List of warez groups

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This is an incomplete list of warez groups. Such groups typically tag their releases with FILE ID.DIZ and NFO files. Many groups are similar, and due to the nature of the scene, not much is known about them. Listed here are many of the more prominent / active warez groups, with a short introduction of when they were formed and what they do. Note that there are many other warez groups that are not included here. For more general information about these groups, see the main article Warez.

1 Historical groups
2 Cracking / cracking tutorial groups
3 Application (ISO) groups
4 PC games groups
5 Console games groups
6 TV Groups
7 Courier groups
8 References

[edit] Historical groups

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

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. The group history

CPI > Canadian Pirates Inc

Canadian Pirates Inc were a Toronto, Ontario based cracking group started in 1983 releasing Apple products.The group history

CiA > The Corporation (CORP) > SHOCK: Born July 1996 out of the defunct group CiA, SHOCK was founded by Outbreak. In October 1996, SHOCK successfully merged with :the group The Corporation (CORP). In 1998, SHOCK surpassed 1000 releases and also saw the birth of SHOCK's ISO division (SHOCKiSO). In 1999, SHOCK passed the 1500 release barrier. May 30, 2000, SHOCK passed the 2000 release milestone. The group history

Drink Or Die (DOD): Managed to release Windows 95 before it came out as retail. Subject to raid in Operation Buccaneer.

EViL: The iSO division (EViLiSO) was one of the first groups to release movies (then as Video CDs), eventually leading to many topsites accepting VCD releases. Released American Pie on the internet 3 months before its theatrical release. [1]

Fantastic Four Cracking Group (F4CG): Fantastic Four was a warez release group that also cracked copy protected games on the Commodore 64. Founded circa 1983, they typically included a cracktro with their releases. Still active as of 2006, albeit in a much less prominent role.

FiRM: The Firm was a notable PC cracking group from the late 1980s and early 1990s. They released mainly cracked games but also created several utilities such as PkUnlite which unpacked executables which were compressed using Phil Katz PkLite. The group history

International Network of Crackers (INC): INC was one of the premier cracking/releasing warez for the IBM PC during the very late 1980s and early 90s. The majority of their releases during 1993 were educational games for children. By early 1994, INC had completely disappeared from the warez scene.

National Elite Underground Alliance (NEUA): National Elite Underground Alliance was an IBM PC warez release organization largely based out of New York which operated during the very early 1990s.

PARADOX (PDX): Founded in 1989 on the Amiga. Spread to PC and many other consoles. Still around today.

Pirates With Attitude (PWA): They 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 4 weeks before it hit store shelves. PWA members were raided close after the passing of the No Electronic Theft or "NET" Act.[2]

Radium (RDM): Intentionally disbanded in 2001 to avoid the BSA who had them listed as their #1 target; attempts have been made to restart it. Known primarily for 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. While existing, Radium were said to have offered better support for their releases than the companies who actually manufactured the programs.[3] Several verses of the rap song Hackers and the Crackers" by Zearle [4] 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. [5] [6]

Razor 1911 (RAZOR): Razor 1911 was founded in 1985 on the Commodore 64 but had a major presence on the Commodore Amiga and the IBM PC. Subject to raid in Operation Buccaneer and Operation Fastlink. Since July 2006 they have started releasing games again.[7]

Scoopex (SCX): Scoopex was founded in 1988 and was mainly present on the Commodore Amiga. In the mid nineties they stopped all warez activity to concentrate on the demoscene. In 2006 there was a short cooperation with DEViANCE on PC and PSP (DEMOSECTION).

The Dream Team (TDT): A late 1980s, early 1990s, games release group. Later became known as The Dream Syndicate (TDS).

The Humble Guys (THG): IBM PC group which released the very first "NFO files".

Triad: Legendary in the Swedish underground warez scene. One of the leading Commodore 64 groups in Europe.

Tristar and Red Sector, Inc. (TRSI): TRSI began in 1990 as a cooperative Commodore 64 demo coding and cracking group. The alliance between Tristar and Red Sector, Inc. was formed after different group members met up at KewL Party in Denmark. TRSI naturally migrated from the C64 release platform to the Amiga and IBM-PC, and even branched off into the console gaming scene before finally disbanding their warez division. In late 2003 TRSI became inactive and remains so today. Some Red Sector members from Germany pled guilty for cracking programs from "Databecker".

United Software Association (USA): The United Software Association was a prominent IBM PC warez (gamez and appz) group during the 1990s. USA formed a co-op with the PC warez division of Fairlight which was best known as "USA/FLT". In late January of 1992, several members of USA were busted by the United States Secret Service and the Farmington Hills, Michigan Police for credit card fraud.

Whiskey Kon Tekila (WkT): Whiskey Kon Tekila - The Original Spanish Reversers. WkT is a Spanish cracking group, which has been active since 2001.

XwarezX

A 2006 Group Of Warez Posters, Its website was shut down but back came back in 2007, now based in Russia.

[edit] Cracking / cracking tutorial groups

Challenge of Reverse Engineering (CORE): CORE is a software cracking group for the IBM PC which has released more than 10,000 cracks. They tend to release primarily keygens and include a cracktro or installer with music on most releases.

Phrozen Crew (PC): Phrozen Crew one of the first strictly software cracking groups to evolve. Phrozen Crew received much public scrutiny. Founded in 1993, it would become infamous under the leadership of member the Keyboard Caper (tKC). Although not as active as they were in the mid to late 1990s Phrozen Crew is still alive as of 2006.
uNITED cRACKING fORCE (uCF): The uNITED cRACKING fORCE also known as uCF2000, is a warez group specializing in software cracking.

[edit] Application (ISO) groups

Fusion: Internet Distributor of Pirated Software Pleads Guilty to Criminal Copyright Infringement

Rise: FXP Scene Group focuses on warezing applications developed by members of The Business Software Alliance. [8]

RogueWarriorz (RWZ): Twelve "Operation Bandwidth" Software Pirates Enter into Group Guilty Plea

Warez3D (W3D): Warez group that focuses on the release of software related to art, such as commercial tutorials on digital painting and 3D modeling.

We Love Warez (WLW): WLW was subject to raid during Operation Buccaneer, Operation Fastlink, and Operation Safehaven. Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement.

[edit] PC games groups

CLASS (CLS): Class was a prolific game warez group which has been the repeated target of federal raids such as Operation Fastlink. They sometimes have elaborate art in the release (Music, Animation, Logo designs, etc). They are a global group and have many members worldwide, often releasing "RiP" games. Class was notorious for releasing a game, followed by a "fix" release to fix problems with running the cracked game. Technically defunct but occasionally making releases (they supposedly stopped after their 1,234'th release).

DEViANCE: Subject to raid in Operation Fastlink. As of December 2006 Deviance no longer exist. They are releasing under HATRED now.

Fairlight (FLT): One of the oldest groups in warez scene still active. The group turned 19 years old in April 2006. Fairlight was subject to raid in Operation Fastlink, which almost killed their ISO division. Demoscene division was not affected by the raid. Group NFO after the bust.

Hoodlum: Hoodlum mainly focused on cracking Safedisc and Securom. Released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Targeted as part of Operation Site Down raids in 2005. [9] The group history

RELOADED: Major game release group, now the most active group on the PC Games scene.

[edit] Console games groups

Echelon: Echelon is a warez group which specializes in the release and distribution of console games, such as Sega Dreamcast ISOs. Between September 4, 2000 and April 30, 2002 they released 188 games and 34 other various fixes, tutorials, trainers, and loaders.

Kalisto: Kalisto is a warez group which specializes in the release and distribution of console games, predominantly PlayStation and PlayStation 2.

[edit] TV Groups

ANiVCD: AniVCD was a major TV-rip group responsible for capturing and distributing (cartoon animated) television episodes such as Family Guy, Futurama and The Simpsons to the internet. The group was very well received by countries outside of the United States or those which would not otherwise receive FOX television programming. However now, with the rise of XviD HDTV releases and the decline in VCD releases, ANiVCD has become less popular.

LOL: LOL is an active TV-group, focusing on releasing HDTV rips of popular TV-series. LOL is the best-known group on the TVrip scene. "LOL" most likely stands for 'laugh out loud.' Sometimes releases under the tag TV.

MiNT: Canada-based capping group, often caps shows off Canada's TV when they air there sometimes weeks or months before the USA.

NoTV: First release: 2006-09-11. This group is known for bad rips (audio and video quality, also many nuked releases).

SFM: SFM is best known for and has its reputation from high quality (mostly iNTERNAL) TV and also DVD (TV shows) rips.

TCM: now known as XOR, this group was LOL's main competition for the popular TVrip scene. It reformed as XOR after bad luck and several nuked releases gave it the nickname 'The Crap Machine.'[10]

XOR: previously known as TCM. Since reforming, XOR has become a major group on the scene, often beating LOL by sacrificing quality for speed.[11]

FpN: new group, known for quality and propering of LOL / XOR / NoTV mistakes.

[edit] Courier groups

Motiv8 (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.

Rise in Superior Couriering (RiSC): RiSC was one of the largest courier groups during BBS era. Targeted as part of Operation Site Down raids in 2005 and Operation Jolly Roger (Which targeted RiSCiSO) raids of 2006.[12]