Preview
This article is the result of contributions by people from every
facet of the Atari community. Many thanks to all the users,
developers, sysops, and others who provided the investigators with
information and assistance.
[Note: Stand-alone quotations are framed on the left and right by
the "~" character.]
Small Developers, Big Business
How Pirate BBSs Impact on the Entire Atari Community
by D.A. Brumleve, President, IAAD
Copyright 1993 by D.A. Brumleve
The Independent Association of Atari Developers represents over
sixty companies supporting the Atari ST platform with commercial
software and hardware. Now and then a "pirate" BBS will come to
our members' attention. We'll capture the file areas and study
them. We'll cringe at the download counts and growl at the
messages about our products. We'll download copies of our
products and trace the original owner. Sometimes we'll even file
a police report, but the pirate board stays up and callers keep
calling, downloading, and uploading our programs. And every time
we leave this experience further demoralized, less enthusiastic
about writing for the ST, less enthusiastic about programming in
_general_.
Recently, the IAAD undertook a more comprehensive investigation
of pirate BBSs in North America. We solicited information from
the public -- and the Atari community responded. In spite of
some previous experience with pirate boards, I was not at all
prepared for the amount of pirate activity we found.
On each pirate BBS, we found numbers for other BBSs, many of
which also proved to have copyrighted files. We found
concentrated pockets of heavy pirate activity in the Southwest,
the East, and the Southeast, but we also found isolated pirate
boards in just about every region of the continent. We found
small boards with few users and fewer files; we found big boards
with hundreds of users offering nearly every commercial program
on the market of current interest. We found young teens actively
involved in criminal activity -- and older, more experienced men
showing them the ropes. On every user list, I encountered folks
I know: the doting father who bought Super Kidgrid for his
daughter at a show, the user group officer who contacted me for
IAAD brochures, and many, many others who chat with me from time
to time on the major pay services.
Because of the scope and scale of this activity, I feel that it's
important to share our findings with the Atari community at
large. What follows is the outcome of our investigation.
1. The Damage
~ This BBS DOES NOT support the transfer of any pirated ~
~ software. ~
-- Rats Nest BBS
~ Rats Nest always had some of the best stuff around... ~
--Zaphod Beeblebrox on Fawlty Towers BBS
When people pirate programs they would otherwise buy, developers
and dealers (and distributors) lose sales. Dealers respond to
low sales by closing or supporting another platform. Developers
respond to low sales by raising their prices or by dropping the
product; either way, the market is damaged.
How badly damaged? Let's take a look at just some of the
commercial applications and utilities which were until recently
available on the Rats Nest in Loma Alta CA. For the sake of
brevity, I've limited this particular list to products of IAAD
members and Atari Corporation; thus this list does not include
applications and utilities by publishers who are not members of
the IAAD, public domain files, or shareware programs.
_
____ __ / \
/ \ / \ \ /
\ | | ___ | \ / \ _____ /\ ___
| | __ _ __\ /__ /\ | \| |/ \ / /__\ /__
| / / \/ \/ \ / / | |\ | -- // // \
| \| | \ |\__ __// / | | \ | ___\\ \\__ __/
| |\ | | | | | | \ \ | | \ |\_____/ \ \ | |
| | \ | / | | | \ \ | | \_/ / / | |
\ / \/\__/\./ \ / / / \ / / / \ /
/ \ | / \ / / / \ / / / \
\./ | \./ / / \./ \/ \./
| | \/ | | |
| . . | . . |
. | .
.
*^* (#1) Applications *^*
### | Filename.Ext Size Date Brief Description
|
5 | Maxif_3A.Lzh 55665 01-03-92 MaxiFile v3.3a
13 | Hdsentry.Lzh 33922 01-10-92 HD Sentry... HD optimizer, fixer
18 | Xboot .Lzh 37888 01-18-92 X-Boot, like Desk Manager
19 | Steno .Lzh 28885 01-18-92 STeno, from Gribnif. Sortof Flakey
36 | Gramxprt.Lzh 84265 02-05-92 Grammer Expert
37 | Grnslamc.Lzh 56066 02-05-92 Gran Slam!
48 | Codeke13.Lzh 98427 02-05-92 CodeKeys v1.3 from Gribnif
49 | Mltdsh33.Lzh 217352 02-05-92 MultiDesk Deluxe v3.3
56 | Knife108.Lzh 87757 02-05-92 Knife ST!
71 | Lookpop .Lzh 109631 02-07-92 Look It! and Pop It! from Codeheads
72 | Imagecat.Lzh 290048 02-07-92 ImageCat 2.o
111 | Hpas_A .Lzh 247343 02-22-92 High Speed Pascal, Disk 1 of 2
112 | Hpas_B .Lzh 269757 02-22-92 High Speed Pascal, Disk 2 of 2
150 | Tos_206 .Lzh 77116 03-22-92 Tos 2.06 software vertion
151 | Hyprlink.Lzh 271744 03-28-92 HyperLink
164 | Chem1_2 .Lzh 217327 04-05-92 Chemistry - Arrakis educational
165 | Chm2Sts1.Lzh 222763 04-05-92 Chemistry 2 and Stats from Arrakis
166 | Alg11_12.Lzh 224322 04-06-92 Algebra 1 from Arrakis educational
167 | Alg12_21.Lzh 247109 04-06-92 Algebra 2 from Arrakis
168 | Al3_1Tr1.Zip 239499 04-06-92 Algebra 3 Trig 1 from Arrakis
173 | Neocli .Lzh 66076 04-19-92 NeoDesk Command Line... nice
178 | Tos1_4 .Zip 123342 04-25-92 To let ya run those stubern 1.4 tos
soft
197 | Xboot257.Zip 51420 05-06-92 Newest Version of X-Boot (v2.57)
221 | Tw13E_A .Lzh 703536 05-17-92 That's Write 1.3 - English - 1/2
222 | Tw13E_B .Lzh 703536 05-17-92 That's Write 1.3 - English - 2/2
228 | Gen106_A.Lzh 192808 05-17-92 That's Relative 1.06 1/2 ELITE release
229 | Gen106_B.Lzh 130361 05-17-92 That's Relative 2/2 ELITE release
243 | P_Nix15A.Lzh 427252 05-30-92 Phoenix v.1.5 - Disk 1 of 3
244 | P_Nix15B.Lzh 410836 05-30-92 Phoenix v.1.5 - Disk 2 of 3
245 | P_Nix15C.Lzh 410836 05-30-92 Phoenix v.1.5 - Disk 3 of 3
258 | Tracker .Lzh 402564 06-08-92 Rolodex/Client Tracking util
287 | Mint80A .Lzh 503661 07-20-92 MultiTos v8.0 [1/3]
288 | Mint80B .Lzh 181797 07-20-92 MultiTos v8.0 [2/3]
289 | Mint80C .Lzh 263956 07-20-92 MultiTos v8.0 [3/3]
297 | Scanlitd.Arc 33361 08-01-92 Hand Scanner software
308 | Codehed4.Lzh 191763 08-08-92 CodeHead Utilities rel.4 (1991)
317 | Clnup426.Lzh 91942 08-29-92 ICD CleanUP 4.26 Host required
334 | Edhak236.Lzh 43125 09-12-92 Edhack v2.36 (patched from v2.35)
335 | Dmd_Edge.Lzh 149439 09-13-92 Diamond Edge 1.0 ELITE release
352 | Dback250.Lzh 85508 10-03-92 Diamond Back 2.50 latest
356 | Warp9373.Lzh 338270 10-07-92 Warp 9 3.73 Complete Package
374 | L_Rad_E1.Lzh 631730 10-18-92 Redacteur 3 1/4 (english) ELITE
release
375 | L_Rad_E2.Lzh 485004 10-18-92 Redacteur 3 2/3 (eng) ELITE release
376 | L_Rad_E3.Lzh 660252 10-18-92 Redacteur 3 3/4 (eng) ELITE release
377 | L_Rad_E4.Lzh 525994 10-18-92 Redacteur 3 4/4 (eng) ELITE release
378 | Icdb604C.Lzh 12971 10-18-92 ICD Booter 6.0.4 (crack'd) by Zaphod
388 | Harleq21.Lzh 360135 11-12-92 Harlequin 2.01 Genesis INC
release(old)
392 | Adspeed .Lzh 95744 11-20-92 ICD Adspeed Accelerator Software.
396 | Harl_206.Lzh 354749 11-26-92 Harlequin vrs. 2.06
402 | Spectre3.Zip 446203 12-02-92 Spectre 3.0 software
403 | Xboot300.Lzh 59385 12-04-92 X-Boot v3.00
408 | Cache_Cr.Lzh 33876 12-13-92 Cache 2.56 ELITE hacked/all features
410 | Mvg200 .Lzh 488069 12-13-92 Multi Vue Graphica 2.0
421 | Cardf403.Lzh 186987 01-03-93 Card File 4.03 from Gribnif lates ver
422 | St_Sutra.Lzh 657385 01-03-93 STSutra ELITE release still beta..
453 | Uvk5_7 .Lzh 276224 02-01-93 UVK 5.7gb latest vr
460 | Falcprgs.Lzh 572035 02-03-93 The Programs included with the Falcon.
470 | Icdpro68.Lzh 528187 02-06-93 ICD Boot PRO 6.0.8!
474 | Tos206B .Zip 148016 02-07-93 TOS 2.06 as a program!
480 | Calpro_2.Lzh 332815 02-18-93 Calligrapher Professional [2/5].
481 | Calpro_3.Lzh 305163 02-18-93 Calligrapher Professional [3/5].
482 | Calpro_4.Lzh 406075 02-18-93 Calligrapher Professional [4/5].
483 | Calpro_5.Lzh 328443 02-18-93 Calligrapher Professional [5/5].
494 | Mint_81 .Lzh 407624 02-22-93 mint81
502 | Neo303_1.Lzh 354937 03-06-93 NeoDesk 3.03 "MASTER" disk [1/3]
503 | Neo303_2.Lzh 328564 03-06-93 NeoDesk 3.03 "EXTRAS" disk [2/3]
504 | Neo303_3.Lzh 24763 03-06-93 NeoDesk 3.03 Util disk [3/3]
514 | Cali3_2 .Lzh 273959 03-13-93 Calligrapher 3, 2/4
515 | Cali3_3 .Lzh 309849 03-13-93 Calligrapher 3, 3/4
516 | Cali3_4 .Lzh 504895 03-13-93 Calligrapher 3, 4/4
531 | Cali3100.Lzh 290501 03-23-93 Caligrapher 3 Pro 100% disk 1 CO/ICS
535 | Mt101 .Tos 294518 03-24-93 MultiTOS v.1.01
542 | Atariwx1.Zip 285943 03-27-93 Atari Works 1/2
543 | Atariwx2.Zip 701987 03-27-93 Atari Works 2/2
Fawlty Towers provides an example of typical desktop publishing
products available on such BBSs:
//////////////////////// /// ///////////// /// ///
/// /// /// /// /// /// ///
/// /// /// /// /// /// ///
///////// //////////// /// /// ///////
/// /// /// /// /// ///
/// /// /// /// /// /// ///
/// /// /// /// /// /// ///
/// /// //////////////////////////////////////
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\
\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\
\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\
\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\
\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\
\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\
\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\
\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\
*^* (#8) ST DTP *^*
### | Filename.Ext Size Date Brief Description
|
1 | Avant .Lzh 171368 02-11-92 ADvant Vector
8 | Dp_E1 .Lzh 343016 03-17-92 Insane!!! Didot-professional DTP [1/2]
9 | Dp_E2 .Lzh 414822 03-17-92 The best! Didot-Professional DTP [2/2]
10 | Siloutte.Lzh 323802 05-11-92 Sillhoutte Vector Graphics/Ray Tracer
11 | Outline .Lzh 193536 05-13-92 Calamus Outline Art
16 | Pgs22_1 .Lzh 322001 07-25-92 Pagestream v2.2 [1/4].
17 | Pgs22_2 .Lzh 379509 07-25-92 Pagestream v2.2 [2/4].
18 | Pgs22_3 .Lzh 317627 07-25-92 Pagestream v2.2 [3/4].
19 | Pgs22_4 .Lzh 428038 07-25-92 Pagestream v2.2 [4/4].
27 | Ara213 .Lzh 329614 08-06-92 Aribesque 2.13
34 | Sl_Enga .Lzh 370940 12-17-92 Calamus
35 | Sl_Eng_B.Lzh 237849 12-17-92 Calamus
36 | Sl_Eng_C.Lzh 318914 12-17-92 Calamus
37 | Convec20.Lzh 311683 01-05-93 Convector 2.0
38 | Cranach1.Lzh 282850 01-05-93 Cool
39 | Cranach2.Lzh 153775 01-05-93 cool
40 | Skyplot1.Lzh 248536 01-05-93 SkyPlot disk 1/2
41 | Skyplot2.Lzh 205589 01-05-93 SkyPlot disk 2/2
42 | Skyplot3.Lzh 323450 01-05-93 Skyplot disk 3? or 3?
43 | Cfned22 .Lzh 17227 01-27-93 Takes Serial #'s off Calamus Fonts
44 | Slmodul2.Lzh 90489 01-27-93 Some Moduals for Calamus
45 | Genus .Lzh 80305 02-01-93 Genus v1.78 - Calamus Fonteditor.
46 | Touchup1.Lzh 362626 02-06-93 Touch Up disk 1/2
47 | Touchup2.Lzh 230762 02-06-93 Touch up disk 2/2
48 | Calpro_1.Lzh 328402 02-24-93 Caligrapher Pro [1/5]
49 | Calpro_2.Lzh 332815 02-24-93 Cal Pro [2/5]
50 | Calpro_3.Lzh 305163 02-24-93 Cal Pro [3/5]
51 | Calpro_4.Lzh 406075 02-24-93 Cal Pro [4/5]
52 | Calpro_5.Lzh 328443 02-24-93 Cal Pro [5/5]
STampede offers Super Nintendo software, so it's not surprising
to find a good many commercial ST games as well:
________ ________ ________
/__ __/\/ _____/\/ _____/\
_______ ______________ \_/ /\_\/ /\____\/__/\____\/
/ \/ \ ___/ / / / /_/__ _\__\/ /\
/ ____/____ ______/\ /_______/\/_______/\/_______/ /
/ /\___\___/ /\_____\/ \_______\/\_______\/\_______\/
/ / / / / / _ ___ __ _ ___
/ /_/_ / / / / //_ /_/ /_// /
\____ \ / / / /_/__// / / //_/ SYSOP
\__/ /\ / / /_________ ______________ _____ \ PAK
/ / // / / __ / \/ __ / __/ __ \/ __/\
_____/ / // / / __ / / / / __/ __/ /_/ / __/\/
/_________/ //____/ /_/ /_/_/_/_/__/\/____/_____/____/\/ CO-SYSOP
\_________\/ \____\/\_\ \_\_\_\_\__\/\____\_____\____\/ SCYTHE
ATARI ST/STE/TT ___ ___ _____ THE THREAT/ICS
CONSOLES SNES/SMD / _ \/ _ \/ ___/\ MR.FLY/ICS
U. S. ROBOTICS 14,400 HST / _ / _ /__ /\/ SLASH/ICS
24 HOURS A DAY /____/____/____/ / BELGARION/ICS
\____\____\____\/ JPC/ICS
*^* (#1) GAMES! GAMES! GAMES! *^*
#### Filename.Ext Size Date Brief Description
1 Ox_Final.Lzh 4958 1-25-93 Crack of OXYD for ALL Tos +codes
printer
2 Ace_Boot.Zip 2482o5 1-28-93 Space Ace II [1/6].
3 Make1.Prg 771554 1-28-93 Space Ace II [2/6].
4 Make2.Prg 8o174o 1-28-93 Space Ace II [3/6].
5 Make3.Prg 757744 1-28-93 Space Ace II [4/6].
6 Make4.Prg 816522 1-28-93 Space Ace II [5/6].
7 Make5.Prg 773416 1-28-93 Space Ace II [6/6].
17 Grandad.Prg 121942 2-5-93 Grandad... code revealed ClockWork/ICS
19 Plan9_A.Lzh 446365 2-1o-93 Plan 9 From Outer Space [1/4] -=ELITE=-
2o Plan9_B.Lzh 694644 2-1o-93 Plan 9 From Outer Space [2/4] -=ELITE=-
21 Plan9_C.Lzh 559989 2-1o-93 Plan 9 From Outer Space [3/4] -=ELITE=-
22 Plan9_D.Lzh 46o123 2-1o-93 Plan 9 From Outer Space [4/4] -=ELITE=-
23 Bat2A.Lzh 494437 2-11-93 BAT II- Disk 1/5 in English
24 Bat2B.Lzh 513453 2-11-93 BAT II- Disk 2/5
25 Bat2C.Lzh 453112 2-11-93 BAT II- Disk 3/5
26 Bat2D.Lzh 533968 2-11-93 BAT II- Disk 4/5
27 Bat2E.Lzh 479446 2-11-93 BAT II- Disk 5/5
28 Ics_Bat1.Lzh 519321 2-11-93 BAT 2 Disk 1/5 *german* +-=I.C.S=-+
29 Ics_Bat2.Lzh 53322o 2-11-93 BAT 2 Disk 2/5
3o Ics_Bat3.Lzh 46437o 2-11-93 BAT 2 Disk 3/5
31 Ics_Bat4.Lzh 542978 2-11-93 BAT 2 Disk 4/5
32 Ics_Bat5.Lzh 5o5595 2-11-93 BAT 2 Disk 5/5
36 Ics_Sp21.Lzh 487641 2-13-93 Space Crusade II 1/2 cracked by -=ICS=-
37 Ics_Sp22.Lzh 39834o 2-13-93 Space Crusade II 2/2
38 Bat_Ii.Zip 1243o 2-13-93 BAT II Complete docs
41 Ics_Dl3o.Lzh 77o5o8 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III The Curse Of Mordead
42 Ics_Dl31.Lzh 585584 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 2/8 -=ICS=-
43 Ics_Dl32.Lzh 432o33 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 3/8 -=ICS=-
44 Ics_Dl33.Lzh 451928 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 4/8 -=ICS=-
45 Ics_Dl34.Lzh 517527 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 5/8 -=ICS=-
46 Ics_Dl35.Lzh 5o9381 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 6/8 -=ICS=-
47 Ics_Dl36.Lzh 6o3781 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 7/8 -=ICS=-
48 Ics_Dl37.Lzh 612524 2-14-93 Dragons Lair III 8/8 -=ICS=-
51 Galaxian.Lzh 163o72 2-15-93 Galaxian
52 Cyberlzh.Lzh 6276o5 2-16-93 Cyber Assult [ZX/ICS] *READ FULL DESC*
56 Ics_Cybr.Lzh 168957 2-21-93 Cyberdome Hoverjet Simulator -=ICS=-
58 Rebelion.Zip 33119o 2-22-93 Rebellion D'Bug release
64 Ics_Nigl.Lzh 763445 2-28-93 Nigel Manesll cracked by Belgarion/ICS
65 Ics_Gob1.Lzh 537814 3-2-93 Gobliins II *THE REAL ENGLISH VERSION*
66 Ics_Gob2.Lzh 65o934 3-2-93 Gobliins II 2/3 -=ICS=-
67 Ics_Gob3.Lzh 6o82o1 3-2-93 Gobliins II 3/3 -=ICS=-
72 Grav2.Zip 247252 3-7-93 Grav II
74 Kil_Mach.Lzh 283892 3-7-93 Killing Machine
98 Ics_Civo.Lzh 322966 3-19-93 Civilization 1/4 cr. by Belgarion/ICS
99 Ics_Civa.Lzh 328o17 3-19-93 Civilization 2/4 -=ICS=-
1oo Ics_Civb.Lzh 33o664 3-19-93 Civilization 3/4 -=ICS=-
1o1 Ics_Civc.Lzh 3o3685 3-19-93 Civilization 4/4 -=ICS=-
1o2 Civiliz.Zip 51863 3-19-93 Civilization full docs
1o3 Civhints.Zip 15878 3-19-93 Civilization hints and tips
1o4 Frank.Prg 1461oo 3-2o-93 Frankenstein CyniX release
1o5 Crys_A.Lzh 23447o 3-2o-93 CRYSTAL KINGDOM DIZZY Disk 1/2
1o6 Crys_B.Lzh 532o62 3-2o-93 CRYSTAL KINGDOM DIZZY Disk 2/2
114 Sleep1.Lzh 781519 3-27-93 Sleep Walker [1/3] *-CyniX!-*
115 Sleep2.Lzh 774173 3-27-93 Sleep Walker [2/3]
116 Sleep3.Lzh 8o4o2o 3-27-93 Sleep Walker [3/3]
I must stress that this is just a small sampling of the kinds of
offerings we found -- and of the boards we investigated. Most
boards (pirate and legitimate) have separate file areas for
different kinds of products (MIDI, DTP, Applications, Utilities,
Games, Docs, Graphic Utilities, etc.). A BBS which offers a
wealth of Utilities, for example, is likely to have a strong
database in other file categories as well. Please note that
these are just partial lists from a single file category on each
of these boards. A truly comprehensive listing would make this
article intolerably huge.
The IAAD's membership total fluctuates, but right now we are
holding steady around the 60-member mark. Products owned or
distributed by nearly every single member were found on one BBS
or another during our investigation; some of our members were
victimized by every pirate board we called.
The self-confessed pirate Troed says this about piracy:
~ I NEVER buy a program without knowing if it is what I ~
~ want .. the ShareWare principle .. but how do I check ~
~ that with commercial software? By pirating them, using ~
~ them .. if I like them, I want the original + manual .. ~
~ I buy it. ~
-- Troed on the F-Net, ST Report Conference
but contradicts himself a paragraph later:
~ I bought my STe for $800 one year ago, if I were to ~
~ registre/buy [sic] all the soft I use I would have to ~
~ pay something around $10000 .. I can't afford that. ~
--Troed on the F-Net, ST Report Conference
On the one hand, Troed insists that he merely tries out his
pirated software prior to purchase -- and buys it if he wants it.
But on the other hand, he _uses_ $10,000 worth of commercial
products and _cannot_ afford to pay for it. I would concede that
it is possible that some software thieves do use their pirated
downloads in the same way that honest people use commercial demos
and shareware...some, but not many.
Developers are well aware of "software collectors". These are
folks who simply must have a copy of everything, whether it meets
their needs or not. The majority of software collectors want the
real thing, manual and all. It's our experience that, because
pirate board users have to pay with an upload (or with money) for
each and every download, few will bother to download programs they
don't really want, need, and plan to use. Because of this, the
majority of downloads from pirate boards must be viewed as lost
potential sales. And those few pirates who are collectors or who
find they don't need a particular file will hang onto it and later
share it with others in order to earn upload credits.
We found Warp 9 on nearly every pirate board we called. CodeHead
had purchased the QuickST kernal used for Warp 9 from Darek
Mihocka of Branch Always Software, and Charles Johnson worked
very hard to refine and extend it in order to deliver to us the
indespensible utility Warp 9 has become. Like many CodeHead
products, Warp 9 is so easy to use that the manual is not needed
for basic use. Warp 9 sells for $44.95; a purchase like this
wouldn't put many STers in the poorhouse. But how many people
downloading this program from a BBS would go to the trouble of
ordering it after "testing it out"?
A good example of the speed at which pirates can destroy the
sales potential of a new release is shown by the upload date on
this entry found on the Rats Nest (the notation "Off" indicates
that this file has been removed, probably when a later version
superceded it):
336 | Warp9370.Zip --Off-- 09-13-92 Warp 9 v. 3.70 - Glendale Release
CodeHead released this version on Saturday, September 12, 1992 at
the Glendale AtariFaire. By Sunday, before the second day of the
show was even over, it was already in distribution by pirates.
What about more expensive products? At $795, Calamus SL by DMC
is one of the pricier offerings on the North American market.
It's a high-end DTP package requiring or benefitting from an
additional investment in sophisticated Atari hardware,
accelerator boards, graphics cards, and a large-capacity hard
drive.
~ It was bad enough to discover Calamus SL on just ~
~ about every single "pirate" board that was ~
~ investigated; it was worse to discover a program ~
~ written specifically to strip out our serialization. ~
~ But the real kicker was to discover our entire 600- ~
~ page manual available for downloading in ASCII. The ~
~ people that run these boards are criminals and deserve ~
~ to be put in jail. Their "customers", those that ~
~ frequent these boards, are, at best, petty thieves. ~
~ What disgusts me the most is how many of these ~
~ "customers" would never consider themselves thieves ~
~ even though they are stealing from me, from my family, ~
~ from my company, and from the Atari community at large. ~
--Nathan Potechin of DMC
Since the manuals for such extensive programs are truly required
in order to make good use of the product, software thieves will
actually go to the trouble of typing them in or copying them with
OCR software (which is also conveniently available on these
BBSs). Even when a manual is indispensible, the software pirate
may have no need to actually purchase the program in order to
make full use of it.
Expensive products get that way because of development and
production costs. While the raw materials in a typical software
package may cost only a few dollars, it takes much more than
pieces of paper and a disk to make a commercial product. Calamus
SL cost DMC hundreds of thousands of dollars for development
staff alone, _not_ counting expenses related to the writing and
production of the manual, packaging, marketing, duplication,
overhead, etc. A share of this expense must be borne by everyone
who uses the program in order to recoup costs and keep
development going. When people use the program without paying
for it, this simply does not happen.
Many ST development firms are essentially one-man shows; the
programmer is also the accountant, the publisher, the editor, the
secretary. Developers like these are apt to take software theft
very personally and feel the impact very intensely. One
developer's reaction to his product's proliferation on pirate
boards began: "I used to be against captital punishment..."
~ ...It hurts, and I don't mean that strictly in a ~
~ financial sense, either. We've tried hard, I mean ~
~ _really_ hard, to provide quality software at a ~
~ reasonable price coupled with a customer support ~
~ policy that is second to none...The pirate mentality ~
~ couldn't care less about us and our ideals of customer ~
~ service. And that hurts. ~
--John Hutchinson of Fair Dinkum
~ It's very discouraging to me to see illegal copies of ~
~ Flash II appear on these so-called pirate boards. I ~
~ wonder if the folks that steal our program understand ~
~ the length of time it took to produce it? Flash II ~
~ ver. 2.0 took 3 years to create and spent another year ~
~ in beta test. Version 2.1 took close to another year ~
~ to modify and test. We're practically giving it away ~
~ as it is! ~
--John Trautschold of Missionware
Word Perfect has been public about having dropped future
development for the ST and about the reason for that decision:
low sales. It can't be a coincidence that Word Perfect for the
ST was on many boards we called.
I doubt that STers are any less honest than owners of other
computer brands, but ours is a small market, and piracy here can
hurt developers much more than on more popular platforms. If a
platform has 10 million users and 90% of them are pirates, the
software developers still have 1 million potential buyers. On a
platform like the ST, with only a few hundred thousand users at
most by comparison, even if _no_one_ stole software, developers
would still only have a few hundred thousand potential buyers. In
reality, only the most popular products are likely to sell in
quantities greater than 1000 units in North America. In the case
of a coveted and respected multi-platform application like Word
Perfect, if the program had not been pirated so many times over,
the sales figures might well have been sufficient to justify
further development for the benefit of ST owners.
~ I talked to a couple of shops...and...asked if they ~
~ were interested in carrying any music education stuff. ~
~ They said that they would love to carry some but could ~
~ not sell any education, music, or game software due to ~
~ the fact that if anyone wanted a copy they would pirate ~
~ it...The only thing they have real success at selling ~
~ is applications due to people wanting a printed manual + ~
~ phone support...I didn't make a sale. ~
--Jim Collins of chro_MAGIC
There's a small profit margin in selling computer hardware;
dealers depend on income from software sales to sustain their
businesses. In every area where large pirate boards flourish,
Atari dealers have closed their doors in spite of a comparatively
large installed base of users. "It got to the point where I sold
only magazines," one former dealer complained. "They'd buy the
magazines to find out what programs were worth downloading."
Honest users in these areas are likely to grumble about the loss
of the dealers; pirates grumble, too, because their link to new
hardware, service, and magazines has been lost. Every dealer
lost means fewer hardware sales for Atari, fewer software sales
for developers, fewer new members for users groups, fewer
vendors and attendees at fewer shows.
With the Atari user base in serious decline, it is more important
now than ever that piracy not be tolerated. Make no mistake
about it: pirated software is _not_ free.
~ Wait-wait-wait... There is nothing positive piracy does ~
~ for a computer company. Nor is it anything BUT negative. ~
~ I look at it like this...We can always blame Atari for ~
~ not advertising, but if there were no Atari pirates, ~
~ more software would have been sold, making the computer ~
~ more viable for software companies, which in turn makes ~
~ the computer more desirable for a user. So, basically ~
~ what I'm saying is, the people who love Atari the most, ~
~ (us) are the same people who have been killing it for ~
~ years. And there was a time when Atari was big ~
~ EVERYWHERE...There was even an Atari dealer here in my ~
~ little town of Lake Wales! That's where I bought my 400! ~
-- Fruit-WARE Man on Excalibur II BBS
Ultimately, we all pay for piracy one way or another: Atari,
developers, dealers, and users -- even the pirates.
2. How it Works
For the uninitiated, let's define some terms. A "pirate board"
is a Bulletin Board System (BBS) on which copyrighted commercial
files are offered to users for downloading without compensation
for the copyright holder. Some pirate boards are devoted to this
activity almost exclusively, and sysops running these boards
accept only fellow pirates as users. Other pirate BBSs have
pd/shareware files areas in addition to hidden commercial areas;
honest users of such boards may have access only to the
pd/shareware sections and may be completely unaware of the pirate
nature of the board.
Software pirates have a unique lexicon to describe their
activities. Users allowed into the commercial areas have been
granted "elite access". The commercial files are referred to as
"warez"; elite file areas on some BBSs include sections on such
related topics as pornography, defrauding long distance carriers,
and creating one's own Super Nintendo Entertainment System
cartridges by burning the software into EPROMs. Callers who take
without giving back (download without uploading) are called
"leeches", and downloadable files may be referred to as
"leechables". Defrauding the phone company by using illegal
techniques to make long distance calls is a mainstay of the art of
"phreaking". "Cracked" versions of programs have the copy-
protection and/or registration and serial numbers removed. "0
day" is the day a commercial product is officially released. Many
pirates have also adopted a manner of writing which flaunts the
rules of our language, such as swapping lower and upper case,
substituting "z" for "s" and "ph" for "f", etc.
Successful software theft has two basic requirements: a dishonest
person willing to give away a copy of a program he has purchased
-- and another dishonest person willing to accept it. When this
activity takes place on a Bulletin Board System, a given copy can
be distributed rapidly from BBS to BBS, from user to sysop to
user, all over the world. One person's willingness to give away
that first copy can lead to its possession by literally thousands
of others. Pirate boards succeed because there are many people
willing to give or take the copies -- and because the sysop uses
strategies calculated to maintain and escalate their involvement.
The pirate sysop sets up his BBS, invests in a high-speed modem
and phone lines, and advertises his number on other BBSs. When
the calls start coming in, the sysop scrutinizes each would-be
user and decides whether or not to validate the new account and
what level of access to allow.
~ I've seen credit applications that made more sense. ~
-- Sandy Wilson on GEnie, describing a brief encounter
with the new user questionnaire on a BBS running
RATSoft ST
~ Do you believe in the free distribution of software be ~
~ it copyrighted or not? ~
-- Fawlty Towers BBS, from the new user questionnaire
The sysop has two major responsibilities: to keep the board
running and to ensure security. He requires full disclosure from
his callers. He wants his callers' real names, real addresses,
real phones, but he is not likely to reveal his own name or
location. There is usually an elaborate questionnaire. The
sysop may call the new user's voice number to check its
authenticity. He may do thorough background checks with other
information the caller has provided. He may keep a blacklist of
uncooperative or non-productive callers (leeches) and share it
with other sysops.
~ NEW USERS: IF YOU DON'T DO A NEW USER UPLOAD YOU WILL NOT ~
~ GET ACCESS. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT A NEW USER UPLOAD IS ~
~ YOU DON'T BELONG ON THIS BBS. ~
-- PAK on STampede BBS
The callers themselves supply the warez which keep the board
active. They earn credits for uploading, and apply those credits
toward future downloads. Pressure to upload a file often begins
immediately after a new user's account is validated. It may even
be part of the new user questionnaire prior to validation.
Typically, a New User Upload is required before the new user is
given full access, including the ability to download. Sometimes
the sysop will allow the new user to view the files area on the
BBS in order to entice the caller into uploading a commercial
file. On other boards, the commercial files area will stay
completely hidden from the new user until after he has proved his
worthiness -- and incriminated himself -- by sharing a commercial
program of his own.
Like a kid in a candy store, the caller wants one of everything,
but to get it, he must pay the price. So he looks at his
collection and chooses a program he hopes will meet with the
sysop's approval. Merely uploading the program may not be enough
to gain elite access; the upload may be judged on how new it is,
whether the board already has a copy, or even whether the program
chosen is useful or well-reviewed.
~ You Understand that you MUST keep a 'reasonable' file ~
~ Upload/ Download ratio And "K-Byte" ratio or your ~
~ Access WILL be Lowered and maybe Deleted!! ~
-- Gold Nugget BBS, from the new user questionnaire
~ Donate! King Arthur has a very reasonable donation ~
~ policy that makes it easily affordable to have ~
~ unlimited download credits...It's so much fun on the ~
~ Atari (and soon to be Falcon) scene now that there's ~
~ no excuse for you to miss out! ~
-- Little Flea on Excalibur II BBS
~ ...I started caring, and so the users that DID not post, ~
~ called within 30 days, and sent new files, got kicked ~
~ off.. YOU DONT [sic] GET NOTHING FOR FREE!!! ~
--The Conjurer, sysop of Outer Planes BBS, on the F-Net,
Elite Underground Conference
The sysop uses his warez to entice callers, but he may also
perfunctorily ax callers who violate his rules or confidentiality
requirements. The threat of being cut off from the source keeps
the callers uploading on a regular basis. The BBS software keeps
track of a user's download/upload ratio; ratios that are
unacceptably high on the download side may result in censure by
the sysop or loss of access. If a user has no files of value
to offer the sysop, he may be able to gain privileges by sending
in a "donation". Some sysops forego the euphemisms and announce
flatly that they charge for greater access.
~ Does anyone have Trump castle? Im [sic] starting to run ~
~ thin on other boards for credits. I would rather save ~
~ them for the 0 days stuff. If you have it could you ~
~ please u/l it. ~
--Shadow Master on London Smog BBS
In order to keep his account current, the user may be forced to
call in every few weeks; each call results in a deduction from
the user's credit total, so he's back looking for new files to
upload. If the caller gets those files from another BBS, he'll
get caught up in a never-ending cycle of uploads and downloads in
order to keep his accounts active on all the boards he calls.
Occasionally, he may have to buy a program outright in order to
upload it. The caller is reminded of any deficit in his credit
total every time he calls and may be denied access to certain
areas until the total is in the black.
~ Well, after being away from the BBS scene for awhile, I ~
~ have finally found an Elite BBS! (Thanks PAK! :). Anyhow, ~
~ please send me BBS #/NUPs for boards that carry elite ~
~ Macintosh or SNES console stuff. ~
-- Nostrildomus on STampede BBS
Some pirate-only BBSs won't allow any but the most serious of
callers. They may require all users to have 9600-baud modems or
greater. They may limit 2400-baud callers to less desirable
calling hours. Some require would-be callers to announce their
first upload before being allowed access; the sysop then decides
whether or not this caller will be a valuable contributor on that
basis. Some require referrals from other pirate boards. A twist
on this is the New User Password, spread from user to user.
Boards like the Computer Connection will ask for this "NUP" in
the new user questionnaire. If the caller cannot provide it,
access is not granted. Most boards ask at the very least for the
names and numbers of the boards the new user already calls; a new
user who provides incorrect numbers or fictional board names --
or who lists only legitimate BBSs -- may be denied access.
The sysop's users provide his warez, and the sysop is a direct
beneficiary. Like a golden goose, a single program keeps giving
and giving. One user paid for it once, but the sysop can
distribute it to other users in trade for additional warez or
money again and again. The current callers spread the word about
the BBS's offerings to others, thus increasing the number of
users frequenting the board and providing uploads. Some boards
encourage this by offering download credit for user referrals.
While operating a BBS is the least labor-intensive way to
accumulate warez, it may not be the most efficient way to make
money. After all, there's a whole market of non-modem users out
there just waiting to be tapped. For a tidy fee, sysops may sell
copies of their warez via mail order; through schemes like these,
users can obtain pirated software without the costs of a high-
speed modem and long-distance calls and the pressures of the
upload/download ratio.
3. Paranoia Strikes Deep
All BBS sysops, even the most responsible, put themselves at some
risk of legal complications due to messages, e-mail, and files
posted by users. It takes a special motivation for a sysop to
actually promote and encourage an illegal activity which increases
his risk and liability. For some, money or software may be
sufficient motivation. Others may make up for social inadequacy
in their offline lives by taking a leadership role online. And
many of these seem to enjoy the power they have over their users.
Like schoolyard bullies, they control and police their turf with
heavy-handed threats and zero-tolerance judgments, all with the
protection afforded by their anonymity. On their own BBSs, they
call the shots -- and no caller can challenge them on that.
~ """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~
~ " Happy Hideaway BBS is protected under the " ~
~ " FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS ACT of 1986 " ~
~ """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~
~ Duplication, Re-transmission, or Distribution of any ~
~ part(s) of this BBS is forbidden without the expressed ~
~ written permission of the sysops. ~
--Happy Hideaway BBS
~ Re-transmission of material from this BBS is strictly ~
~ forbidden without written permission of the Sysop(s)!!! ~
-- The Ghetto! BBS
Some sysops are very protective of their warez. They want their
boards to be the best, to have the most highly-prized files, to
attract the greatest number of active users. The sysop may claim
that his board is protected by international copyright laws; that
is, he has a copyright on the _collection_ and he has a right to
control the distribution of any part of it. A user may download
from his BBS, but he'd better not find that user uploading the
same program to a competitor. In other words, the sysop contends
that he has exclusive rights to the black-market product!
~ "I agree with these conditions, and I am not a ~
~ member/employee of ANY authority like the Police, or ~
~ anything like that, nor am I an employee of ANY type of ~
~ non-public domain software company, Telephone company ~
~ security or some anti-software piracy organization. I ~
~ hereby legally bind myself to this, by answering YES ~
~ in [sic] at the prompt". ~
-- The Ghetto! BBS
~ This BBS is a PRIVATE SYSTEM. Only private citizens ~
~ who are not involved in government or law enforcement ~
~ activities are authorized to use it...access to this ~
~ system by ANY law enforcement agency ( Federal, State, ~
~ Local or other), software company, telephone company, ~
~ government agency, or anyone affiliated with the above ~
~ is not allowed. ~
--London Smog BBS
~ Are you registering on this BBS with the sole purpose ~
~ of entrapping or aiding in the entrapment of the SysOp? ~
-- DarkWorld BBS
~ "I am not part of ANY law enforcement agency or an ~
~ employer/employee of any NON-Public Domain software ~
~ company, or software publisher." ~
~ ******************************************************** ~
~ * By typing YES at the PASSWORD prompt you LEGALLY * ~
~ * BIND yourself to the provisions listed above. * ~
~ ******************************************************** ~
-- Outer Region BBS
Sysops are well aware of the illegal nature of their activity,
and they may go to great lengths to protect themselves from legal
action. Most boards post disclaimers about the sysop's
responsibility for the activities which take place there. Others
try to compromise the submissability of legal evidence by
requiring investigators to reveal themselves.
~ You have failed to answer a security validation ~
~ question properly. ~
--Paris BBS
In the midst of such paranoia, it's not surprising that most
pirate BBS callers and sysops use pseudonyms. Frequently a user
goes by the same pseudonym on every board he calls so that his
online friends can identify him, send him e-mail, etc. We've
identified many pseudonym-users in spite of their attempts to
hide their identity. Here are a few examples of the thousands of
aliases used by callers on pirate boards. They know who they
are. And you may be surprised to find that _you_ know who they
are, too:
RAHMAN Clockwork Orange Stsoft
Elof Zaphod Beeblebrox Troed
Hack-Hack KG mr.fly/ics
Looms Hanzon Horizon Sparky
Yellow Lightning PAK slash/ics
The Piper The Parsec The Shamus
Mouse Master Overlord RoadKill
The Missing Link Nightmare Deadhead Ed
Little Flea the threat/ics jpc/ics
belgarion/ics Disease Factory Frosty
Sledge Archiver Spy Guy
Traveler The Dragon Lord Frogger
Shadow Skinhead rhys/ics
Sparky KRS-ONE Ice Pirate
Clueman Arthur Dent DANE
Goat Slayer Norstar Speed Demon
Time Warp Snow Queen Mr.terry
Who are the people who go by these aliases? Who calls pirate
BBSs and who runs them? A 16-year-old high school junior whose
supply of British games multiplied out of control when he added a
high-speed modem to his system? Yes. A 32-year-old father of
two who in all other ways is the very model of integrity? Yes.
The good old boys who bring crates of software to swap at your
users group meeting? You know it! A 50-year-old con artist who
makes thousands of unreported (i.e., tax-free) dollars every year
by convincing others to give him programs to sell? Absolutely.
Several hundred software thieves are so active and on so many
BBSs that it's hard to imagine that they have time for anything
else. The thousands of more casual pirates may have access to
only a few boards and call only a few times a month. And whether
a specific pirate BBS has 50 regular users or 500, its phone
lines are constantly busy.
4. Organized Crime
As with other criminal activity, the big players in software
theft have formed alliances to share files, blacklists, message
networks, and other information. There are dozens of these
organizations, some international in scope. For example, The
Elite, with world headquarters in the Netherlands, is
headquartered here by the Outer Region BBS in Colorado and
Dragon's Pub in Quebec. The Syndicate (TSC) has representative
BBSs on three continents and in both hemispheres; the Happy
Hideaway in Florida serves as its Eastern US headquarters and
Outer Region as its Western base, while the Shire BBS in Chile
and the Eagles Nest and Slime City BBSs in Sweden provide an
international link.
Cracking organizations are devoted expressly to undermining copy-
protection and registration strategies used in commercial
programs. Outer Planes in Ohio is the world headquarters for the
cracking ring known as CyniX. STampede, in Plant City Florida,
is the International Cracking Society's (ICS) US headquarters and
features its cracked warez, but these rapidly spread to other
BBSs across the country and so can be found on many other boards
as well. Cracking rings are often multi-platform in scope;
individual crackers will work on getting around the copy-
protection on the platform of their choice. They'll share
cracking tips with and seek advice from ring members working on
other platforms. The Pompey Pirates cracking ring, headquartered
on the Paris BBS in New York City, reportedly has just one
cracker, who goes by the name of Alien, working routinely on the
ST, while cracking rings like ICS include many ST enthusiasts.
ICS, MCA, Section 1, CyniX, and other crackers are very well-
connected, using ultra-high-speed modems and multi-frequency
dialers to call all over the world without long distance fees.
It's not unusual to find a cracker from one ring visiting the
headquarters of another and sharing warez. Cracking rings
compete vigorously for the first crack of "0 day warez" (brand
new releases), for the most successful crack, for the toughest,
etc.
Pirate boards have aligned themselves with legitimate networks as
well. Many of the BBSs on which we discovered commercial files
areas are linked to the F-Net -- and, of course, so are plenty of
responsible BBSs. For example, according to a CrossNet Conference
Node Listing, The Time Warp BBS (F-Net node 99) serves as the lead
node for the "Elite Underground" F-Net conference, which also
includes Starlight BBS (node 287), Darkworld BBS (node 305), Outer
Region BBS (node 469), Steal Your Face (node 489), Outer Planes
(node 558), Gold Nugget BBS (node 622), London Smog BBS (node
632), Million Dollar Saloon (node 639), Speedy's Raceway (node
689) and H.B. Smog (node 712). According to another CrossNet
Conference Node Listing, The Gold Nugget serves as the lead node
for The "Pompey Pirates Elite" (not directly associated with the
Pompey Pirates cracking ring mentioned above) F-Net conference;
The Prairie Chip II BBS (node 45), The Blackhole (node 612), The
Temple of Doom (node 595), and Spider-man's Web (node 711) are
among the 9 BBSs involved in this conference. The "Upper Echelon"
F-Net conference ties US and Canadian boards by serving callers on
the Gold Nugget in Ohio, Steal Your Face in New Jersey, Space
Station BBS (node 248) and London Smog in California, Million
Dollar Saloon in Texas, Paybax BBS (node 307) in Delaware, and
Aardvarks from Mars (node 38) and Dragon's Lair (node 87) in
Ontario.
Conferences of this kind allow pirates from great distances to
"get to know" each other, to exchange files as well as messages,
to solicit calls to their favorite BBSs. Participation in these
conferences establishes an online identity; a pirate recognized
from his posts on one node of a conference is likely to be
accepted without question when logging on as a new user on
another node in the same conference.
There are also smaller F-Net-related conferences for pirating
discussions. For example, according to a CrossNet Conference
Node Listing, a Local Area Private Elite Conference with a lead
node at the Outer Region links with three other BBSs in Colorado,
including RingWorld (node 643), The Grave Diggers Tomb (node
186), and BILINE BBS (node 423). Outer Planes is the lead node
for the 4-node "Console" conference, a message thread devoted to
topics related to pirating SNES and other game console warez.
5. Ill-Begotten Goods, Fawlty Filez...
Pirating hurts the entire ST community by discouraging third-
party development, closing down dealerships, and raising software
prices. But is it a "good deal", at least in the short run, for
the pirates themselves? Let's ask 'em:
~ Mock me not! Civilisation is great.. Except it is ~
~ cracked poorly...Can't win with the Cynix crack... ~
--Mark Anthony on Outer Planes BBS
~ ...ok, then how do you save????? I love this game, but ~
~ I dont know how to save it.. ahhh ~
--The Conjurer on Outer Planes BBS
~ Bad news... using UVK, just found out that the disk has ~
~ a VIRUS on it called the 'DIRECTORY WASTER'. After ~
~ twenty copies of it are made, it wipes out your disk. ~
~ Use UVK to kill the virus, and be careful with swapping ~
~ disks around this one. ~
--Sparky on Outer Planes BBS
~ Has anyone set up Speedo GDOS , I seam [sic] to run ~
~ into probles .. [sic] ~
--The Mixer on Time Warp BBS
~ Can someone please send me a working ASCII import ~
~ module for pagestream. I cant seem to get TEXT files ~
~ to import correctly. Either the text doesnt [sic] ~
~ fill the full width of the screen or I get no ~
~ paragraphs(ALL run together) ~
--Red Dragon on Time Warp BBS
~ Has anyone got it to work? I tried to get it to run on ~
~ a Floppy based 520ST (1meg) and on my TT030 and on both ~
~ I got 4 bombs! ~
--The Parsec on Rats Nest BBS
~ Has anyone gotten this to load? My install disk just ~
~ freezes. Any ideas? ~
--Bullshot Xxx on the F-Net, Upper Echelon Conference
~ ...my UTIL_2.PRG doesn't work, it was corrupt in the ~
~ original download... ~
--Jason Elite on the F-Net, Upper Echelon Conference
~ For some reason I can't get other vers. of TOS to boot ~
~ from the HD without sticking a disk in with the HD boot ~
~ in the Auto folder. ANYONE know how I can get TOS 1.4 ~
~ and 1.0 to off the HD and recognize the hard drive ~
~ without sticking a disk in?...It's just a hastle [sic] ~
~ to use the Hard Drive when you have to boot from disk ~
~ first... ~
--Ice Pirate on Rats Nest BBS
~ I have the two lharc's of Epic, and after lharc, they ~
~ come out to 900+K MSA files... Well, MSA won't format ~
~ a disk large enough to put them on.. What kind of ~
~ formatting program can I use to format my disks that ~
~ large.. Or can I? ~
--Cronos on Fawlty Towers BBS
~ I was wondering if anyone else has been messing with ~
~ the latest Cubase 3 crack. I've had some success and ~
~ have even used the SMPTE options via my C-Lab ~
~ Unitor-N box, but when I try to use the "edit" functions ~
~ more than a few times (sometimes even the first try), ~
~ I get an "Internal Error" message and the program locks. ~
--MIDIMUCK on Fawlty Towers BBS
~ I wouldn't use it if your [sic] working on a paying gig, ~
~ Just cause It's unreliable, especially when in SMPTE lock. ~
~ I've had this same problem recently, I ended up x-fering ~
~ the stuff over to another sequencer. ~
--KG on Fawlty Towers BBS, replying to MIDIMUCK about the
cracked version of Cubase 3
~ Yes, there are 2 different cracks of version 3.x, none ~
~ of them working properly. The best Cubase crack I know ~
~ is version 2. I heard though that it gives problems ~
~ when you use Midiex... ~
--X-tian on Fawlty Towers BBS
~ yeah, I would [sic] do any real work on it. I lost 2 ~
~ songs with it. ~
--KG on STampede BBS, replying to a message about a
cracked version of Cubase
~ Has anybody had a problem with the Cynix crack of ~
~ Frankenstein? I haven't been able to get it to work on ~
~ either of my computers. It bombs badly. ~
--PAK on STampede BBS
~ I've been having problems with some files I D/Led ~
~ (Ultima 6 is flaky and Lost Vikings doesn't work at ~
~ all). ~
--Nostrildomus on STampede BBS
~ I sure wouldn't even attempt any 'serious' work project ~
~ with that 'crack'... ~
--Sparky on STampede BBS
~ Do you have a version of NEW ZEALAND STORY which works ~
~ past the first city? ~
--The Shamus on STampede BBS
~ HEY!! Will someone PLEASE UPLOAD a FULLY working version ~
~ for KOBOLD 2 I've had so many different version from ~
~ different people and they are ALL bad !!! ~
--Sidewinder on Outer Region BBS
~ I have an elite copy of Calligrapher and it doesn't ~
~ support ASCII text files, so you can only work with ~
~ .CAL files (files made by Calligrapher) Also it doesn't ~
~ have keyboard equivalents (a pain) ~
--Frogger on the F-Net, Elite Underground Conference
Pirates aren't entitled to support from commercial developers and
are often working without any documentation, so they are very
likely to encounter problems with their warez.
The real version of Calligrapher, for example, has several import
and export options, including ASCII. It has configurable keyboard
commands. Frogger's version might have been hacked in a way which
destroyed these capabilities, or he simply might not know how to
take advantage of them because he has no documentation or support.
When pirates spread disinformation about the warez they use,
people may think they are speaking out of knowledge of the actual
commercial release. In this way, a pirate's ill-informed comments
about products can discourage sales to others.
The software they use -- like the sysops and other pirates with
whom they associate -- cannot be trusted. Cracked software is
prone to be flakey. And the same type of people who think it's
acceptable to crack and steal software are also the type who write
viruses and unleash them on others, so even files which haven't
been cracked must be viewed with suspicion.
In addition to the fear of loss of access, the pressure to upload
or pay, lack of official and informed support, an online
environment of suspicion and paranoia, and abandonment of ethical
principles, pirates must also contend with software that is
unreliable and potentially dangerous. The pirate pays a heavy
price. Pirated software is _not_ free -- for anybody.
6. Phreaking, Copyright Infringement, Pornography, and the Law
The users pay the sysop of a pirate board, either by sending a
check for greater access or by offering up files they've
purchased in exchange (or both). Heavy users must invest in
expensive hardware, such as high-speed modems. And for many
callers, there's a long-distance charge.
~ If any of the USA callers has MCI you can put this bbs ~
~ on you [sic] Friends and Family list and save yourself ~
~ about 3 cents a minute. Just say that the phone number ~
~ is for a data line and they usually don't ask anymore ~
~ questions. ~
-- PAK on STampede BBS
~ ...there are high speed users around, and considering ~
~ other really good Atari boards are out of state, $.25 ~
~ per call is as cheap as anyone could ask for. I'm ~
~ starting to think "elite" is dead in the Tampa area, ~
~ as far as Atari is conserned [sic]. ~
--PAK on Master Lazarus BBS, explaining the poor
attendance rates by local pirates on local BBSs
~ Wanted... original suppliers ~
~ graphic artists ~
~ another support bbs ~
~ calling card suppliers ~
--Quattro of the CyniX cracking ring on the F-Net,
Elite Underground Conference
~ When I hit a special key, my Bluebox plays a little ~
~ melody..... ~
-- STampede BBS
~ I call the whole world for the same price. ~
-- Troed on Rats Nest BBS
Not all those living far from a BBS pay long distance charges,
however. Some boards share calling card numbers (belonging to
innocent victims, presumably) so that the phone company will
charge the users' calls to someone else. Sometimes users as far
away as Chile or Sweden manage to make calls at no cost by
fooling and defrauding their long distance carriers. In the old
days (defined here as the 70's), this was achieved by building a
"bluebox" and installing it in one's phone line. Today, it's
easily done in software. The caller's ST simulates the tones
recognized by the telephone system. Calls are routed all over
the world and back, typically through South America, in order to
confuse the system and avoid detection. This activity is just as
illegal as copyright infringement, and it's also better
understood as a crime by police. Many times a pirate board is
closed down not because of the illegal transfer of software, but
rather because information on blueboxes was available for
download.
~ Word is around town that there are feds looking for ~
~ Pirate BBS's. I know weather to belive [sic] it but ~
~ it could be time for another big bust like there was ~
~ four years ago. Supposedly a Big BBS in OHIO just got ~
~ nailed real bad!. Freaky as hell. ~
--Mind Eye on Thieves Guild BBS
There are, in fact, many approaches to shutting down pirate
boards. Copyright infringement is one obvious track. The
Software Publishers Association is a watchdog agency which works
with the FBI to shut down large-scale BBS operations. There are
legal departments at major computer, game machine, and software
companies devoting time and effort to this task. There's the IRS
connection for unreported caller "donations". Some boards come
down because of the availability of pornography. There are a
variety of criminal laws related to activities common on pirate
boards, and, especially in cases of copyright infringement, civil
law may offer the most effective route to compensation for the
victims.
When a board is busted by the authorities, the related equipment
and property is usually seized. Any records of callers, caller
donations, etc., are seized along with that equipment. Callers
could be charged with conspiracy. For this reason, it's not wise
to have one's real name, address, and real phone show up in the
records of a pirate board, even though the sysop adamantly
insists upon it and uses verification checks to enforce it...
7. Spotting a Pirate Board
~ Many people may not realize that software pirates cause ~
~ prices to be much higher, in part, to make up for ~
~ publisher losses from piracy. In addition, they ruin ~
~ the reputation of the hundreds of legitimate bulletin ~
~ boards that serve an important function for computer ~
~ users. ~
--Ken Wasch, Executive Director of the SPA, as quoted in
STR #915
I recently logged on to the Polish Hideout BBS in Southern
Illinois. What a contrast it presented to the pirate boards I've
been investigating! The questionnaire asked only for my name,
contact information, and type of computer. Validation was
immediate and I was granted access to all message bases and file
areas on that very first call! I wasn't under any obligation to
upload before downloading. There was no pressure to compromise
my principals nor temptation to indulge in criminal activity.
The messages from the sysop were friendly and inviting. The
Polish Hideout is _not_ a pirate BBS.
It can be tough to differentiate a pirate board from a legitimate
one if one has not been granted access to the elite areas.
Sometimes non-elite discussion or file areas can provide hints,
but it's not sure-fire. For example, although many pirate boards
can boast of extensive pornography collections, some BBS sysops
who wouldn't tolerate commercial files will nevertheless offer
pornography; the existence of pornographic files does not in and
of itself indicate a pirate board or clientele. Even the
existence of an isolated commercial file in the downloads is not
evidence of intentional piracy. From time to time, every BBS
receives a commercial upload or two; sometimes the sysop overlooks
the file or doesn't recognize it as commercial and leaves it in
the download area. Such oversights and accidents do not even
remotely correspond to the kinds of activity we have encountered
on BBSs where software theft is encouraged.
A typical pirate board includes a highly aggressive (and often
hostile and suspicious) new user questionnaire. It is often
necessary to provide referrals of some kind, and the questions
are likely to assume dishonesty on the part of the new user.
Pirates, as a rule, are not nice guys, and the new user is
usually made to feel very uncomfortable. The new user may be
required to "sign" disclaimers. The Other BBS list is likely to
include some other pirate boards. If the users adopt the lexicon
of piracy ("elite", "warez", "philez", etc.), If ThErE aRe LoTs
Of PhRaSeS wRiTtEn LiKe ThIs, if the board associates itself with
a pirate syndicate or network, if it has numerous known pirates
as callers, if there is aggressive insistence on the maintenance
of download/upload ratios, if deadbeats are threatened with loss
of access, if phreaking files are available online, chances are
very good that the caller has stumbled onto a pirate BBS.
There are legitimate reasons why a BBS sysop might want accurate
contact information from his callers. There are also good
reasons in many cases for offering a few private file and message
areas. Most BBSs, pirate and legitimate, require validation,
usually by phoning the caller's number. Such features are not
unusual, but if combined with heavy-handed warnings and threats,
they tip the user off to the nature of the board. It should be
noted that legitimate pd/shareware BBSs far outnumber the pirate
boards. The confusion between the two is most unfortunate.
~ I...have callers uploading commercial software and ~
~ giving me a hard time because I don't have an "elite" ~
~ area, even though they see a message when they log on ~
~ as a new caller that this board does not support ~
~ piracy...It's a _risk_ to run a BBS, and not many ways ~
~ to protect the investment. ~
--sysop of a legitimate BBS
If a board you call has an occasional commercial file, be sure to
point it out to the sysop for his own protection; a responsible
sysop will avoid commercial offerings. PD/shareware BBSs perform
a much-needed service in supporting our Atari community; the IAAD
applauds and encourages this effort.
If you suspect -- or _know_ -- that a board you call offers
numerous commercial files, however, please bring it to the
attention of the IAAD (online addresses are available at the end
of this article). Your anonymity is assured. We are already
intimately familiar with dozens of boards, but additional
information is always welcome.
8. The Moral Toll: As the Twig is Bent...
~ Right and wrong now seem the same ~
-- Rats Nest
As a parent, I'm concerned about the numbers of young people
logged on to pirate boards. These kids put themselves in a very
vulnerable position. In earning their right to download, young
callers are implicated in the illegal activity. The adults who
run and participate on these boards set an example which could,
by extension, lead to ignoring the laws which govern other areas
of their lives. Do these kids also shoplift, steal from other
kids' lockers, buy termpapers to submit as their own? Children
learn to run and to use pirate boards from adults whose character
is questionable by definition. When a child has such a sysop as
a role model, what does that spell for his future?
Like the proverbial stranger who offers candy, these criminals
lure teenagers and young adults with promises of free software in
exchange for their services. The service, of course, is to
provide more free software -- which the sysop can then use to lure
more callers and to keep his current clientele calling back. The
first step is to inspire fear; this is achieved right off the bat
with a new user questionnaire threatening denial of access if
caller doesn't provide just the right answers. And the second is
to force the caller to incriminate himself with his initial
upload. Once the kid begins downloading and playing commercial
games he could never afford to buy, the pressure cycle of
upload/download counts begins.
~ GENESIS COPIER (super magic drive) ~
~ My son is selling his copier for the Genesis for: ~
~ $275.00 That includes the copier, drive and power ~
~ supply. ~
--Little Lulu on the F-Net, Pompey Pirates Elite
Conference
While many of the software thieves we've encountered are young,
in their teens and early twenties, others are old enough to be
parents (or even grandparents!). Few pirate boards have an
"educational warez" category in their files areas, so my own
products are rarely found, but parents do download plenty of
games. I wonder about the children who use the programs that
Dad or Mom has stolen. Do they know that the program could be
purchased with a manual? Do they learn about hidden features
from friends who have the real thing and then wonder why their
parents never told them they could do that? If and when these
children do learn that Dad has stolen some software they've
enjoyed, do they respect and trust their father less -- or do
they simply adopt his dishonest character as their own?
~ Pirating is dishonest. Honorable people don't do ~
~ dishonest things. If you want to publicly proclaim your ~
~ untrustworthyness [sic], go right ahead. But don't ~
~ expect anyone to ever trust you. Or respect _your_ ~
~ rights. ~
-- Myeck Waters, responding to a pro-piracy post on the
F-Net, ST Report Conference
~ BYE! (Click) ~
~ NO CARRIER ~
-- Computer Connection
_________________
The author takes no responsibility for errors in spelling,
punctuation, judgment, or logic in quotations; these are
reprinted as written.
Copyright 1993 by D.A. Brumleve
This file may be transmitted only in its entirety, with all
portions unedited and intact. The author reserves _all_ rights
regarding distribution and republication, with the exception that
this file may be posted in its entirety and without additions on
BBSs everywhere, especially on pirate boards. If you find it
already posted on your local pirate board, please upload a second
copy, and a third...
Editors and others wishing to republish this article are advised
to contact the IAAD and the author on the major online services:
GEnie: PERMIT$
CIS: 76004,3655
Delphi:DABRUMLEVE
The IAAD welcomes tips about pirate activity. Please contact us
at the online addresses listed above.