Paradox (Warez Group)

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A crack of paradox

Paradox (spelling: PARADOX , abbreviated PDX ) is a demo and warez release group . It is one of the most active organized groups that circulate illegal cracks for circumventing copy protection measures in computer and video games .

history

Paradox was founded at the end of 1989 by former members of the Danish group Trilogy (Bad Boy, Black Hawk, Tas, Pcsu, QRD) and the French group MAD (Olivier, Stinger, The Surge, Clash, Tagada). In its early days, the group was primarily specialized in cracking Amiga software. The Sega Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System were added later. After the group disbanded in 1991, as many active members switched to Quartex , it was brought back to life by Max MAXiMiLiEN Louarn and the former Quartex members Black Hawk and Paragon. Paradox released cracks for computer programs and games on the PlayStation , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation Portable , Dreamcast , Nintendo 64 , Nintendo GameCube , Wii , Xbox and Microsoft Windows . In May 2005, Paradox succeeded as the first warez group to break the copy protection of UMD data carriers for PlayStation Portable games. In the PC sector, a BIOS emulation from Paradox 2007 was the first possibility to bypass the activation requirement of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system without having to change the BIOS itself.

Both the original founders Olivier, Clash and Tagada, as well as the later Paradox new founder Maximilien Louarn were arrested for their activities. While Olivier, Clash and Tagada were arrested for using the Blue Box in France, Louarn was first arrested in 1993 for pirating Super Nintendo games. A year later he was arrested and convicted in the USA for phone card fraud at MCI Communications, in which Kim Schmitz was also involved. Paradox member tyson was a target in Operation Buccaneer, a major international raid in 27 cities and five countries in December 2001 in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada .

Demo party awards

Some of the demos published by Paradox won first places in international competitions in the demo scene .

  • 1st place Alcatraz Pentcost 1990
  • 1st place Saturne 1994 (Amiga 64)
  • 1st place Euskal 2001 (Wild Compo)

literature

  • Michael Newton: The Encyclopedia of High-Tech Crime and Crime-Fighting: From Airport Security to the Zyx Computer Virus ISBN 0-8160-4978-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Warezgruppe documentation on sega-dc.de
  2. ↑ Golem.de: PSP: UMD encryption cracked by the Warez group?
  3. ↑ Panagiotis Kolokythas: Windows Vista finally cracked? OEM BIOS is emulated , PC-Welt , March 5, 2007
  4. ^ Gérard Petitjean: Super Mario et les pirates . Le Nouvel Observateur. January 12, 1995. Archived from the original on October 31, 2008. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ Reza Rafati: The Ringleader: Kim (Owner Megaupload) involved in calling card fraud investigation in the nineties . Cyber ​​warning zone. January 21, 2012. Archived from the original on May 25, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2014: "Secret Service agents in Washington nabbed Frenchman Max Louarn in a sting for another calling-card scheme."
  6. ↑ Phone card scam figure sentenced . In: The Free Lance-Star , February 13, 1995. 
  7. ↑ Hacker Sentenced . The Washington Post. February 12, 1995. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  8. ^ Telecommunications Fraud Leader Sentenced . Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  9. ↑ Spiegel.de: "Drink or Die": Five years in jail for the internet pirate boss?
  10. ↑ Jan Krömer, Evrim Sen : No copy: the world of digital pirated copy . Klett-Cotta 1999, page 213, 3rd edition, ISBN 3608500294
  11. ↑ Results of the demo competition of the Euskal 9