Movies, software or music distributed in violation of copyright
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.
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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 pirated software (i.e. illegally copied, often after deactivation of anti-piracy measures) that is distributed via the Internet. Warez is used most commonly as a noun, a plural form of ware (short for computer software), and is intended to be pronounced like the word wares/ˈwɛərz/.[1] The circumvention of copy protection (cracking) is an essential step in generating warez, and based on this common mechanism, the software-focused definition has been extended to include other copyright-protected materials, including movies and games. The global array of warez groups has been referred to as "The Scene", deriving from its earlier description as "the warez scene". Distribution and trade of copyrighted works without payment of fees or royalties generally violates national and international 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.
This section needs expansionwith: clear reference to published definitions of the included terms, most of which are as yet unsourced and so violate WP:VERIFY, etc.). You can help by adding to it. (August 2016)
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.
The production and/or distribution of warez is illegal in most countries due to the protections provided in the TRIPS Agreement.[14] Software infringers generally exploit the international nature of the copyright issue to avoid law enforcement in specific countries.[citation needed] Violations are typically overlooked in poorer 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]
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.[citation needed] However, many prosecution cases and convictions argue to the contrary. For instance, Dimitri Mader, the French national who operates a movie distribution warez site, Wawa-Mania, was fined 20,000 € and sentenced, in absentia, to a year in jail by a European court (after fleeing France for the Philippines), for his role in managing the site.[25] In the U.S., through 2004, more than 80 individuals had been prosecuted and convicted for trade in warez products (under the 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;[citation needed] for instance, while Wawa-Mania is under sanction in France, it remains in operation via a host in Moldova, and through use of an Ecuadorian top-level domain.[25] Hence, while high-profile web hosts and domain providers[who?] generally do not permit the hosting of warez, and delete sites found to be hosting them,[citation needed] private endeavours and small commercial entities continue to allow the trade in warez to continue.[citation needed] And, in some countries, and at some times, software "piracy" has been encouraged, and international and usual national legal protections ignored.[citation needed] A dispute between Iran and United States over membership in WTO and subsequent U.S. block of Iran's attempts at full-membership has led Iran to encourage the copying of U.S. software; hence, there has been a subsequent surge in Iranian "warez" and "crackz" websites (as Iranian laws do not forbid hosting them inside Iran).[citation needed] The same policy has been adopted by Antigua,[citation needed] and others.[citation needed]
Warez are often distributed outside of The Scene (a collection of warez groups) by torrents (files including tracker info, piece size, uncompressed file size, comments, and vary in size from 1k, to 400k.) uploaded to a popular P2P website by an associate or friend of the cracker or cracking crew. An nfo or FILE ID.DIZ is often made to promote who created the release. It is then leeched (downloaded) by users of the tracker and spread to other sharing sites using P2P, or other sources such as newsgroups. From there, it can be downloaded by millions of users all over the world. Often, one release is duplicated, renamed, then re-uploaded to different sites so that eventually, it can become impossible to trace the original file. Another increasingly popular method of distributing Warez is via one-click hosting websites.[27] In the early 1990s, warez were often published on bulletin boards that had a warez section.
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 Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit computers, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari ST and other systems. 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 postal service for spreading software, in an activity known as mail trading. Prior to the sale of software that came on CD-ROM discs and after hard drives had become available, the software did not require the floppy disc to be in the drive when starting and using the program. So, a user could install it onto their computer and mail the disk to the next person, who could do the same. Particularly widespread in continental Europe, mail trading was even used by many of the leading cracker groups as their primary channel of interaction. Software copyright violation via mail trading was also the most common means for many computer hobbyists in 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.
Today most warez files are distributed to the public via bittorrent and 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 their IP address. They will then contact their ISP, and further legal action may be taken by the company/ISP.[clarification needed]
In the mid-1990s, the average Internet user was still on dial-up, with average speed ranging between 28.8 and 33.6 kbit/s. If one wished to download a piece of software, which could run about 200 MB, the download time could be longer than one day, depending on network traffic, the Internet Service Provider, and the server. Around 1997, broadband began to gain popularity due to its greatly increased network speeds. As "large-sized file transfer" problems became less severe, warez became more widespread and began to affect large software files like animations and movies.
In the past, files were distributed by point-to-point technology: with a central uploader distributing files to downloaders. With these systems, a large number of downloaders for a popular file uses an increasingly larger amount of bandwidth. If there are too many downloads, the server can become unavailable. The opposite is true for peer-to-peer networking; the more downloaders the faster the file distribution is. With swarming technology as implemented in file sharing systems like eDonkey2000 or 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 IRC bot on the compromised systems alongside the 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]
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.
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 – Portable applications: Similar to RIPs, but in this case they're software applications instead of video games. The point of portable software is the fact that it can be placed on removable media (or any place on the local hard drive) and doesn't need installing; usually it is compressed into one executable file, by using software like VMware ThinApp or 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 product keys such as 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.
Moviecopyright infringement was looked upon as impossible by the major studios. When dial-up was common in early and mid-1990s, movies distributed on the Internet tended to be small. The technique that was usually used to make them small was to use compression software, thus lowering the video quality significantly. At that time, the largest copyright violation threat was software.
However, along with the rise in broadband internet connections beginning around 1998, higher quality movies began to see widespread distribution – with the release of DeCSS, ISO images copied directly from the original DVDs were slowly becoming a feasible distribution method. Today, movie sharing has become so common that it has caused major concern amongst movie studios and their representative organizations. Because of this the MPAA is often running campaigns during movie trailers where it tries to discourage people from copying material without permission. Unlike the music industry, which has had online music stores available for several years, the movie industry moved to online distribution only in 2006, after the launch of Amazon Unbox.
Because of this, cameras are sometimes forbidden in movie theaters.
A CD software release can contain up to 700megabytes of data, which presented challenges when sending over the Internet, particularly in the late 1990s when broadband was unavailable to most home consumers. These challenges apply to an even greater extent for a single-layer DVD release, which can contain up to 4.7GB of data. The warez scene made it standard practice to split releases up into many separate pieces, called disks, using several file compression formats: (historical TAR, LZH, ACE, UHA, ARJ), ZIP, and most commonly RAR. The original purpose of these "disks" was so that each .rar file could fit on a single 1.44MB 3½ inch floppy disk. With the growing size of games, this is no longer feasible, as hundreds of disks would need to be used. The average size of disks released by groups today are 50megabytes or 100megabytes, however it is common to find disks up to 200megabytes.
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 disk images (BIN or ISO files). A rip is a cut-down version of the title in which additions included on the legitimate DVD/CD (generally 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]
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.
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media.
In computer networks, download means to receive data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is sent to a remote server.
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. 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. Topsites also have very high storage capacity; a total of many terabytes is typical. 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.
A warez group is a tightly organised group of people involved in creating and/or distributing warez such as movies, music or software ("warez") in The Scene. There are different types of these groups in the Scene: release groups and courier groups. Groups often compete, as being the first to bring out a new quality release can bring status and respect – a type of "vanity contest". The warez groups care about the image others have of them.
The Warez scene, often referred to as The Scene, is an underground network of piracy groups specialized in obtaining and illegally releasing digital media before their official release date. The Scene distributes all forms of digital media, including computer games, movies, TV shows, music, and pornography. This network is meant to be hidden from the public, with the files shared only with members of the community. However, as files became commonly leaked outside the community and their popularity grew, some individuals from The Scene began leaking files and uploading them to file-hosts, torrents and EDonkey Networks.
A No-disc crack, No-CD crack or No-DVD crack is an executable file or a special "byte patcher" program which allows a user to circumvent certain Compact Disc and DVD copy protection schemes. They allow the user to run computer software without having to insert their required CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. This act is a form of software cracking. No-CD cracks specific to a variety of games and other software distributed on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM can be found on the Internet from various reverse engineering websites or file sharing networks. No-CD cracks have legal uses, such as creating backups of legally owned software or avoiding the inconvenience of placing a CD or DVD-ROM in the drive every time the software is being used, although they can also be used to circumvent laws in many countries by allowing the execution of full versions of non-legally owned applications or time-limited trials of the applications without the original disc.
Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program that searches for other connected computers on a P2P network to locate the desired content. The nodes (peers) of such networks are end-user computers and distribution servers.
File sharing in Canada relates to the distribution of digital media in that country. Canada had the greatest number of file sharers by percentage of population in the world according to a 2004 report by the OECD. In 2009 however it was found that Canada had only the tenth greatest number of copyright infringements in the world according to a report by BayTSP, a U.S. anti-piracy company.
Pirated movie release types are the different types of pirated movies and television series that are shared on the Internet. The quality and popularity of pirated movie release types vary widely, due to the different sources and methods used for acquiring the video content, the development and adoption of encoding formats, and differing preferences on the part of suppliers and end users as to quality and size-efficiency.
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia, program files, documents or electronic books/magazines. It involves various legal aspects as it is often used to exchange data that is copyrighted or licensed.
aXXo is the Internet alias of an individual who released and standardized commercial film DVDs as free downloads on the Internet between 2005 and 2009. The files, which were usually new films, were popular among the file sharing community using peer-to-peer file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent. A download-tracking firm BigChampagne found — in a sampling period in late 2008 — that almost 33.5% of all movie downloads were aXXo torrents. aXXo encoded files to approximately 700 MB – the same size for a compact disc. Due to the re-encoded quality of an aXXo file, the suffix "aXXo" was often used by imitators.
DrinkOrDie (DoD) was one of the most prestigious underground software piracy group and warez trading network during the 1990s. On 11 December 2001 a major law enforcement raid - known as Operation Buccaneer - forced it to close under criminal charges of infringement. DoD, as a rule, received no financial profit for their activities. The DoD network - which primarily consisted of university undergraduates - was also supported by software company employees, who leaked copies of software and other digital media. DoD was also actively involved in illicit file-trading with other networks.
Copyright infringement is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to produce derivative works. The copyright holder is usually the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned. Copyright holders routinely invoke legal and technological measures to prevent and penalize copyright infringement.
File sharing in the United Kingdom relates to the distribution of digital media in that country. In 2010, there were over 18.3 million households connected to the Internet in the United Kingdom, with 63% of these having a broadband connection. There are also many public Internet access points such as public libraries and Internet cafes.
Music piracy is the copying and distributing of recordings of a piece of music for which the rights owners did not give consent. In the contemporary legal environment, it is a form of copyright infringement, which may be either a civil wrong or a crime depending on jurisdiction. The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw much controversy over the ethics of redistributing media content, how much production and distribution companies in the media were losing, and the very scope of what ought to be considered piracy – and cases involving the piracy of music were among the most frequently discussed in the debate.
Torrent poisoning is intentionally sharing corrupt data or data with misleading, deceiving file names using the BitTorrent protocol. This practice of uploading fake torrents is sometimes carried out by anti-infringement organisations as an attempt to prevent the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of copyrighted content, and to gather the IP addresses of downloaders.
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, China, Indonesia and Vietnam are known for major manufacturing and distribution centers for pirated game copies, while Hong Kong and Singapore are major importers.
Twilight was a Dutch series of monthly warez CD-ROMs and DVDs. The series ran from early 1996 until June 16, 2001. In 2003, "B.G." was convicted for copyright infringements related to the Twilight series, as well as associated violence relating to the discs' production. The court estimated he had earned approximately 1,678,215 Euro with the series in question as well as others. The series was originally distributed from out of the Netherlands, but later appeared in many European countries as well.
References
↑ Adamsick, Christopher (2008-11-01). ""Warez" the Copyright Violation? Digital Copyright Infringement: Legal Loopholes and Decentralization". TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning. 52 (6): 10–12. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0207-0. ISSN8756-3894. S2CID150417186.
1 2 3 Staff at Collins (2014). "Warez [redirects from W4r3z]". Collins English Dictionary, Complete and Unabridged (12thed.). 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."
1 2 3 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.
1 2 3 4 5 Schwabach, Aaron (2014). Internet and the Law: Technology, Society, and Compromises. EBSCO ebook academic collection (2nd, reviseded.). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp.247f, and passim. ISBN978-1610693509. Retrieved 26 August 2016. The earlier edition is Schwabach, A. (2006). Internet and the Law…. ABC-CLIO's contemporary world issues. pp.307–309, and passim. ISBN978-1851097319., 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.
↑ Rehn, Alf (2004). "The politics of contraband: The honor economies of the warez scene". The Journal of Socio-Economics. 33 (3, July): 359–374. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2003.12.027. S2CID46154259.
↑ Eds. of the AHD. "Pirate". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4thed.). Bartleby.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-29. Retrieved 2010-02-18.
↑ Goldman, Eric (2004). "Warez Trading and Criminal Copyright Infringement". Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 51 (2): 395–436, esp. 427. SSRN487163. See also, Goldman, Eric (2004-01-07), "Warez Trading and Criminal Copyright Infringement," Working Paper, see or .
↑ Software Piracy Exposed: How Software is Stolen and Traded Over the Internet – By Paul Craig, Ron Honick, Mark Burnett, Published by Syngress, 2005, ISBN1-932266-98-4, Chapter 7 – The Distribution Chain, Pages 144–145 (View cited pages using Google Books)
↑ Software Piracy Exposed: How Software is Stolen and Traded Over the Internet – By Paul Craig, Ron Honick, Mark Burnett, Published by Syngress, 2005, ISBN1-932266-98-4, Chapter 4 – Crackers, Pages 88–90 (View cited pages using Google Books)
↑ Gehring, Verna V. (2004-08-01). "Chapter 3: Do Hackers Provide a Public Service". The Internet In Public Life. Rowman & Littlefield. p.47. ISBN978-0-7425-4234-1. 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.
Eve, Martin Paul (2021). Warez The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy. Brooklyn, NY. ISBN978-1-68571-036-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Goldman, Eric (2004). "Warez Trading and Criminal Copyright Infringement". Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 51 (2): 395–436, esp. 427. SSRN487163. See also, Goldman, Eric (2004-01-07), "Warez Trading and Criminal Copyright Infringement," Working Paper, at or .
Goldman, Eric (2005), "The Challenges of Regulating Warez Trading," Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 23, No. 24, see .
Rehn, Alf (2004). "The politics of contraband: The honor economies of the warez scene". The Journal of Socio-Economics. 33 (3, July): 359–374. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2003.12.027. S2CID46154259.
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