List of warez groups

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This is an incomplete list of warez groups. Such groups typically tag their releases with NFO files. Due to the nature of the Warez scene, not much is known about these groups. Listed here are many of the more significant warez groups, with a short introduction of when they were formed and what they have done. Note that there are many other warez groups that are not included here.

Contents

[edit] Historical groups

These groups have existed for several years, or have already disbanded.

  • Australian Crackers United (also known as ACU)
Australian Crackers United were primarily based in Melbourne, Australia. They existed between 1987 and 1992 largely importing warez from overseas via standard dialup modem. They focused on C games and applications. [1]
  • Bentley Sidwell Productions
Bentley Sidwell Productions is said to have made some of the earlier IBM PC cracktros, because they credited themselves with CGA animations in their cracks. Bentley Sidwell Productions' history
  • Canadian Pirates Inc
Canadian Pirates Inc were a Toronto, Ontario based cracking group started in 1987 releasing Apple products.
The group history
The Dream Team was active between 1989 and 1996.
A late 1980s, early 1990s, games release group. [2]
DrinkOrDie released a pirated copy of Windows 95 before it was released at retail stores. They were subject to a raid in Operation Buccaneer. [3]
  • EViL
The iSO division (EViLiSO) was one of the first groups to release movies, eventually leading to many topsites accepting VCD releases.[citation needed] Released American Pie on the internet 3 months before its theatrical release. [1]
  • FiRM
The FiRM was a notable PC cracking group from 1989 to the early 1990s. They mainly released cracked games but also created several utilities such as PkUnlite which unpacked executables which were compressed using Phil Katz PkLite. The group history
The Humble Guys were the first warez group to make use of NFO files to document their releases. [4]
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.[5]
  • National Elite Underground Alliance (also known as NEUA)
National Elite Underground Alliance was an IBM PC warez release organization largely based out of New York which operated during the early 1990s.
PARADOX was founded in 1989, mainly cracking/release games for the Amiga. They have since spread to the PC and other consoles.They were one of the earliest groups to Successfully crack Windows Vista which was supposed to be a challenge for the hackers at the time of its release.They are one of the major warez groups still around today.
Pirates With Attitude 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 made global headlines by releasing Microsoft Windows 98 four weeks before it hit store shelves. PWA members were raided close after the passing of the No Electronic Theft or "NET" Act. [6]
  • Radium (also known as RDM)
Radium is known primarily for cracking and releasing high dollar audio editing software such as Cubase VST and Pro Tools. One of their greater accomplishments was to actually speed up the Fraunhofer MP3 codec as well as cracking the copy protection.[citation needed] Radium were said to have offered better support for their releases than the companies who actually manufactured the programs. [7] Several verses of the rap song Hackers and the Crackers" by Zearle are devoted to the group Radium. In 2004, it was discovered that some of the sounds included with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, such as WMPAUD1.WAV, were authored using a pirated version of Sound Forge which was supplied by Radium. [8] [9]
Radium was disbanded in 2001 to avoid the BSA, who had them listed as their "number one target." Since then, attempts have been made to restart the group.[citation needed]
Razor 1911 was founded in 1985 on the Commodore 64 but also had a major presence on the Amiga and the IBM PC. They were subject to raid in Operation Buccaneer and Operation Fastlink. They are one of the few groups still operating today.
RELOADED was founded in June 2004 from the ex-members of DEViANCE. [10] The most recent success was releasing and cracking Spore 4 days before it's street date. [11]
  • SHOCK
SHOCK was founded in July 1996 from the defunct group CiA by someone going by the alias Outbreak. In October 1996, SHOCK successfully merged with The Corporation (CORP). In 1998, SHOCK surpassed 1000 releases and founded an ISO division (SHOCKiSO). By 1999, SHOCK had 1500 releases and 2000 releases by May 30, 2000. The group history
TRSI began as an alliance between two warez groups: Tristar and Red Sector, Inc. 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. [12] In late 2003, TRSI became inactive and remains so today. [13]
The United Software Association 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 of 1992, several members of USA were arrested by the United States Secret Service and the Farmington Hills, Michigan police for credit card fraud. [14]

[edit] Application (ISO) groups

  • DEViSO
DEviSO was the very first video CD release group, founded in approximately 1997-1998, and went on to release some quality applications [2] before morphing into other group incarnations.
  • RiSE
FXP Scene Group focuses on warezing applications developed by members of The Business Software Alliance.[citation needed] [3]
  • We Love Warez (also known as WLW)
WLW was subject to raid during Operation Buccaneer, Operation Fastlink, and Operation Safehaven. Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement.

[edit] Cracking groups

  • ARAB TEAM 4 REVERSE ENGINEERING (also known as AT4RE)
A cracking team formed in 2007 that has published an book about reverse engineering in Arabic.
Official site
Phrozen Crew was founded in 1993 as a one of the first software cracking groups.
The official site: http://www.phrozencrew.net

[edit] PC games groups

  • CLASS (also known as CLS)
Class was a prolific game warez group which has been the repeated target of federal raids such as Operation Fastlink. They are a global group and have many members worldwide, often releasing "rip" games. The group ceased operations in 2004 after their 1,234'th release. [15]
  • DEViANCE
Subject to raid in Operation Fastlink. Many members are now supposedly releasing under the group name HATRED.[16]
One of the oldest groups in warez scene, founded in 1987. While still active, the group focuses on demos. [17] Fairlight was subject to raid in Operation Fastlink, which almost killed their ISO division. Their Demoscene division was not affected by the raid. Group NFO after the bust. FLT's Iso Division is still active in 2008 and is releasing from time to time new Game Titles.
  • Hoodlum
Hoodlum mainly focused on cracking Safedisc and Securom.[citation needed] They were targeted as part of the Operation Site Down raids in 2005. [18]
Group history
Myth was a warez group, focused on cracking and ripping PC games. Besides ripped games, the group also released trainers and cracked updates for games.[citation needed]
  • TECHNiC
TECHNiC is a small group from France, mostly active around 2004. They specialized on ripping games but they reportedly released stolen cracks. [19]

[edit] Console games groups

Echelon is a warez group which specializes in the release and distribution of console games, such as Dreamcast ISOs.[20][dead link]

[edit] Courier groups

  • The Cartel (also known as ThC)
The Cartel was a courier group that gave rise to The Speed Racer (TSR) as head of Razor 1911 in the early 1990s.
  • MiRaGe (also known as MrG)
MiRaGe was a prominent encoder group in the late 1990s, which operated through its IRC channel #movie-central on the DALnet network. The group received 0-day VCD releases via couriers and compressed them into the ASF video format, which was more suitable for mass distribution in a time where most users had 56k dial-up connections. It also operated a subgroup, MrG-MV, which applied the same distribution mechanism to music videos.
  • Motiv8 (also known as M8)
Motiv8 was born in early 1991 in the Commodore 64 Scene as a Demo/Release group. In 1994, lead by Mason and Xerox, it split off to create the Motiv8 PC Section. In February 1998 Mason disbands the group. June 29, 1998 Motiv8 was reborn under the leadership consisting of Dogan and Highlandr. As of 2005, Motiv8 is currently still active. The group history and member list.
  • Request To Send (also known as RTS)
RTS is one of the oldest still existing courier groups. The group began in 1994 and is still currently active as of June 17, 2008. On September 21st, 1994, RTS beats RiSC on #warez with Wing Commander Armada. The significance of this event was massive attention drawn to RTS. That fall was rough, though, with many narc attempts on people in the scene. Many of the top boards were forced to go down during this period.
  • Rise in Superior Couriering (also known as RiSC)
RiSC was one of the largest courier groups during BBS era.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ BitWorld - Amiga
  2. ^ The Dream Team (warez)
  3. ^ DrinkOrDie
  4. ^ The Humble Guys
  5. ^ International Network of Crackers
  6. ^ Software Pirate Guilty of Copyright Infringement Under NET Act (May 15, 2001)
  7. ^ Warez Wars - Articles - David McCandless - Writer
  8. ^ Windows Media Player sound files 'edited with warez' | Reg Developer
  9. ^ Microsoft Caught Out || kuro5hin.org
  10. ^ History of RELOADED
  11. ^ Spore cracked before it's street date
  12. ^ Tristar and Red Sector Incorporated
  13. ^ TRSI's website
  14. ^ United Software Association
  15. ^ Defacto2 - Class (CLS) Group Page
  16. ^ Defacto2 - Hatred (HTD) Group Page
  17. ^ Defacto2 - Fairlight (FLT) Group Page
  18. ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/June/05_crm_353.htm
  19. ^ http://www.defacto2.net/text.files/PC%20Modern/StandardRipRules.txt
  20. ^ Dreamcast NFOs at nforce.nl

[edit] References

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_warez_groups"
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