Slashdot Mirror
Inside the Shadow Internet
Paladin144 writes "Wired has a report about the mysterious 'pirate networks' that obtain new movies, music & games before they are released and spread them throughout the net. It's not as simple as putting a movie on LimeWire. These people are highly organized and very paranoid about secrecy. They maintain a hidden network of top-level FTP sites that get the best files first and allow them to trickle down the pyramid and into many a slashdotter's sweaty little fingers."
Yes I do, i'm only 16 now, was 13 when this happened.
The article didn't mention The Brains - the crackers who break the copy protections for games/apps or The Carders - people who use stolen credit cards to purchase a valid serial # for games/apps. Insiders are pretty rare.
And what's with the glorification? It's pretty boring stuff, expect when two groups release the same thing just a few minutes apart. You mainly sit in front of IRC all day long. In the Western countries it may be about bragging rights and prestige. In Asia, these releases are big business for a lot of computer stores. You feed your ego, they feed their family. What a waste of time.
The individuals this article recognizes are more commmonly known as FXPer's. These are often legitimate and illegitimate FTP server operators.
l for explanation) stole the HL2 code, was a botnet coder. While botnets are designed primarily for three purposes: DDoSing, File Trading, and Spamming, they are not used for stealing source code. Instead, this is someone that acted of their own will to use a botnet to hide their identity when stealing the source. The source was also propagated via this method.
Ago, who reportedly (see http://www.livejournal.com/users/gravito/2197.htm
The FXPer's are actually an echelon higher than botnet herders. The FXPer's have nothing to do with stealing Half-Life 2's source code. They are, indeed, the closest thing we have to romantic pirates. They also purchase the majority of the software they crack and distribute, ironically. They do this as a philosophical movement, and do not believe in copyright law or IP law.
A good deal of the FXPer's also contribute to open source and are active on Slashdot.
If you had read the Wired article, you would find that the reporter states that the current practice of piracy distribution can be traced back to 100 or so people operating C-64s in the 80s.
Not at all. In fact, I know that the name "courier" really stuck as a name for the guys trading copies for points, because USR eventually released Courier and Courier HST modems, and only crazy rich warez puppies could invest that kind of money or get their parents to buy them, while the rest of us were still using 9600, 2400 (MNP5 in software, maybe), or even 1200. The name had been used before, but so had a lot of others. I wonder why that's not in wikipedia?
Would you believe it, some other person here claims that FXPer is the real name for them?
Well stop looking and go to http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net Direct Connect is your daddy and the secret is out. Want to be on top without any work? http://www.keydesigns.biz Order a dc server for as low as 15 dollars a month, heck they will even fill your hub up with users free of charge. Small contribution = unlimited amounts of unconditional access to shared files. Then again you can always be just a user and build up your stash to get into more exclusive hubs with better releases. My advise, start at the top and get what you want.
PRINT "Signature line broken."
GOTO 1
Say what you want about the greedy "rich people," they got to be that way by trade, not theft.
Most of the large fortunes you can name were reaped through amoral or unethical means.
Warren Delano (as in, Delano Roosevelt) got his money through the opium business.
Joseph Kennedy was involved not only in some shady stock deals, but later ballooned his fortune with alcohol during Prohibition.
John Jacob Astor made his initial fortune trading alcohol for furs with native americans.
Bill Gates bought QDOS from Tim Paterson for a pittance, only to license it to IBM for millions.
Of course, one could argue that these men weren't actually breaking any laws, they were simply taking advantage of the situations at hand while disregarding moral or ethical constraints that might bind us "normal" (read: unsuccessful) folk.
Thanks for reminding me... Bruce Sterling's "The Hacker Crackdown", the chapter "$79,499". Though it's not NASA, it might (or might not) also be the incident you're thinking of.
That's because you were what is called a "mule" in the world of drug dealing. A mule is the low-end pusher/dealer, the person that deals with individual users, and always the fall guy. Not that I'm saying file sharing and drug dealing are analogous...
No. The guy who deals with the customers is the dealer. The mule is the guy who smuggles drugs from the growers/chemists to the dealers. They're pack animals. That's why they're called "mules".
Also, if they're under 18, they're very useful because they're more likely to take bigger risks than someone who might end up in federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison. As long as you're just infringing and not outright stealing, you're usually pretty safe if you're under 18.
However, I did know one guy who got caught carding over $10k worth of stuff that he would have sent to his friend's house in a nearby county. His friend's mom found a bunch of stuff they had carded and were going to sell in his closet, and the kid who did the carding went to juvie for a year and a half.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi