Release Group

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Under Release Group ( Engl. "Publication Group") or Warez Group is understood in the computer scene a group that movies, music, software, scripts and / or games (warez) illegally in the Internet published. Release groups are part of a global subculture called The Scene .

history

Release groups are the further development of a subculture that began in the 80s with the cracker groups on computer systems like C64 and later carried over to systems like Commodore Amiga and Atari ST . At that time they were still called cracking groups , as they had specialized exclusively in removing copy protection. While this form of a scene was mostly very closed (exchange by post, bulletin board systems , mailboxes ), the world of release groups is no longer limited by the Internet. This means that the assumed damage from illegal copies is greater than in the past.

Structure and organization

A release group usually consists of several people who take on various tasks and activities:

  • Leader - organizer of the group
  • Supplier - Has access to original software and makes it available to group members
  • Cracker - Removes copy protection
  • Courier / Trader - Distributes the release worldwide via FTP and FXP
  • Dubber - Synchronizes the mic / line (audio) to the desired video source.
  • Tradergroup - A community whose members distribute releases together on several servers / boxes.
  • Techs - system administrator of computers
  • Ripper - Makes copies of regular DVDs

(In so-called RiP-releasers Engl. To rip something out - something tear), other packing methods are used, such UHARC and ACE . Rips are executable copies of the originals that only get by with the bare essentials. Sometimes the textures of PC games are also compressed. For further compression, the programmers of the groups make special tools, for example to compress MP3 files with almost no loss. Then everything is put together in an installation routine. RIPs usually differ in quality compared to the other methods, as the quality is usually poorer.

It is also common for a release group to include so-called NFO files with the release . This not only contains information about the release itself, but also serves as a forum for the respective release group, through which internal greetings, thanks, ironic remarks or opinions are communicated. The NFOs are usually structured as follows:

  1. Huge headline (e.g. Fairlight or Razor1911 )
  2. Listed information (mostly release date, name of the software, size of the file (mostly. RAR or. ISO ), protection mechanism that was cracked (such as SecuROM ))
  3. Official information about the software
  4. Installation instructions
  5. Acknowledgments and personal comments

The scene also supplies itself and others with pre-installed programs in operating system setups. These, mostly Windows, ISOs, are usually included with all product updates and are updated monthly. To prevent confusion or change, the checksums or similar (e.g. MD5 , SHA ) of the respective release are published on the relevant websites .

Examples

Well-known release groups are mainly Conspiracy ("CPY"), CODEX and SKIDROW.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ crackwatch.com - Groups. Retrieved November 6, 2019 .