A Scene, também conhecida como Warez Scene, é uma rede mundialmente desconhecida onde pessoas compartilham conteúdo pirata, como DVD’s, filmes, jogos, aplicativos, etc. Primeiro, o conteúdo é lançado por releasegroups, grupos dos quais especializados em publicar esse material. Eles copiam um Dvd ou quebram a proteção de um jogo, e o torna disponível pra outras pessoas, nos chamados releases. Quando esses grupos terminam um release ele é upado nos sites. São servidores FTP muito rápidos e privados, sendo a primeira escala na distribuição do release. Eventualmente, ao final da distribuição, os releases estarão disponíveis pra todos na rede P2P.
A velocidade dessa rede mundial é enorme. Em questão de minutos um release pode ser copiado para centenas de outros sites. Em questão de uma hora, para milhares de sites.
Em questão de um ou dois dias são disponibilizados em grupos de noticias, no IRC, e por fim na rede P2P. Não se trata de uma familia grande e feliz. A Warez Scene consiste de certos grupos/camadas. No topo temos os releasegroups e os topsites. Esses grupos constituem o núcleo da Scene. Os demais grupos oficialmente não fazem parte da Scene. Ainda que muitas pessoas os considerem parte dela.
A Scene não é somente uma rede de distribuição, vai muito além disso. Existem regras na Scene que servem pra garantir releases de boa qualidade. Caso contrário, o release será nukado. Significa que ele será marcado como irregular. Releases nukados não são vistos com bons olhos e o grupo que lançou acaba ficando com uma má reputação.
Segurança é um tema importante na Scene. Tendo em vista as atividades serem ilegais os sceners precisam estar protegidos, à salvo de organizações anti-pirataria e evitarem serem plotados em Operações.
A Hierarquia
A Scene é baseada numa certa hierarquia. Para explicar a estrutura disso, aqui vai uma visão geral da cadeia alimentar pirata. Nem todas essas camadas constituem a Scene. As organizações anti-pirataria e a maioria das outras partes que não representam a Scene propriamente dita, consideram todos esses grupos como filiados à Scene. Ainda que não sejam na prática. De fato, os releasegroups e o pessoal dos topsites odeiam esses outros grupos. O motivo pra isso é que os fxp boards, os irc traders e principalmente os users P2P colocam a Scene em perigo. Os Sceners buscam manter seus releases para uma quantidade limitada de pessoas. Pois qualquer um que tenha computador e saiba usar software P2P, pode baixar o conteúdo. Isso causa grande perda no ramo logístico e na produção cinematográfica, o que nos leva até as organizações anti-pirataria, polícia/atenção do FBI, etc. Isso põe os Sceners em risco, então por isso acabam desaprovando esses grupos. Os FXP Boards se consideram integrantes da Scene. Os irc-traders e os grupos de notícias tem noções da Scene, e os usuários P2P definitivamente não conhecem a Scene.
A hierarquia da Scene é a seguinte:
Releasegroups - Grupos de pessoas que lançam o conteúdo na Scene. Frequentemente ligados com os Site Traders.
Topsites - Servidores FTP muito rápidos com pessoas que compartilham os releases dos releasesgroups para outros (top)sites.
FXP Boards - Pessoas que buscam/hackeiam/sabotam computadores vulneráveis com conteúdo.
IRC Trading - Usuários do IRC que baixam via XDCC ou servidores de arquivos.
Newsgroups - Pessoas que baixam de canais de notícias binários.
Peer-to-Peer - Usuários de programas P2P tipo KaZaA e BitTorrent que compartilham uns com os outros.
Topsites - Servidores FTP muito rápidos com pessoas que compartilham os releases dos releasesgroups para outros (top)sites.
FXP Boards - Pessoas que buscam/hackeiam/sabotam computadores vulneráveis com conteúdo.
IRC Trading - Usuários do IRC que baixam via XDCC ou servidores de arquivos.
Newsgroups - Pessoas que baixam de canais de notícias binários.
Peer-to-Peer - Usuários de programas P2P tipo KaZaA e BitTorrent que compartilham uns com os outros.
O Sistema
Na hierarquia da Scene explicamos o que é um topsite. Aqui nós daremos informações mais detalhadas sobre topsites e seu sistema, e o sistema da Scene. Segurança certamente é uma questão muito importante. Os topsites são muito privados. Uma típica configuração de topsite irá permitir aos usuários somente logarem-se com uma certa identificação e host (ou faixa de IP), com autenticação SSL em todas as sessões FTP. Servidores FTP são frequentemente usados pra esconder o verdadeiro endereço IP do topsite, e pra compartilhá-lo na rede. A maioria dos usuários irá se conectar através de proxy. Dessa forma os sites não vêem seus verdadeiros IP´s.
IRC: todos os membros do site se fazem presentes no canal IRC do mesmo. Esses canais em sua maioria localizam-se em servidores IRC privados e muito seguros, e você precisará se conectar via SSL. Além do SSL existem outras medidas de segurança. Você não pode simplesmente entrar (join) no canal, você precisa se convidar, utilizando uma linha de comando quando você se conecta ao site. Desse jeito pessoas que não são membros do site, não poderão entrar (no canal) uma vez que é protegido com auto-convite e/ou com uma channel key (senha). E os canais são frequentemente protegidos com FiSH. FiSH é um add-on (seria um algo a mais) que criptografa as mensagens em um canal. Com isso as pessoas que não tiverem a fish key correta, não poderão ler as mensagens. Nesse canal IRC, os membros e os operadores do site podem comunicar-se uns com os outros. Também há um bot presente, que fará anúncios quando um releasegroup publicar um novo release no site, ou anunciará quando um membro upar um release. Muitos sites também tem um canal de anúncios. Esse canal mostra automaticamente os últimos releases logo após o PRE. Mais sobre isso abaixo.
Sistema de Créditos: O site trabalha com um sistema de créditos. Operadores do site e alguns afiliados ficam isentos desse sistema, com uma conta Free Leech. Esse sistema de crédito funciona de acordo com o ratio. O mais comum é o 3:1, significa que quando você upa 3 GB, você pode baixar 9 GB. Quando um membro não consegue o valor mínimo mensal requerido de upload, ele automaticamente será deletado. Créditos podem ser perdidos upando release irregular que termina como nukado. Nukes multiplicados afetam a quantia de créditos perdidos.
Afiliados: Falaremos basicamente de três ranks: siteops, affiliates e racers. Siteops (operadores-site) são os administradores. Existem geralmente de dois à três siteops por site. Um deles na maioria das vezes é o fornecedor do site, o outro a pessoa que encontra o fornecedor e o guia durante a instalação do servidor. E o outro será de amigos e pessoas envolvidas na Scene. Um ou mais dos siteops será nuker. É seu encargo nukar qualquer release considerado velho ou falso (fake). Affiliates são os releasegroups que postam os releases logo após serem finalizados. Cada afiliado tem acesso a uma pasta privada e oculta no topsite. Essa pasta é usada no upload de novos releases antes de se tornarem disponiveis em outros sites. Quando um novo release é upado em cada um dos sites do grupo, um comando é executado pra simultaneamente copiá-lo pra uma pasta acessível por outros usuários, e engatilhar um anúncio no canal IRC do topsite. Esse comando é chamado de PRE-command. “To pre” refere-se à execução desse comando. Pre-releases também podem ser replicados em canais externos de anúncios pra informar outros membros/usuários que um novo release está disponivel pra racing (concorrência, competição).
Banco de Dados: Quando o pre de um grupo é lançado, o release é automaticamente registrado no pre-database. É um enorme banco de dados que contém todos os releases que já foram lançados na Scene. Esse banco de dados grava nome dos releases bem como data e hora, embora os campos variem de banco pra banco. Exemplos de outros campos comuns incluem gênero (releases MP3), seção, e detalhes do nuke. Os bancos de dados são mantidos de modo que forneçam aos grupos informações necessários a fim de se evitar um dupe (duplicidade). Os próprios usuários podem fazer essa checagem, vendo por exemplo, se o filme já foi lançado, a data do release, o status (nukado ou não), entre outros. Os bancos de dados são atualizados através de processos automáticos ora buscando em Topsites por novos releases, ora captando anúncios nos canais do site.
Nukes: Se um grupo publica um release que já foi lançado por outro grupo, é um dupe (duplicidade). Então o release será nukado. Isso significa que será marcado como release irregular. Os grupos tentam evitar nukes, uma vez que eles lhes darão uma má reputação. Com exceção de dupes, os releases podem ser nukados por outras razões também. Existem dois tipos de nukes:
Nuke Global: nukado em razão do próprio release. É nukado por haver algo de errado com o release, por exemplo: erros no som, dupe, vídeo congelando, mal ripado, etc. Se um grupo se der conta de que há algo errado, eles podem pedir um nuke. Nukes comuns: Dupe, Bad Aspect Ratio (Bad AR), Bad Inverse Telecine (processo de conversão dos quadros incorreto), interlaced (linhas pretas no movimento conforme a ordem do campo estiver incorreta).
Nuke Local: nukado em razão da localidade. Determinados sites irão nukar por estar em desacordo com as regras, por exemplo: nada de telesyncs, nada de Dvd´s dublados em outros idiomas que não o inglês, etc. Nesse caso não haverá nada de errado com o release. Por serem localmente nukados, eles ainda podem ser compartilhados em outros sites.
Regras
As regras da Scene são padrões na Scene Warez para os lançamentos. Esses padrões são os requisitos mínimos para um release. As regras da Scene são definidas por grupos de pessoas que estiveram envolvidas ativamente por vários anos estabelecendo vínculos com grupos maiores. Essas pessoas formam um comitê, que formula idéias a serem aprovadas por esses grupos maiores. Na distribuição organizada da warez, todos os releases devem seguir esses padrões pré-definidos pra tornarem-se materiais aceitos. O comitê geralmente cicla a maioria das idéias e finalmente decide qual serve melhor ao propósito, e então as mandam para aprovação. Uma vez a idéia assinada pelos grupos, se torna ratificada e aceita como padrão atual. Existem diferentes padrões pra cada categoria de releases. As regras da Scene podem ser atualizadas à qualquer hora, embora o recomendado sejam no máximo uma ou duas alterações anuais. Essas regras são arquivos particulares, não acessíveis pra ninguém fora da Scene. Porém algumas podem ser vistas pela web.
As regras da Scene podem parecer um pouco rigorosas, mas elas certamente não estão lá pra incomodar rippers. Existem vários motivos pra essas regras existirem:
1. As regras englobam apenas releases de alta qualidade, então não se preocupe com baixa qualidade, erros ou coisas do tipo.
2. Pelo fato dos releases serem divididos em pequenas partes você não precisa se preocupar em baixar novamente o release inteiro se algo der errado. Você pode controlar se tudo foi baixado corretamente verificando o arquivo SFV. Portanto você sempre saberá se pegou algo incompleto do release que baixou. Significa que você terá o mesmo número de arquivos no computador, assim como a pessoa que upou primeiramente o filme e criou o release.
3. As regras levam à um modo padronizado de compartilhamento, no qual os downloads obviamente acabam se beneficiando. Você aprenderá a reconhecer um bom release e estará a par dos problemas/surpresas inconvenientes de filmes pobremente ripados por amadores. Também será muito mais fácil comparar os releases entre si.
4. Os releases da Scene sempre contém todas as informações de como foram ripados, em qual qualidade, etc. Dessa maneira você sempre sabe o que está baixando.
Alguns grupos da Scene
São grupos da Scene: ALLiANCE, PreVail, HLS, SaGa, CAMERA, LRC, DoNE, ESPiSE, DMT, VoMiT, mVs, LPD, iKA, AFO, DvF, iMBT, FLAiTE, TFF, DiAMOND, PUKKA, e muitos outros. Lembrando que aXXo e FxM não fazem parte da Scene, são grupos de reencoders. Topsites nunca postam releases desses dois grupos.
Fonte: AboutTheScene.com
Créditos pela tradução: XandeAlves @ CPturbo.org
Créditos pela tradução: XandeAlves @ CPturbo.org
Artigo publicado após permissão do tradutor. Em caso de cópia ou re-publicação, favor manter créditos e links.
http://www.umtudo.com/a-scene-warez/
The scene is build up in a certain hierarchy. To explain the structure of this, here is a global overview of the piracy food chain. Not all these ‘layers’ are considered as a part of the scene by everyone. The anti piracy organizations and most of the other parties which are not in the scene themself, do consider all these groups to the scene. Though they are not a part of the scene. In fact, the releasegroups and the people on the topsites hate these other groups. The reason for this is that fxp boards, irc traders but mostly peer to peer users bring the scene in danger. The sceners (people from the scene) want to keep the releases for a limited amount of people. Since everyone who knows how to use a computer knows how to user p2p-software, everyone would be able to download releases. This causes big losses for record labels, movie producers etc, what leads to the anti-piracy organisations, police/fbi-attention etc. On their turn, this brings the sceners in danger, so that’s why they dissaprove these groups. FXP boards consider themselves in the scene. Irc-traders and newsgroups might now even know about the scene, and p2p-users defently don’t know about the scene.
Here is the hierarchy:
Releasegroups – Groups of people who release the warez into the scene. Often linked with Site Traders.
Topsites – Very fast FTP servers with people who trade the releases from the above groups to other (top)sites.
FXP Boards – People who scan/hack/fill vulnerable computers with warez.
IRC Trading – Users of IRC who download from “XDCC Bots” or “Fserves”.
Newsgroups – People who download from alt.binaries newsgroups.
Peer-To-Peer – Users of p2p (peer-to-peer) programs like KaZaA but also BitTorrent who share with eachother.
Topsites – Very fast FTP servers with people who trade the releases from the above groups to other (top)sites.
FXP Boards – People who scan/hack/fill vulnerable computers with warez.
IRC Trading – Users of IRC who download from “XDCC Bots” or “Fserves”.
Newsgroups – People who download from alt.binaries newsgroups.
Peer-To-Peer – Users of p2p (peer-to-peer) programs like KaZaA but also BitTorrent who share with eachother.
We’ll start at the bottom and we’ll work ourselves up to the top.
Peer-To-Peer
At the bottom of the piracy food chain we have the peer-to-peer users. There seem to be two groups of peer-to-peer users. The first group are kids and downloading some music now and then because they can’t afford cd’s. Second are the older p2p users who use p2p for also for downloading games, programs, movies, etc. In the media, peer-to-peer are being labeled as dangerous pirates. They are a lot easier to bust for the RIAA/FBI and there are quite some of them who are being sued by the RIAA for thousands of dollars. The level of security is very low, and it’s easy to get access to all warez. This is why they endanger the sceners. The download speeds are quite low since you download from other users. Most p2p-users don’t have a clue about what a long way a release has made untill it’s available for download in p2p software. It has been released, spread from topsites to fxpboards, then to irc/newsgroups and in the end it’s available for the mass via peer-to-peer. The speed of p2p is the lowest, since users download from eachother.
At the bottom of the piracy food chain we have the peer-to-peer users. There seem to be two groups of peer-to-peer users. The first group are kids and downloading some music now and then because they can’t afford cd’s. Second are the older p2p users who use p2p for also for downloading games, programs, movies, etc. In the media, peer-to-peer are being labeled as dangerous pirates. They are a lot easier to bust for the RIAA/FBI and there are quite some of them who are being sued by the RIAA for thousands of dollars. The level of security is very low, and it’s easy to get access to all warez. This is why they endanger the sceners. The download speeds are quite low since you download from other users. Most p2p-users don’t have a clue about what a long way a release has made untill it’s available for download in p2p software. It has been released, spread from topsites to fxpboards, then to irc/newsgroups and in the end it’s available for the mass via peer-to-peer. The speed of p2p is the lowest, since users download from eachother.
A special kind of p2p system is BitTorrent. It uses a central location which coodinates the downloads but it doesn’t host any downloads. The download itself consists of several pieces offered by various users. Such a coordinated group is called a torrent. BitTorrent is widely used, allthough it’s rather insecure. It’s also fairly accessible. The central distributionpoint is called the tracker. The tracker knows which users already have the file, and which users want to download it. The users who already have the download are called seeders, and the users who are downloading are called leechers. Every user who downloads a certain file, downloads a different part of the file. When the seeder goes offline, they can still download from eachother and all complete the file.
Newsgroups
Once upon a time when the internet was still young there were special interest groups that shared information and kept in touch by using a bulletin board type system. This system was designed to take advantage of the internet in a way an old bulletin boards couldn’t; each location had a machine (news server) that would store all the messages of the newsgroups that were desired by it’s users. A short time passed and the users of certain newsgroups thought that this system would be ideal to share files with each other. It’s easy to access newsgroups but unless you are familiar with them, navigating and downloading files from the newsgroups takes more effort than p2p software. You can download from newsgroups using a newsreader, for example: NewsLeecher and Xnews. There are also pay newsservers, these are faster and can hold up the files longer than free newsservers. Free newsserver can be quite fast, and pay newsservers are even faster.
Once upon a time when the internet was still young there were special interest groups that shared information and kept in touch by using a bulletin board type system. This system was designed to take advantage of the internet in a way an old bulletin boards couldn’t; each location had a machine (news server) that would store all the messages of the newsgroups that were desired by it’s users. A short time passed and the users of certain newsgroups thought that this system would be ideal to share files with each other. It’s easy to access newsgroups but unless you are familiar with them, navigating and downloading files from the newsgroups takes more effort than p2p software. You can download from newsgroups using a newsreader, for example: NewsLeecher and Xnews. There are also pay newsservers, these are faster and can hold up the files longer than free newsservers. Free newsserver can be quite fast, and pay newsservers are even faster.
IRC Trading
Not far up from peer-to-peer users we have the people who go to IRC for their warez. In general, these people intend to have a better knowledge about computers and the internet. Warez channels are often run by people who have access to a fair amount of pirated material.
Not far up from peer-to-peer users we have the people who go to IRC for their warez. In general, these people intend to have a better knowledge about computers and the internet. Warez channels are often run by people who have access to a fair amount of pirated material.
There are generally two types of these channels. These can often feed by people from FXP boards or bad sites. First there are Fserve (user-to-user) channels. They mainly use the mIRC client’s File Server function and some scripts to share their warez directly from their hard drives. Second there are XDCC (server-to-user) channels. These are usually run by people who are into FXP boards or in the scene. They have access to fast, new warez. They employ people to hack into computers with fast internet connections and install XDCC servers (usually iroffer) which are used to share out pirated goods. There is a limited amount of people allowed to download a release at once, so when a release is populair you are placed into a waiting line. That way good download speeds will be guaranteed. The download speed is often very good.
FXP Boards
FXP is the File eXchange Protocol. It isn’t an actual protocol, just a method of transfer making use of a vulnerability in FTP. It allows the transfer of files between two FTP servers. Rather than client-to-server, the tranfer becomes server to server. The fxp’er just gives a command to 1 server to send files to the other server. FXP usually allows very fast transfer speeds although it totally depends on the connection of the servers. Still it’s ussually faster since the hackers are able to hack very fast servers. The fxp boards layer in the piracy food chain is quite unknown and therefore rather safe. Though the hacker’s activities are very illegal, and therefore dangerous. Security is important. The members are ussually a lot smarter than irc-traders/p2p-users and have a greater knowledge about computers and internet.
FXP is the File eXchange Protocol. It isn’t an actual protocol, just a method of transfer making use of a vulnerability in FTP. It allows the transfer of files between two FTP servers. Rather than client-to-server, the tranfer becomes server to server. The fxp’er just gives a command to 1 server to send files to the other server. FXP usually allows very fast transfer speeds although it totally depends on the connection of the servers. Still it’s ussually faster since the hackers are able to hack very fast servers. The fxp boards layer in the piracy food chain is quite unknown and therefore rather safe. Though the hacker’s activities are very illegal, and therefore dangerous. Security is important. The members are ussually a lot smarter than irc-traders/p2p-users and have a greater knowledge about computers and internet.
The boards usually run a vBulletin forum with custom hacks. The boards ussually don’t work with a credit system. Though the admins do an user cleanup once in a while. The board’s members consist of scanners, hackers, and fillers. They each have their own tasks:
The Scanner
The Scanner’s job is to scan IP ranges where fast internet connection are knwon to lie (usually universities, company’s, etc.) for vulnerable computers. We’re talking brute forcing passwords from programs, or scanning on ports for certain programs which contain a bug. The scanner will oftten use slow previously hacked computers for his scanning (known as scanstro’s), using remote scan programs. Once the scanner has gotten his results, he’ll run post this at the board. This is where the Hacker” comes into play.
The Scanner’s job is to scan IP ranges where fast internet connection are knwon to lie (usually universities, company’s, etc.) for vulnerable computers. We’re talking brute forcing passwords from programs, or scanning on ports for certain programs which contain a bug. The scanner will oftten use slow previously hacked computers for his scanning (known as scanstro’s), using remote scan programs. Once the scanner has gotten his results, he’ll run post this at the board. This is where the Hacker” comes into play.
The Hacker
Hackers are the people who break into computers. There are many easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities. Hackers get in to a computer using an exploit to get in via a program’s bug. An exploit is a script which uses the bug to get in the pc. The program/exploit he uses (of course) depends upon the vulnerability the scanner has scanned for.When in, the hacker runs his rootkit (a modified version of Serv-U ussually). This rootkit is the server where other people can download from. Most likely he will also install remote administrator software (ussually Radmin), so he can get in to the computer easily. Once the server is installed and working he’ll post the admin logindata to the FTP server on his FXP board. Depending on the speed of the compromised computer’s (aka pubstro or stro) internet connection and the hard drive space, it will be used either by a filler or a scanner.
Hackers are the people who break into computers. There are many easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities. Hackers get in to a computer using an exploit to get in via a program’s bug. An exploit is a script which uses the bug to get in the pc. The program/exploit he uses (of course) depends upon the vulnerability the scanner has scanned for.When in, the hacker runs his rootkit (a modified version of Serv-U ussually). This rootkit is the server where other people can download from. Most likely he will also install remote administrator software (ussually Radmin), so he can get in to the computer easily. Once the server is installed and working he’ll post the admin logindata to the FTP server on his FXP board. Depending on the speed of the compromised computer’s (aka pubstro or stro) internet connection and the hard drive space, it will be used either by a filler or a scanner.
The Filler
Now if the pubstro is fast enough and has enough hard drive space, it’s the filler’s job to get to work filling it with the latest warez. The filler gets his warez from other ftp servers hacked/filled by other people. Fillers sometimes have site access, and fxp releases from there to their pubstro. These people who are in sites and in fxp boards are considered corrupt, and if other sceners find out, they will be scenebanned (banned from all his sites). Though it is said that it happens quite often. Once he’s done fxp’ing his warez, the filler goes back to the board and posts leech logins for one and all to use. Fillers (with site access) all try to post a release the first. It’s kinda like a race, who ever wins it get the most credit. The speed of these pubstro’s depend on how fast the pc is they hacked. Though the hackers from these fxp-boards are rather good, and are able to hack 100mbit’s.
Now if the pubstro is fast enough and has enough hard drive space, it’s the filler’s job to get to work filling it with the latest warez. The filler gets his warez from other ftp servers hacked/filled by other people. Fillers sometimes have site access, and fxp releases from there to their pubstro. These people who are in sites and in fxp boards are considered corrupt, and if other sceners find out, they will be scenebanned (banned from all his sites). Though it is said that it happens quite often. Once he’s done fxp’ing his warez, the filler goes back to the board and posts leech logins for one and all to use. Fillers (with site access) all try to post a release the first. It’s kinda like a race, who ever wins it get the most credit. The speed of these pubstro’s depend on how fast the pc is they hacked. Though the hackers from these fxp-boards are rather good, and are able to hack 100mbit’s.
Pub/Pubbing
Pubbing is not so important anymore nowadays. This scan/hack/fill methodes are from the old days when many university and business ftp servers had write access enabled on anonymous ftp-servers. So instead of break ing into a computer, they would just upload their warez and give the IP address to their friends. This was very popular but died out for obvious reasons. It works like this; there is someone who scans for ftp servers with anonymous logins with write-access. Once found a pub would be tagged (a folder with the name “tagged.by.name”). The idea was that if a pub was already “tagged” other pubbers would leave it alone. This apparently worked for a while, with people respecting other people’s tags and leaving the pubs alone. But it certainly hasn’t worked for a very long time.
Pubbing is not so important anymore nowadays. This scan/hack/fill methodes are from the old days when many university and business ftp servers had write access enabled on anonymous ftp-servers. So instead of break ing into a computer, they would just upload their warez and give the IP address to their friends. This was very popular but died out for obvious reasons. It works like this; there is someone who scans for ftp servers with anonymous logins with write-access. Once found a pub would be tagged (a folder with the name “tagged.by.name”). The idea was that if a pub was already “tagged” other pubbers would leave it alone. This apparently worked for a while, with people respecting other people’s tags and leaving the pubs alone. But it certainly hasn’t worked for a very long time.
A method against retagging is dir locking. This is used in pubbing to stop people which are not allowed to get into the directory of the tagger (and slowing the server down). There are a couple or dir locking tricks. The first and easiest is to make a maze. When you make a maze you just make a lot directories and other people would never know in what map your stuff is since you would have to try them all out. Second is UNIX tagging. That’s about a the magical character, the ÿ (alt+0255) which is an escape character on UNIX machines. When give a directory a name containing that character, the name will be displayed different then when you typed. The creator can get in by typing in the original name. Last is dir locking NT systems. More about this and other dir locking here.
Topsites
Next on the list and pretty much at the top or near the top are the site traders. Site trading is basically sending releases from one site to another. Releasegroups publish their releases on these sites, so they are the first stadium in the distribution of warez. From there on a release will be spread all over the world.
The Sites
These sites have very fast internet connections. 10mbit is considered the minimum, 100mbit good, and anything higher pretty damn good. The sites have huge hard disk drives. 200GB would probably be the minimum, and they can get up to 5 terabytes. These sites are often hosted at schools, universities, people’s work. Also some countires have the preference. The Netherlands and Germany have fast internet connections, Sweden also but then a lot cheaper. These sites are referred to as being legit. This means that the owner of the computer knowns that they are there and being run, which is the opposite of pubstro’s. Fast connections mean a lot to some people. If you have access to a 100mbit line (and are willing to run a warez server there), there are people who would quite happily pay for and have a computer shipped to you just for hosting a site that they will make absolutely no profit from. Commercial use of site access is not something common, most people do it just for fun, not to make money. Standard site software are GlFTPd and DrFTPd. As well as running FTPD, the sites run an eggdrop bot with various scripts installed. The bot will make an annoucement on an IRC channel when a directory is made or upload completed. It will also give race information, since just like on fxp boards, the site traders try to send a release as quick as possible to another site. That way he will earn credits. The more credits, the more he can download. The speed between topsites can reach about 15 MBps.
These sites have very fast internet connections. 10mbit is considered the minimum, 100mbit good, and anything higher pretty damn good. The sites have huge hard disk drives. 200GB would probably be the minimum, and they can get up to 5 terabytes. These sites are often hosted at schools, universities, people’s work. Also some countires have the preference. The Netherlands and Germany have fast internet connections, Sweden also but then a lot cheaper. These sites are referred to as being legit. This means that the owner of the computer knowns that they are there and being run, which is the opposite of pubstro’s. Fast connections mean a lot to some people. If you have access to a 100mbit line (and are willing to run a warez server there), there are people who would quite happily pay for and have a computer shipped to you just for hosting a site that they will make absolutely no profit from. Commercial use of site access is not something common, most people do it just for fun, not to make money. Standard site software are GlFTPd and DrFTPd. As well as running FTPD, the sites run an eggdrop bot with various scripts installed. The bot will make an annoucement on an IRC channel when a directory is made or upload completed. It will also give race information, since just like on fxp boards, the site traders try to send a release as quick as possible to another site. That way he will earn credits. The more credits, the more he can download. The speed between topsites can reach about 15 MBps.
The People
There are basically three ranks in sitetrading: siteops, affiliates and racers. Siteops (Site-Operators) are the administrators. There are usually between two and five siteops per site. One is often the supplier of the site, another the person who found the supplier and guided them through the installation of the FTPD. The other will be friends and
people involved in the scene. One or more of the siteops will be the nuker. It is his job to nuke any releases that are old or fake. Affiliates are the releasegroups who post their releases there right after they are finished.
There are basically three ranks in sitetrading: siteops, affiliates and racers. Siteops (Site-Operators) are the administrators. There are usually between two and five siteops per site. One is often the supplier of the site, another the person who found the supplier and guided them through the installation of the FTPD. The other will be friends and
people involved in the scene. One or more of the siteops will be the nuker. It is his job to nuke any releases that are old or fake. Affiliates are the releasegroups who post their releases there right after they are finished.
Racers are the people who will race releases between sites. Usually they will have access to a number of sites and will fxp release as soon as they’re released. FXP’ing a release will gain credits. The ratio is usually 1:3, so fxp’ing 3 GB will get them 9 GB credits on the site. The race is to upload the most parts of the release at the fastest speed. Racing happends shortly after a release is released.
