Fairlight (group)
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- This article is about the demo/warez group. See Fairlight (disambiguation) for other meanings of Fairlight
 Fairlight logo by JED of ACiD. |
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| Also known as | FLT |
|---|---|
| Country | Sweden |
| Years active | 1987 |
| Category | Warez and demo |
| Founder(s) | Strider and Black Shadow |
| Website(s) | http://www.fairlight.to/ |
Fairlight (FLT) is a warez and demo group initially involved in the Commodore demoscene, and in cracking to illegally release games for free, since 1987. In addition to the C64, Fairlight has also migrated towards the Amiga, Super Nintendo and later the PC. Fairlight was founded during the Easter holiday in 1987 by Strider and Black Shadow, both ex-members of West Coast Crackers (WCC). This "West Coast" was the west coast of Sweden, so Fairlight was initially a Swedish group, which later became internationalized. The name was taken from the Fairlight CMI synthesizer which Strider saw Jean Michel Jarre use on some of his records.
In May 2008 it was revealed that Strider is Tony Krvaric, chairman of the San Diego Republican Party.[1]
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[edit] Operation Fastlink
Several high ranking members of the group were caught on April 21, 2004, 8 months after the group returned from their temporary "retirement" that began on June 9, 2003 and ended on August 30, in an FBI operation called Operation Fastlink.
Police forces from eleven countries were involved, arresting about 120 people and seizing more than 200 computers (including 30 servers). One server from the U.S. raid contained 65,000 pirated titles which were alleged to be in the archive repository of the group.
The operation was coordinated by the FBI, the British National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) and the Business Software Alliance, and took place in 27 U.S. states. In the UK, seven computers were seized and three arrests made in Belfast, Manchester and Sheffield. In Singapore, three people (22, 30 & 34 years old) were arrested. In the Netherlands two servers owned by students on 2 universities were investigated by police officers. Other arrests and seizures were made in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, and Sweden for a total of 11 countries.
According to rumor, the raid occurred just before the warez group would have released the game Hitman: Contracts. The game was released by other groups (iNSOMNiA, for Xbox and PS2, and Razor 1911, for PCs) a few days later.
The last massive warez-related raid prior to Fastlink was Operation Buccaneer which targeted DrinkOrDie (amongst others) in December 2001.
Since October 2006 the ISO division of FAIRLIGHT has started releasing again.
[edit] Notable demo releases and awards
The demo division of Fairlight has received numerous awards during their career, listed below.
| Title | Type | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| My Room | demo | 1st place at Phenomena/Censor Party 1990 |
| Illusion | demo | 2nd place at The Computer Crossroad 1993 |
| 242 | demo | 2nd place at Assembly 1993 |
| Full Moon | demo | 2nd place at The Party 1993 |
| Chaosland | 40k intro | 1st place at The Party 1993 |
| Love | demo | 1st place at South Sealand Party 1994 |
| Breathtaker | demo | 2nd place at Assembly 1994 |
| Psychedelic | demo | 2nd place at The Party 1994 |
| Faktory | demo | 3rd place at The Party 1995 |
| Sumea | demo | 1st place at Assembly 1996 |
| Title | Type | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| Drop The Basics | demo | 3rd place at X 2001 |
| Pretending To See The Light | demo | 1st place at Floppy 2002 |
| Loaded | demo | 2nd place at Floppy 2003 |
| Anyone | demo | 1st place at Deadline 2003 |
| Emanation Machine | demo | 1st place at Little Computer People 2003 |
| Wok Zombie | demo | 2nd place at Floppy 2004 |
| One Million Light Years From Earth | demo | 1st place at Floppy 2005, scene.org award nominee - best oldskool demo of 2005 |
| Hello:Friend | demo | 1st place at Little Computer People 2005, scene.org award nominee - most original concept of 2005, best oldskool demo of 2005 |
| Boogie Factor | demo | 1st place at Assembly 2005, scene.org award winner - best oldskool demo of 2005 |
| LCP Memories | demo | 1st place at Black Birdie 2005 |
| WWIII | demo | 1st place at Big Floppy People 2006 |
| Title | Type | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| Together | 64k intro | 1st place at Scene Event 2000 |
| Absolut Vodka | demo | 1st place at Remedy 2000 |
| ETTV | demo | 1st place at Remedy 2001 |
| Virtual Vodka | demo | 2nd place at DreamHack 2001 |
| Tatsu | demo | 3rd place at The Gathering 2002 |
| Only Kings And Better | demo | 1st place at Remedy 2002 |
| From Dust Till Dawn | demo | 1st place at Remedy 2004 |
| Come Clean | demo | 4th place at Assembly 2004 |
| Fresh! | 64k intro | 1st place at BCN 2004, scene.org award nominee - best 64k intro of 2004 |
| Death And Taxes | 64k intro | 2nd place at Breakpoint 2005, scene.org award nominee - best 64k intro of 2005 |
| Che Guevara | 64k intro | 1st place at Assembly 2005, scene.org award winner - best 64k intro of 2005 |
| Re-Recycle | 64k intro | 1st place at Sundown 2005 |
| Deadline | demo | 1st place at Deadline Harakiri 2006 |
| Meet The Family | 64k intro | 1st place at Breakpoint 2006 |
| Liquid Lust | demo | 1st place at Birdie 2006 |
| Glitterati | 4k intro | 1st place at Assembly 2006 |
| Dead Ringer | 64k intro | 1st place at Assembly 2006 |
| Track One | demo | 2nd place at Assembly 2006, scene.org award winner - best demo of 2006 |
| Scarecrow | 4k intro | 1st place at Sundown 2006 |
| Frameranger | demo | 1st place at Assembly 2009, in coalition with CNCD and Orange |
[edit] Records
Fairlight held a short-lived romance with TRSI with their cooperative endeavor, TRSi and Fairlight Recordz, formed by member Zinkfloid (also known as Uyanik) and Raven from Fairlight. The groups released several albums under their brand name "TRSI & Fairlight Recordz", including Muffler (2000) [2] [3] and CNCD (1995). [4]
[edit] Strider
Strider, whose real name is Tony Krvaric, has become the San Diego Republican Party chairman. [2]
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- United Software Association — IBM PC-warez organization which released cooperatively with Fairlight during the early 1990s.
- List of warez groups
[edit] External links
- The World of Fairlight (official website)
- Fairlight demos and cracktros, including Come Clean, indexed by Pouet
- "Operation Fastlink" press release published by the United States Department of Justice
- Fairlights' CSDb entry
- Fairlight PC file and information repository on Defacto2
- San Diego GOP linked to piracy ring
