swift and significant progress of their abilities to accurately emulate the console, as they are already able to run existing and new titles for the console in a playable state, sometimes within days of their release, as well as able to run on a variety of devices, including PCs running Microsoft Windows and Linux, and the Steam Deck.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 D'Anastasio, Cecilia (22 February 2021). "The Woman Bulldozing Video Games' Toughest DRM". Wired. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ↑ "THE TOP TIER CONTRADICTION & HYPOCRISY OF THE HUMAN RACE". /r/EmpressEvolution. Reddit. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ↑ Maxwell, Andy (26 September 2020). "Games Cracker 'EMPRESS' Wants to Crowdfund Denuvo Cracks". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ↑ Macgregor, Jody (12 July 2021). "Pirates claim Resident Evil 8 crack fixes performance problems". PC Gamer. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ↑ Besharaty, Mark B. (21 February 2023). "Hacker Empress Set to Release Highly Anticipated Hogwarts Legacy Empress Crack". Gamelevate. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ↑ Maxwell, Andy (24 February 2021). "Denuvo Cracker EMPRESS "Arrested", Blames Repacker FitGirl & Reddit For Witch-Hunt". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ↑ Machkovech, Sam (28 March 2021). "Activision releases online-only PC game without online content, cracked in one day". Ars Technica. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
- ↑ Swiatek, Bart (25 February 2021). "Empress Arrested for Cracking Denuvo?". Gamepressure. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
- 1 2 Maruccia, Alfonso (24 February 2023). "Notorious game cracker has removed Denuvo from Hogwarts Legacy after just two weeks". TechSpot. Retrieved 5 March 2023.