List of warez groups

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This is a 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.


Historical groups

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

  • Bentley Sidwell Productions
Bentley Sidwell Productions [1] is said to have made the first IBM PC cracktros, because they credited themselves with CGA animations in their cracks. 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
Managed to release Windows 95 before it came out as retail. Subject to raid in Operation Buccaneer.
  • Eaglesoft Incorporated (ESI)
Eaglesoft Incorporated cracked many of the major commercial releases on the Commodore 64 in the United States. Also had a presence on the Commodore Amiga and the IBM PC.
  • EViL
The iSO division (EViLiSO) released American Pie on the internet 3 months before its theatrical release. [2]
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 2005, albeit in a much less prominent role.
  • FiRM
The Firm was a notable PC cracking group from the late 80's 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. [3]
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 was an IBM PC warez release organization largely based out of New York which operated during the very early 1990s.
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.
  • Public Enemy (PE)
Public Enemy was a highly competitive cracking group during the early 1990s. In 1990, PE formed a coop with Red Sector, Inc., similar to that of the Tristar and Red Sector, Inc. (TRSI) coop. [4]
  • 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.
Several verses of the rap song Hackers and the Crackers" by Zearle 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 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. They disbanded after this.
A late 1980s, early 1990s, games release group. Later became known as The Dream Syndicate (TDS).
IBM PC group which released the very first "NFO files".
One of the leading Commodore 64 groups in Europe.
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.
  • TDU-JAM!
Was the official CD-RIP division of the PC games group Genesis. Disbanded in 1995 after their final release War Craft 2.
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 was a spanish cracking group, which was last seen active back in 2001
  • X-Force (X-F)
An appz from the early/mid-90s, disbanded in 2001.

Cracking/Cracking Tutorial Groups

Cracking

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. Core is a huge supporter of the P2P scene.
Phrozen Crew one of the first strictly software cracking groups to evolve; they were consistantly declared the best. Phrozen Crew received much public scrutiny. Founded in 1993 by Aphex Twin 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 2005.
The uNITED cRACKING fORCE also known as uCF2000, is a warez group specializing in software cracking.
  • ViRiLiTY
This cracking group recently celebrated their 5,000th release on May 15, 2005. Focuses on cracking small shareware and utilities.

Tutorials

  • Cracking4Newbies
Group that provides introduction to tools and techniques needed in cracking for beginners to get started. Might not be as newbie-friendly as the name implies.
They offer their tutorials in several different languages.
  • New2Cracking
Spin-off project from Cracking4Newbies, by few persons who try to give more friendly approach to cracking.
  • ReTeam
Reteam started as a collection of papers, but evolved in to a reverse engineering group.
Besides reverse engineering, they also do research in other related fields such as cryptology and mathematics.
They offer specially crafted challenges for the public to solve, as a training method.

Applications (RIP) groups

Again is a an FXP group focusing on ripped applications.
Graphics tutorial and videos group.
  • TNT
Born as dox/0day group they expanded to rips and some occasional iso. They release a biased monthly dox report to obtain more resources for their 'business'.
  • TWK
TWK was founded in late 2004 as courier group. They used their connections with sites to release some rare software, found on the shelves. Lately they have joined 0days scene as groups releasing ripped PC games and applications. Currently some members still curry around the world.

Application (ISO) groups

  • Fusion
Internet Distributor of Pirated Software Pleads Guilty to Criminal Copyright Infringement
  • H2O (H2O)
H2O is an audiowarez group.
Focuses on CAD and CAM related applications. Was a target of Operation Site Down.
FXP Scene Group focuses on warezing applicatiosns developed by members of The Business Software Alliance. [7]
  • Rebels (RBS)
History of Rebels
Twelve "Operation Bandwidth" Software Pirates Enter into Group Guilty Plea
  • The Devine Alcoholics (TDA)
Subject to raid in Operation Site Down in 2005.
  • Warez3D (W3D)
Releases various gfx related video tutorials and applications.
  • We Love Warez (WLW)
WLW was subject to raid during Operation Buccaneer, Operation Fastlink, and Operation Safehaven. Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Copyright Infringement.
  • XiSO
This warez group is most famous for the 2003 of the first completed Microsoft Windows DVD set. Although they are famous for releasing self-made All-in-One CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs along with cracks (such as to bypass serial keys and Windows Product Activation), they do not produce any of the cracks. They often attack large corporations, releasing every version and edition of products for names such as Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia, Symantec, and a few others. XiSO has filled the void in APPS scene, left by the busts of PWA and DoD.This Group is more commonly known as Betas Irc.

Beta Software Groups

  • BetaOS
Originally stationed on EFNet started out releasing weekly Windows Millennium builds, last known for releasing Windows XP betas.
  • BetasIRC
Another Beta group specializing in releasing Windows Vista Alphas and Betas.During November 2005 This group went to Criten and Closed Down Betas Irc. In Dec 2005 they have again started with BetasIrc.
  • iNFLUENCE
Involved in the Microsoft BetaPlace Hack of 2002, releasing various OEM Windows .NET 2003 Betas and responsible for leaking Windows Longhorn Build 3718.
  • NeTerZ (Formerly Betas-Online)
  • OSBA (OSBetaArchive)
Specializes in "archiving" Operating Systems. They have recovered some goodies, including: Windows 95 Codename: Chicago Build 73g, Various Windows ME Codename: Georgia Betas and AppleCodename: Rhapsody
  • WiNBETA
Originally showed up releasing small tidbits such as "SideShow" and various MSN Messenger Betas. Later released weekly Windows Millennium builds. They are now the main Microsoft Beta release group. WiNBETA lately has been specializing in releasing Windows Vista Alphas and Betas.
  • xBetas
Leaked Windows Longhorn Build 3683. Domain was hijacked away from the channel by its owner, and the channel created/moved to BetasIRC. Also was the source of the Windows Longhorn Build 4062 Prank.

PC Games Groups

  • AGES
A trainer group for the IBM PC (Windows) formed in 2004. Early intros from Ages which accompanied their release made use of an inverted Sega logo.
Class is 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, 3D Animation, Logo designs, et cetera). They are a global group and have many members worldwide. 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.
Subject to raid in Operation Fastlink.
  • EMPORiO
Emporio is a game-specialised group. They released Half-Life 2 the same day it hit the stores. They also released many cracked patches for Counter-Strike: Source.
One of the oldest groups in warez scene still active. Group turned 18 years in April 2005. 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
Mainly focused on cracking Safedisc and Securom. Released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Targeted as part of Operation Site Down raids in 2005. [8]
  • MiRROR
A relatively new group that first cloned Starforce 3.5 with a special burning mode. In 3 months, they have already realesed 27 games. MiRROR doesn't specialise in cracking games like most other groups, but are known to make working clones of games, here the disc they provide still needs to be emulated.
  • ORiGiN (OGN) > MYTH
A game cracking group who were in heavy competition with Class. DEViANCE supplys the crew with big ISOs, which MYTH uses to make a Cracked RIP. The group formed in 2000 and was the first group to defeat Safedisc 3 and Starfoc protection scheme. The group disbanded in October 2005.
  • Paradigm (PDM)
Prestige was a dominant games group in 1995 and 1996. They were unique for their popular open IRC channel and frequent Paki slur jokes.
  • RELOADED
Major game release group, cracked several StarForce protected games.
  • SiLENTGATE (SG)
SiLENTGATE is the Major PC Game ISO Group in germany. SG is Team Reloaded's German division.
  • VENGEANCE
Subject to raid in Operation Site Down in 2005. Returned to scene some time later as REVENGE

Console Games Groups

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

MP3

aPC was a major MP3 warez organization founded by two individuals known under the pseudonyms acid^rain and Viper in May of 1997. aPC operated well into the mid 2000s and was subject to raid during Operation Buccaneer. The group disbanded sometime after the raid.
RNS was a major mp3 group founded by the user Al_Capone in 1996. One of the largest (member wise) and most prolific mp3 groups. RNS has made a name for itself by specializing in Rap releases, sometimes releasing popular new albums many months before they would hit store shelves.
  • Beats Per Minute (BPM)
BPM was the first mp3 group to specialize in vinyl rips for the DJ
Technoclub was the second major group specializing in electronic dance music after BPM
PoW was formed in 2000 by dissatisfied members of Tclub. The group specializes on trance music.
Founded in 2000 Tronik was one of the first groups to focus on progressive house and trance releases. The group gained a notorious status on various internet forums by releasing unreleased and upfront material well before the official release date.

Movie Groups

Centropy founded in January 1999 is a warez group specializing in the piracy of films. Touting many "0-day" and "negative day" releases, Centropy has notoriously released (and pre-released) numerous films, such as The Matrix Reloaded, before it was released to movie theaters in 2003. As of 2005 they are currently still active and specialize in high quality SVCDs. Centropy was a target of Operation Site Down conducted by the FBI and Department of Justice in 2005.
  • TMD
Releases smaller, lower quality films before release on DVD
  • FLAiR
Focus on releasing older media assets not distributed on DVD (ie VHS and Laserdisc films and Out Of Print rarities)
  • MPAA
Parody group.
  • Pirates of the Theatre (PoT)
Mostly releasing cams and Telesyncs. Was first to release the first Harry Potter movie to the Internet. Shut down with War.Of.The.Worlds.FAREWELL.REPACK.CAM-POT July 1st, 2005.
  • VALiOMEDiA
Focuses on releasing older material.
  • VideoCD
Closed its doors with 2005's Fantastic Four on July 17. The London Bombing had just occurred, to which they gave their condolences while condemning the US government and their war for economic interests rather than protecting citizens.
  • VoMiT
  • Wastedtime
Specialized in early Screeners. Was a target of Operation Site Down, but is widely believed to have been at least partially run by the FBI out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Since that operation, the group and its members have completely disappeared, supporting this conclusion.

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.
  • LoL
LoL is active tv-group, focusing on releasing HDTV rips of popular tv-series.
  • SFM
SFM is a group, which focuses on releasing DVDRips from complete seasons of series sets.
  • MeD
  • FFN
  • FFNDVD
  • MiNT
  • FQM
  • FOV
  • DiME
  • LoKI
  • BAMHD
  • XOR
  • ORENJI
  • TVD
  • TVL
  • TCM
  • OMiCRON
  • MiRAGETV
best known for capping less-popular cable TV shows, does the best quality TVRips around (essential since most cable channels have no HD-equivlent)
  • SAVANNAH
dvdrips
  • TyR
dvdrips
  • INDI
not a real group, INDI is used to represent an independant capper

Musicvideo Groups

XXX Groups

  • PORNOLATiON
VCD focused group.
  • PR0NSTARS'
Very active adult group. Focuses on releasing new material in XViD format with production year from 2004 to today.
  • SWE6RUS
VCD focused group.
  • SMuT
Focuses on releasing new titles max 1 year from street date.
  • xDOMINiONx (xDMNx)
Originated as the XXX branch of DOMINiON which was at the top of the scene in releasing regular movies in 1999 when xDMNx was founded. First group to start ripping porn movies in divx elevating the scene standard in XXX releases after that. DOMINiON hasn't released any big titles for a while and is considered dormant while xDMNx still is very active. Group caused a lot of cheers and commotion in the scene after releasing a picture of 3 members attached with numerous new releases tempting the FBI in the process.

Courier groups

  • AMNESiA (AMN)
  • Angels on Drugs (AOD)
FTP courier group, founded in the late 90s. One of the top groups in the post-BBS era (it never experienced the BBS scene). Competed with DMS, RiSC, and various incarnations of DEV and AMN.
Independent couriers, not real group, just term to categorize users who aren't members of larger courier groups. Occasionally there are releases with an -iND tag.
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.
  • pHASE (pHASE)
One of oldest and used to be one of the best courier Groups.
  • 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.
  • Special Warez Acquisition Team (SWAT)
Arguably the first organization formed for the sole purpose of spreading files (first dedicated courier group).
  • United Piracy Service (UPS)
The largest and most prolific AOL based warez group. Responsible for the creation of some of the first warez "mass mailing" apps (On AOL warez was e-mailed en masse). History of AOL warez scene (Mentions UPS) and RCN Issue #23 Contains an interview with Sweet (UPS Council Member).

References

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