Verizon Set To Act As Puppet For RIAA

Bad news today coming from a Verizon insider, stating that Verizon itself will begin monitoring at random what it's customers download, and issuing them copyright infringement notices if they're found to be downloading copyrighted music.

Verizon insiders which on the condition of anonymity, have stated that Verizon is to begin a new "test" letter campaign, and has already been slated to begin as of November 12th, 2009. The dirty scheme by Verizon is sure to anger many of it's customers, whom use the service and it's FiOS service specifically for it's advertised download speed.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is not new to anti-p2p leaning motivations, as for years it's been issuing people will the oh so dreaded copyright infringement notice. This is however, the first public announcement of such an anti-piracy group teaming up with an internet service provider, to censor the rights and regulate it's consumers.

Supposedly, there is no financial deal between the two organization, just that Verizon "willingly opened it's doors to the RIAA", stated the insider. So without a legal trial, or any conviction of committing any crime in any way, shape, or form, Verizon itself will begin to "police the net" with it's illegal censorship methods.

Many have stated that Verizon is doing this not only to appease the anti-piracy advocates which have heavily pressured the giant ISP, but also to appear as a "team-mate" to the governments which intend to advocate and enforce tough new file sharing legislation.

Deputy Director of Internet New Zealand, Jordan Carter, stated, “Big music and movie interests, and other content producers, are conducting a global campaign to put their interests ahead of citizens rights to use the internet and to not be subject to unreasonable and arbitrary penalties that do nothing for public interest.” Not only is Mr. Carter correct, but sadly he directly makes a valid point, this is in not in the interest of the public, but rather the interest of the behemoth corporations.

Earlier this year, Verizon spokeswoman Ellen Yu was quoted in Wired online editorials as saying “We are not working with them on this,” yet it seems that was a complete fabrication, or she was ill informed of the motives of the company which she is hired to speak for, Verizon.

I urge everyone whom uses Verizon to publicly complain and petition this idea, by contacting Verizon, simply by clicking this link.

It is a sad day, that without proper conviction of a crime, or without a fair trial, that an ISP acts itself as a law enforcing branch and a judicial branch. I hope that with the proper persuasion, from you, the consumers, that Verizon changes it's mind.

By:
xxxOBSCENExxx
November 14th, 2009 posted at ExtraTorrent.com

Using Non Microsoft Themes In Vista Or Windows 7

Are you tired of the boring themes that come with Vista or Windows 7? Aero not suiting your needs? Then you too can fully skin and theme your operating system, by simply applying a few patches and modify some windows entries. This simple process, will take you a matter of minutes, and then you will be on your way to a fully skinned and modified Windows experience.

To start of, .msstyles have been in place on Windows based operating systems for a long time. Although Microsoft only implemented a handful of themes for their operating systems, they were intended to be only developed by Microsoft designers, for Microsoft users. This is a myth. Anyone can change the themes, all they need to do, is follow a few easy steps.

First, you will need to have the "Take Ownership" ability. This is fairly easy to do, for various OS's and processors. You'll need to download this registry hack, which allows you to do so. You can find it HERE. Download and unzip the files contained in the zipfile. Double-click the InstallTakeOwnership.reg file and click through the prompts. No reboot necessary. It will then give you the ability, to right click a file or folder in any directory in your hard drive, and "Take Ownership" of that file/folder.

Next, you'll need to patch certain files withing the "hard drive"C:\Windows\system32\ folder. Depending on your OS, and system specs (32bit/64bit) (various service packs), you will easily be able to do this. First, navigate to HERE, and choose your operating system, and appropriate system specs as follows. Download the zipfile, and open the prepare for the next step.

Locate following three files:

uxtheme.dll

themeui.dll

shsvcs.dll

They will be in "hard drive"C:\Windows\system32\ "find files here". Now that you have installed the "Take Ownership" ability, you can simply right click each of these files, and take ownership of them. Do this one by one. Then find the three files again, and rename them, simply adding .old to the end of each. You will end up with uxtheme.dll.old, themeui.dll.old, and shsvcs.dll.old.

Now to the fun part. You may have seen various themes across the web. Although there is surely a hotbed of great skins and themes out there, Deviant Art has a great collection, which are easy to manage. Just be sure to read each one, to see if it is for a 64 or 32 bit OS first. Some work fine with both, others do not.

Finally, find one that suits your needs. If you see one you like, simply download it. When it completes, open it with WinRAR or any other extraction tool, and then extract the files to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes folder. After doing this, simply navigate to that destination, C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\ and double click on the Windows Theme File OR Windows Visual Style File you have added there. If you do not see it, it may be inside the folder named accordingly with the theme you have downloaded. Doing this will bring up the Themes Settings or Appearance Settings menu. Now all you need to do, is choose the style/theme you added, and click apply.

Just like that, you have hacked the windows registry, patched the .dll's for Microsoft themes, and issued yourself a cracked and fully working, customizeable theme. Here is a glance at how the "Start/Orb" would look with a theme I am currently using. As you can see, I have now a star which changes colors, instead of the start/orb.



You can also see in this image, how Aero is allowed as well, and the background or wallpaper's colors, are integrated automatically into the taskbar's color. What this means is, depending on the wallpaper shades or colors, you will have different results. Try a white or bright bordered background, then try a dark one. You may like one result and not like the other.

Many themes are possible, also are the ability to create them, if you have programming knowledge. This is a great and handy tip for those of us who do not like to be plain and who tend to stay original. Thanks again to Deviant Art, for supplying us with the many themes they have provided. Any extra links to new themes, or similar styles, please feel free to post below.

By:
xxxOBSCENExxx
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 posted on ExtraTorrent

Microsoft Entangled In WGA Anti-Piracy Lawsuit

Microsoft once again is making headlines, and not in the way their public relations board would prefer. Not suprisingly, a lawsuit that was enacted against the software giant Microsoft, is now finally having it's day in court. The lawsuit, which accused Microsoft of lying to it's consumers, by stating that its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software was a critical security update but in reality, it was a measure used to give the pc owner's data and logs and other private information back to Microsoft, and possibly other U.S. Government agencies.

The plaintiff in the case, had stated in the subpoena and court records, that Microsoft "phoned home" that data to its servers. WGA dates back to 2006, when Microsoft implemented the "critical security" feature into Windows Update, per Windows XP. The outrage began when Microsoft classified it as a "high priority" update, and forced 100% of users with the "automatic-update" feature enabled to download it. In fact WGA is not at all a "security" update nor is it "critical" to the commands that are required to run the operating system, but it is in fact a deceptive measure, used to track down "bootlegged" or "pirate" copies of Windows, and not allow future updates or features to users whom are using the "alleged" fake counterfeits. Not only does is it downright annoying, but it is also a violation of your privacy, by collecting usage and personal data without first informing the owner of the PC.

Microsoft is not new to lawsuits, stretching back many years to federal trials against the monopoly that still exists today. Microsoft also has the finances to fight anyone, whether that be a common citizen or the U.S. Government, money equals power, as we all know. Microsoft has since admitted Microsoft that the WGA feature transmits information whenever a user logs into Windows XP, yet stated that is their prerogative, since they do in fact hold copyrights and development rights to the software.

In fact it is not only not a prerogative that can be defended with the intentions that they have described, but it's an outright violation of the civil liberties and protections to citizens that are in place in many countries. You could have classified data on that PC which is detrimental to the existence of your company or business, and by Microsoft enabling themselves to transmit this data without your knowledge, they are breaking the law, and should be liable for any criminal or civil trials resulting from their actions.

That is exactly what is happening, as there is now a push to make this case a class-action lawsuit, meaning that thousands if not millions of people would be open to a settlement in court over the technological scandal Microsoft has dug themselves into. On September 22nd, that option for a class-action suit was brought in front of a Seattle Federal Court, and it's still under heavy contemplation by those overseeing the case.

"Ignoring the evidence, Plaintiffs tell an outrageously fictional tale of how Microsoft supposedly 'forced' WGA Validation onto more than 350 million Windows XP computers," Microsoft's defense team stated, during an appearance in front of U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones. "Without any evidence, Plaintiffs assert that Microsoft achieved this distribution by threatening to withhold critical security updates and breaking into computers without their owners' consent." The attorneys for Microsoft went on to state, "The fictional thesis on which Plaintiffs base their motion is demonstrably false."

Microsoft also denied that it ever withheld any updates or features to anyone who was using a counterfeit copy of the popular XP operating system, which was an outright lie. After the implementation of the WGA technology, as some of you may know, if you did not pass Genuine Advantage Validation, you could not use the Update feature after some time. "Despite Plaintiffs' assertions to the contrary, Microsoft never withheld any critical updates or security updates designed to improve the existing functionality of Windows XP, regardless of whether a user's copy of Windows XP was genuine." This was the exact quote from the behemoth Microsoft.

Microsoft went on to state that there was no basis for it to become a class action lawsuit, because they could never possibly inspect each and every computer running XP. "Each inspection would require a skilled computer technician and cost hundreds of dollars more than the $5 Plaintiffs seek for each proposed class member," which is again false, because WGA is an automated bot ran function, that does not actually require a human being to actually inspect any OS, merely an online scan of your system was all that would be needed. Without the WGA validation, there was no more updates for your OS. That is a fact. Another case of a billion dollar industry, totally bypassing the truth, simply to save a few hundred thousand dollars.

There is even more controversy in this case, which has been ongoing for nearly three years now, as ComputerWorld wrote a story stating that the honorable District Court Judge, Richard Jones, had in fact agreed to Microsoft's request which would classify secret sections of the WGA software development kit (SDK), with Microsoft stating that making those details public could possibly enemies or hackers inside information on how to manipulate, break, or crack, WGA source code. So the judge has agreed to keep certain information classified which is in fact related to the case, as the development goals and purposes of the technology could prove Microsoft's intentions, a complete secret from the court.

Not only is this a sign of a corrupt court, but shows that undoubtedly Microsoft will only be damaged in it's public relations appearance from this case, and chances are, will only receive a punishment similar to a slap on the wrist. Not bad for one of the world's richest corporations. The court docket states that the case is set for it's trial, which involves nine different plaintiffs, including two competing companies, is set to go to trial Jan. 25, 2010.

Microsoft has seen it's day in court before, anti-trust cases, to civil cases, to alleged criminal indictments, but never has it fallen to the pressures of the government of the United States. I assume that could possibly have to do with the fact that Microsoft's annual revenue is more than ten times the total per-capita income of the United States Government, or maybe that's just one of those ironic coincidences. Only time will tell the fate of Microsoft, but I for one will not be surprised when Microsoft wins, or continues it's "business as usal" methods up until the trial, and afterwards.

By:
xxxOBSCENExxx
October 5th, 2009 posted on ExtraTorrent.com

The Warez Scene Hierarchy

Source: AboutTheScene

The scene is built up in a certain hierarchy. To explain the structure of this, here is a global overview of the piracy food chain. Not all these ‘layers’ are considered as a part of the scene by everyone. The anti piracy organizations and most of the other parties which are not in the scene themself, do consider all these groups to the scene. Though they are not a part of the scene. In fact, the releasegroups and the people on the topsites hate these other groups. The reason for this is that fxp boards, irc traders but mostly peer to peer users bring the scene in danger. The sceners (people from the scene) want to keep the releases for a limited amount of people. Since everyone who knows how to use a computer knows how to use p2p-software, everyone would be able to download releases. This causes big losses for record labels, movie producers etc, what leads to the anti-piracy organisations, police/fbi-attention etc. On their turn, this brings the sceners in danger, so that’s why they dissaprove these groups. FXP boards consider themselves in the scene. Irc-traders and newsgroups might now even know about the scene, and p2p-users defenetly don’t know about the scene.

Here is the hierarchy:
 Releasegroups – Groups of people who release the warez into the scene. Often linked with Site Traders.
Topsites – Very fast FTP servers with people who trade the releases from the above groups to other (top)sites.
FXP Boards – People who scan/hack/fill vulnerable computers with warez.
IRC Trading – Users of IRC who download from “XDCC Bots” or “Fserves”.
Newsgroups – People who download from alt.binaries newsgroups.
Peer-To-Peer – Users of p2p (peer-to-peer) programs like KaZaA but also BitTorrent who share with eachother.

We’ll start at the bottom and we’ll work ourselves up to the top.

Peer-To-Peer
At the bottom of the piracy food chain we have the peer-to-peer users. There seem to be two groups of peer-to-peer users. The first group are kids and downloading some music now and then because they can’t afford cd’s. Second are the older p2p users who use p2p for also for downloading games, programs, movies, etc. In the media, peer-to-peer are being labeled as dangerous pirates. They are a lot easier to bust for the RIAA/FBI and there are quite some of them who are being sued by the RIAA for thousands of dollars. The level of security is very low, and it’s easy to get access to all warez. This is why they endanger the sceners. The download speeds are quite low since you download from other users. Most p2p-users don’t have a clue about what a long way a release has made untill it’s available for download in p2p software. It has been released, spread from topsites to fxpboards, then to irc/newsgroups and in the end it’s available for the mass via peer-to-peer. The speed of p2p is the lowest, since users download from eachother.
A special kind of p2p system is BitTorrent. It uses a central location which coodinates the downloads but it doesn’t host any downloads. The download itself consists of several pieces offered by various users. Such a coordinated group is called a torrent. BitTorrent is widely used, allthough it’s rather insecure. It’s also fairly accessible. The central distributionpoint is called the tracker. The tracker knows which users already have the file, and which users want to download it. The users who already have the download are called seeders, and the users who are downloading are called leechers. Every user who downloads a certain file, downloads a different part of the file. When the seeder goes offline, they can still download from eachother and all complete the file.
Newsgroups
Once upon a time when the internet was still young there were special interest groups that shared information and kept in touch by using a bulletin board type system. This system was designed to take advantage of the internet in a way an old bulletin boards couldn’t; each location had a machine (news server) that would store all the messages of the newsgroups that were desired by it’s users. A short time passed and the users of certain newsgroups thought that this system would be ideal to share files with each other. It’s easy to access newsgroups but unless you are familiar with them, navigating and downloading files from the newsgroups takes more effort than p2p software. You can download from newsgroups using a newsreader, for example: NewsLeecher and Xnews. There are also pay newsservers, these are faster and can hold up the files longer than free newsservers. Free newsserver can be quite fast, and pay newsservers are even faster.
IRC Trading
Not far up from peer-to-peer users we have the people who go to IRC for their warez. In general, these people intend to have a better knowledge about computers and the internet. Warez channels are often run by people who have access to a fair amount of pirated material.
There are generally two types of these channels. These can often feed by people from FXP boards or bad sites. First there are Fserve (user-to-user) channels. They mainly use the mIRC client’s File Server function and some scripts to share their warez directly from their hard drives. Second there are XDCC (server-to-user) channels. These are usually run by people who are into FXP boards or in the scene. They have access to fast, new warez. They employ people to hack into computers with fast internet connections and install XDCC servers (usually iroffer) which are used to share out pirated goods. There is a limited amount of people allowed to download a release at once, so when a release is populair you are placed into a waiting line. That way good download speeds will be guaranteed. The download speed is often very good.
FXP Boards
FXP is the File eXchange Protocol. It isn’t an actual protocol, just a method of transfer making use of a vulnerability in FTP. It allows the transfer of files between two FTP servers. Rather than client-to-server, the tranfer becomes server to server. The fxp’er just gives a command to 1 server to send files to the other server. FXP usually allows very fast transfer speeds although it totally depends on the connection of the servers. Still it’s ussually faster since the hackers are able to hack very fast servers. The fxp boards layer in the piracy food chain is quite unknown and therefore rather safe. Though the hacker’s activities are very illegal, and therefore dangerous. Security is important. The members are ussually a lot smarter than irc-traders/p2p-users and have a greater knowledge about computers and internet.

The boards usually run a vBulletin forum with custom hacks. The boards ussually don’t work with a credit system. Though the admins do an user cleanup once in a while. The board’s members consist of scanners, hackers, and fillers. They each have their own tasks:

The Scanner
The Scanner’s job is to scan IP ranges where fast internet connection are knwon to lie (usually universities, company’s, etc.) for vulnerable computers. We’re talking brute forcing passwords from programs, or scanning on ports for certain programs which contain a bug. The scanner will oftten use slow previously hacked computers for his scanning (known as scanstro’s), using remote scan programs. Once the scanner has gotten his results, he’ll run post this at the board. This is where the Hacker” comes into play.

The Hacker
Hackers are the people who break into computers. There are many easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities. Hackers get in to a computer using an exploit to get in via a program’s bug. An exploit is a script which uses the bug to get in the pc. The program/exploit he uses (of course) depends upon the vulnerability the scanner has scanned for.When in, the hacker runs his rootkit (a modified version of Serv-U ussually). This rootkit is the server where other people can download from. Most likely he will also install remote administrator software (ussually Radmin), so he can get in to the computer easily. Once the server is installed and working he’ll post the admin logindata to the FTP server on his FXP board. Depending on the speed of the compromised computer’s (aka pubstro or stro) internet connection and the hard drive space, it will be used either by a filler or a scanner.

The Filler
Now if the pubstro is fast enough and has enough hard drive space, it’s the filler’s job to get to work filling it with the latest warez. The filler gets his warez from other ftp servers hacked/filled by other people. Fillers sometimes have site access, and fxp releases from there to their pubstro. These people who are in sites and in fxp boards are considered corrupt, and if other sceners find out, they will be scenebanned (banned from all his sites). Though it is said that it happens quite often. Once he’s done fxp’ing his warez, the filler goes back to the board and posts leech logins for one and all to use. Fillers (with site access) all try to post a release the first. It’s kinda like a race, who ever wins it get the most credit. The speed of these pubstro’s depend on how fast the pc is they hacked. Though the hackers from these fxp-boards are rather good, and are able to hack 100mbit’s.

Pub/Pubbing
Pubbing is not so important anymore nowadays. This scan/hack/fill methodes are from the old days when many university and business ftp servers had write access enabled on anonymous ftp-servers. So instead of break ing into a computer, they would just upload their warez and give the IP address to their friends. This was very popular but died out for obvious reasons. It works like this; there is someone who scans for ftp servers with anonymous logins with write-access. Once found a pub would be tagged (a folder with the name “tagged.by.name”). The idea was that if a pub was already “tagged” other pubbers would leave it alone. This apparently worked for a while, with people respecting other people’s tags and leaving the pubs alone. But it certainly hasn’t worked for a very long time.
A method against retagging is dir locking. This is used in pubbing to stop people which are not allowed to get into the directory of the tagger (and slowing the server down). There are a couple or dir locking tricks. The first and easiest is to make a maze. When you make a maze you just make a lot directories and other people would never know in what map your stuff is since you would have to try them all out. Second is UNIX tagging. That’s about a the magical character, the ÿ (alt+0255) which is an escape character on UNIX machines. When give a directory a name containing that character, the name will be displayed different then when you typed. The creator can get in by typing in the original name. Last is dir locking NT systems. More about this and other dir locking here.

Topsites
Next on the list and pretty much at the top or near the top are the site traders. Site trading is basically sending releases from one site to another. Releasegroups publish their releases on these sites, so they are the first stadium in the distribution of warez. From there on a release will be spread all over the world.

The Sites
These sites have very fast internet connections. 10mbit is considered the minimum, 100mbit good, and anything higher pretty damn good. The sites have huge hard disk drives. 200GB would probably be the minimum, and they can get up to 5 terabytes. These sites are often hosted at schools, universities, people’s work. Also some countires have the preference. The Netherlands and Germany have fast internet connections, Sweden also but then a lot cheaper. These sites are referred to as being legit. This means that the owner of the computer knowns that they are there and being run, which is the opposite of pubstro’s. Fast connections mean a lot to some people. If you have access to a 100mbit line (and are willing to run a warez server there), there are people who would quite happily pay for and have a computer shipped to you just for hosting a site that they will make absolutely no profit from. Commercial use of site access is not something common, most people do it just for fun, not to make money. Standard site software are GlFTPd and DrFTPd. As well as running FTPD, the sites run an eggdrop bot with various scripts installed. The bot will make an annoucement on an IRC channel when a directory is made or upload completed. It will also give race information, since just like on fxp boards, the site traders try to send a release as quick as possible to another site. That way he will earn credits. The more credits, the more he can download. The speed between topsites can reach about 15 MBps.

The People
There are basically three ranks in sitetrading: siteops, affiliates and racers. Siteops (Site-Operators) are the administrators. There are usually between two and five siteops per site. One is often the supplier of the site, another the person who found the supplier and guided them through the installation of the FTPD. The other will be friends and
people involved in the scene. One or more of the siteops will be the nuker. It is his job to nuke any releases that are old or fake. Affiliates are the releasegroups who post their releases there right after they are finished.

Racers are the people who will race releases between sites. Usually they will have access to a number of sites and will fxp release as soon as they’re released. FXP’ing a release will gain credits. The ratio is usually 1:3, so fxp’ing 3 GB will get them 9 GB credits on the site. The race is to upload the most parts of the release at the fastest speed. Racing happends shortly after a release is released.

History of warez

 Warez

“Warez” refers primarily to virtual copyrighted material traded in violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to illegal releases by organized groups, as opposed to peer-to-peer file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar interest using a Darknet. It usually does not refer to commercial for-profit software counterfeiting. This term was initially coined by members of the various computer underground circles, but has since become commonplace among Internet users and the media.
 
Etymology

The word “warez” was coined to indicate more than one piece of pirated software, as “software” is a non-count noun and users found it natural to use a count noun to differentiate between one “ware” (one piece of software [one program]) and multiple “warez” (multiple pieces of software [multiple programs]). Due to the relatively large amounts of time needed to transfer large files over slow telephone modems and bulletin board systems (BBSes), pirates would typically ask for one-for-one trades from other pirates. Hence, software pirates adopted a merchant-like attitude with their software collection(s) and the term “wares” was apt.

The collection of warez groups is referred to globally as the “warez scene” or more ambiguously “The Scene”.

History of warez

Product piracy

Piracy in its current form began during the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Industrial textile production was one of the important factors in economic growth. Plans for weaving machines were patented and the British government applied strict restrictions on exports of the technology.

At the time, patent law in the United States limited all patents to US citizens only and, protected by this act, several businessmen such as Francis Cabot Lowell began manufacturing without paying any compensation to the patent holders in Britain. Francis Cabot Lowell’s mill was based on technology patented by Edmund Cartwright. Such acts were condoned by the US government for over a century until the passing of the International Copyright Act.

During the 1980s, and continuing into the 2000s, some of the most famous products targeted were Lacoste shirts. This type of product counterfeiting was and still is done by organized crimeChina, Thailand, Russia. These groups illegally produce millions of counterfeit copies of clothing, electronics, microchips, music CDs, VHS & DVD movies, and software applications. groups often based in Eastern or Asian countries such as

While most copies of pirate software are manufactured in Asian factories, their distribution often begins in first-world nations such as the United States and Western European countries, where the largest international publishers of proprietary software are located. These pirateSouth America, Asia, the Middle EastEastern Europe. In some countries they are sold at retail price which can be worth several billion dollars annually. While the selling of pirate copies is less common in Western nations, its popularity is growing. In Western nations, pirate products are usually sold in specific areas, such as Chinatown in New York and the Pacific Mall in suburban Toronto. Unlike Asian countries where pirate goods can even be sold in retailers, this kind of distribution is relatively rare in Western nations. copies are regularly sold on city streets throughout most of and

Rise of software piracy

Software piracy has been an issue from the day the first commercial software program hit store shelves. Whether the medium was cassette tape or floppy disk, software pirates found a way to duplicate the software and spread it amongst their friends. Thriving pirate communities were built around the Apple II, Commodore 64, the Atari 400 and Atari 800 line, the ZX Spectrum, the Amiga, the Atari ST among other personal computers. 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 pirate network; software not available on one continent would eventually make its way to every region through the pirate network via the bulletin board systems.

It was also quite common in the 1980s to use physical floppy disks and the postal service for spreading software, in an activity known as mail trading. Particularly widespread in continental Europe, mail trading was even used by many of the leading cracker groups as their primary channel of interaction. Software piracy via mail trading was also the most relevant means for many computer hobbyists in the Eastern bloc countries to receive new Western software for their computers.

Copy protection schemes for the early systems were designed to defeat the casual pirate, as “crackers” would typically release a pirated game to the pirate “community” the day they were earmarked for market.

A famous event in the history of software piracy policy was an open letter written by Bill Gates of Microsoft, dated February 3, 1976, in which he argued that the quality of available software would increase if software piracy was less prevalent. However, until the early 1990s, software piracy was not yet considered a serious problem by most people. In 1992, the Software Publishers Association began to battle against software piracy, with its promotional video “Don’t Copy That Floppy”. It and the Business Software Alliance have remained the most active anti-piracy organizations worldwide, although to compensate for extensive growth in recent years, they have gained the assistance of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), as well as American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI).

Causes which have accelerated its growth

In the late 1990s, computers became more popular. This was attributed to Microsoft and the release of Windows 95, which made using an IBM PC compatible computer much easier. Windows 95 became so popular that in developed countries nearly every middle-class household had at least one computer. Similar to televisions and telephones, computers became a necessity to every person in the information age. As the use of computers increased, so had software and cyber crimes.

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 (with a maximum speed of 56 kbit/s becoming possible in early 1999 with the advent of V.90). 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. In addition many sites with links to Rapidshare and other sites where you can upload files attribute to the growing amount of warez.

Types of warez

There is generally a distinction made between different sub-types of warez:

• Apps / Appz – Applications: Generally a retail version of a software package.
• Cracks / Crackz – 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 anti-piracy protections.
• Games / Gamez – Games: This scene concentrates on both computer based games, and video game consoles, though the latter are more often referred to as ISOs and ROMs.
• Movies – Movies: Pirated movies generally released while still in theaters or from CDs/DVDs/HD-DVDs prior to the actual retail date.
• NoCD/NoDVD/FixedExe – A file modification that allows an installed program to be run without inserting the CD or DVD into the drive.
• TV-Rips – Television programs: Television shows generally released within a few hours after airing, with all commercials edited out. DVD Rips of television series fall under this sub-type.
• mp3 – MP3 audio: Pirated albums, singles, or other audio format usually obained by ripping a CD or a radio broadcast and released in the compressed MP3 audio format.
• E-Books/ebooks/e-books – Books: These include pirated ebooks, scanned books, scanned comics, cartoons etc.
• Scripts – Scripts: These include pirated scripts coded by companies in PHP, ASP, and other languages. (such as vbulletin, invision power board, ect)
• Templates – Templates: These include pirated website templates coded by companies.
• DOX – Computer game add-ons: These include nocds, cracks, trainers, cheat codes etc.
• 0-Day Warez (pronounced as zero day warez sometimes as “O days”) – This refers to a crack which has been released on the same day as the original.
• MVids (Music videos) – Often ripped from TV, HDTV and DVD. Distributed in XViD format.

Software piracy

Software cracking groups delegate tasks efficiently among their members. These members are mostly located in first world countries where high-speed internet connections and powerful computers are readily available. Software cracking groups are usually quite small. Only a few skilled people usually do the cracking work, as the complexity of reverse engineering and patching code requires a deep understanding of the software.

Movie piracy

Movie piracy 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 techniques that were usually used to make them small were to use compression software and lower the video quality. At that time, the largest piracy 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 online music stores available since 2000 and more recently supported by music programs such as iTunes, the movie industry has only moved to online distribution in 2006 with the launch of Amazon Unbox.

Distribution methods

There are several methods in which warez material could be distributed. The methods include, but are not limited to: Mail, Modem (Modem), File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and File eXchange Protocol (FXP), Usenet, Xabi Direct Client Connection (XDCC, read Direct Client-to-Client (IRC / Direct Client-to-Client (DCC))), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and Peer-to-peer (P2P) clients such as Limewire and BitTorrent (BT). Forums are a modern community method to distribute warez as well EX: Removed due to: DMCA violation.

File formats of warez

A CD software release can contain up to 737 megabytes 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 DVDGB 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 1.44 MB 3 1/2 inch floppy disk. With the growing size of games, this is no longer feasible, as hundreds of disks would need to be used. release, which can contain up to 4.7

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 creates the facility of downloading from many sources.

With the rise of modern peer-to-peer programs, which automatically break files up for partial downloads, compression via RAR, ZIP, and KGB is still commonplace but the breaking up of files is less so.

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 Portable Document Format (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 MP3Vorbis, 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. A nuke is stand-alone version of a game or application, in which the installer has been removed or replaced and the program is modified to execute without installation into a particular directory. or

Motivations and arguments

Software Pirates generally exploit the international nature of the copyright issue to avoid law enforcement in specific countries. In Russia, the copying of software was once explicitly permitted by law when such software was not in the Russian language. This is no longer the case, but prosecutions for copyright infringement are still very rare. In March of 2005, prosecutors in Moscow refused to charge the popular website Allofmp3.com with criminal copyright infringement because Russian copyright law apparently only covers physical media.

The production and/or distribution of warez is illegal in most countries. However, it is typically overlooked in poorer third world countries with weak or non-existent IP protection. Additionally, some first world countries have loopholes in legislation that allow the warez scene to continue to operate in a limited fashion.

Legality

Warez is often a form of copyright infringement punishable as either a civil wrong or a crime. The laws and their application to warez activities may vary greatly from country to country. Generally, however, there are four elements of criminal copyright infringement: the existence of a valid copyright, that copyright was infringed, the infringement was wilful and the infringement was either for commercial gain or substantial (a level often set by statute). Often public sites such as pages hosting torrent files claim that they are not breaking any laws because they are not offering the actual data, but only link to other places or peers which contain the infringing material.

Depending on the country, in some cases, software piracy might become legal and encouraged. As a dispute between Iran and USA over membership in WTO, and subsequent blocking of Iran’s attempts at full-membership in the organization by the USA, has lead Iran to encourage US software piracy. Subsequently, there has been a surge in Iranian “warez” and “crackz” websites, as unlike other countries, the Iranian laws do not forbid hosting them inside Iran.

Terminology

Warez (intended to be pronounced like the word wares [weÉ™(ɹ)z] but sometimes incorrectly like the English pronunciation of Juárez [wɑɹɛz]) is a derivative of the plural form of “software”. Rarely intentionally spelled juarez to alude in a tongue in cheek manner to stereotypical notions of the U.S.-Mexican border as a place of illegal smuggling.

Piracy like all other words has different shades of meaning. Some denotative, others connotative, some implying social acceptability, others pejorative. Whoever controls access to the discourse is able to pick the words with meanings that frame the reader’s response. 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”. Some groups (including the Free Software Foundation) object to the use of this and other words such as “theft” because they represent a partisan attempt to create a prejudice that is used to gain political ground. “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” (FSF). The FSF advocate the use of terms like “prohibited copying” or “unauthorized copying”, or “sharing information with your neighbor.”

On the other hand, many self-proclaimed “software pirates” take pride in the term, thinking of the romanticized Hollywood portrayal of pirates and sometimes jokingly using “pirate talk” in their conversations. Although the use of this term is controversial, it is embraced by some groups such as Pirates With Attitude.

Antimalware Pro removal instructions for XP

1.Download and run this free cleaner, choose "Select all" and "Empty selected".

2.Turn off your system restore! Right click on "My Computer and choose "Properties","System Restore tab",check the box "Turn off System Restore to all drives" and hit apply,Ok.

3.Hit Ctrl Shift and Esc at the same time and bring up your task manager and choose the processes tab and look for antimalwarepro.exe and setup_en[1].exe ? Rt click them and choose end process.If you can't end the process download this free tool called Pocket Killbox and read the instructions and learn how to use this handy tool.Check processes at these sites.Task manager process list or the Process Library.

4.When your done shutting them down click on [File] at the top left corner of your task manager and choose New Task (Run).Type msconfig and hit Ok. Go in BOOT.INI tab and tick both "Safe boot" and to the right of that "Networking" and hit Apply and Close.(It will boot in "Safe with networking mode" Choose Administrator)
(Note): look in your task manager and make sure antimalwarepro.exe and setup_en[1].exe are not running,if they are shut them down again.

5.While in "Safe with networking mode" download Malwarebytes.

(Note)If you already have Malwarebytes installed and it won't run go in it's program file and rt click on the red mbam app and rename it mbam.bat then rt click and choose send to Desktop (create shortcut) now close out of everything and go to your desk top and use that app to launch M-Bam for now on.

6.Right click on the mbam setup app you downloaded and rename it xxxx then Dbl click on it and install and update it and run a full scan and delete/quarantine all entities it finds and restart if it asks? (Note) If it won't update use this link to download and install the latest rules.

7.Go to Start,Run,type msconfig and hit ok.Go in BOOT.INI tab and untick Safe Boot and then go in the Startup tab and (uncheck) all programs (not) needed at startup (Only check programs you want running all the time like antivirus,IM,etc)"Less is better in this case" and hit apply,close,restart.
Your computer will boot normally and on your desktop a window will popup,check "Don't show this message" box and hit ok.(Note) Check here for info's on startup programs and if you need help watch this video.

 8.Download Bitdefender antivirus and install,update,and depending on time run either a "Deep System" scan which takes hours and cleans everything or a "Full System" scan that takes minutes and will shut down most malware till you can run a deep scan? When the scan is done delete/quarantine all entities it finds and your done.

(Note) Don't turn on "System Restore" till your sure your clean and everything is running ok.

Stay Safe Out There (~_~)

Ford Recall on ABS switch. (temporary fix)

  Speed Control Deactivation Switch Recall (09S09)

Ford is recalling all remaining vehicles – approximately 4.5 million U.S. vehicles – equipped with Texas Instruments speed control deactivation switches.
While the data show the majority of the vehicles being recalled do not pose a significant safety risk, we are recalling the vehicles to reassure customers and eliminate any future concerns.
This recall affects older models, including discontinued vehicles. The majority is greater than 10 model years old, with some up to 18 model years old.

 Ford has a recall on the Speed Control Deactivation Switch on the bottom of the brake master cylinder which is causing fires and all sorts of electrical problems.This is a temporary fix to solve some of this problem.

 Beware your car is still in danger of catching fire do to leaking brake fluid from the Speed Control Deactivation Switch but at least all but the cruise will work till you can have it replaced. Do not park your car in a garage unless you want your house to burn down to!

Vehicle came in with customer complaint of  a/c inop and the odometer / message center only has dashes displayed and abs light is on and no cruise control. This vehicle was a 2000 Ford Windstar but this repair applies to several years of Windstars.

Having seen this problem before I checked to see if any fuses were blown and fuse number 10 was blown it is the lighter colored blue in the picture. According to Mitchell On Demand, number 10 fuse supplies power to the following systems: Shift lock actuator, instrument cluster, climate control switch assembly, blend door actuator, power sliding doors, reverse parking aid, speed control, a/c clutch cycling pressure switch,rear defrost relay, and brake pressure switch.



Also as mentioned earlier I have seen this problem before and went to the culprit. The brake pressure switch on the end of the master cylinder. I disconnected the connector and positioned it out of the way and then replaced the fuse. All systems went back to work with the exception of the cruise control and it was not working because of the switch I had disconnected. I then referred the customer to the dealership as this part is under recall for catching on fire.



The brake pressure switch is located and the end of and on the bottom side of the master cylinder. The picture was taken looking down between the master cylinder and the breather tube. Disconnecting this switch will remove the short until the switch can be replaced and on most Ford vehicles it will be done under a recall. Contact your local dealer with your VIN number to see if the recall applies to your vehicle. If you need to change the switch yourself, have the new one ready, remove the breather assembly, unscrew the switch and screw the new one end, install wiring adapters that come in the kit from Ford and you are done.