Topsite

Topsite is a term used by the warez scene to refer to high-speed FTP servers used by release groups and couriers for distribution, storage and archival of warez releases. Topsites have very high-bandwidth Internet connections, commonly supporting transfer speeds of hundreds to thousands of megabits per second; enough to transfer a full DVD in minutes. Topsites also have very high storage capacity; a total of many terabytes is typical.

Parent article: Warez

Overview

Security

Unlike their predecessors in the BBS scene, topsites aren't advertised broadly. With the increased threat of police raids, topsites have been forced to employ elaborate security precautions in order to stay hidden from authorities.

A topsite configuration will only allow users to login from a certain ident and host (or ip range), with SSL encapsulation on all FTP sessions. FTP bouncers are commonly used to hide the topsite's real IP address, and to share network load.

Site Channels

Activity on the FTP server is announced by a Sitebot in a private IRC channel. Users need to issue an invite command to the FTP server in order to join a site channel. Sitebots typically run Eggdrop IRC bot software.

Dupe (Duplicate) Check

Release databases record release names and their release date & time, although fields vary from database to database. Examples of other common fields include genres (for MP3 releases), sections, and nuke details.

Release databases are maintained to provide release groups with a service for checking existing release titles (ie, to avoid duping another group). Some databases contain historical release records dating back to the BBS era. Note that such databases are uncommon, due to a completely different release naming method (based on the ZIP file descriptor FILE_ID.DIZ, as opposed to a directory name), and lack of information from this period.

Release databases are usually updated by automatic processes that either recurse selected topsites searching for new releases (spidering), or catch pre-release announcements from site channels.

Release databases used by topsites are private, but a number of public websites exist with similar information; examples include NFOrce.nl, SWEdupe.com, nfodb.com, VCDQuality.com, and tehserver.us.

Credit system

Credit system controls the amount of data which users can download. Most sites operate by using an automated credit system. When a user uploads a file, their account is credited for an amount based on the uploaded file size, commonly multiplied three times (1:3). For example, when a user uploads a 15MB file, they may receive 45MB credits in return. Credits can be later used to download files from the site. Credits can be lost by uploading a bad release which gets nuked. Nuke multiplier affects the amount of lost credits. See courier section.

Affiliates

A warez group may gain access to a topsite as an affiliate, including the site among the group's primary release points (usually in return for leech privileges for their members). Typically, groups will affiliate with several topsites, in order to maximize efficient courier distribution to other (non-affiliated) topsites. Topsites may have any number of affiliates, and commonly advertise them in the welcome message, as a measure of quality.

Each affiliate has access to a private, hidden directory on the topsite. This directory is used for uploading new releases before they are made available to other users. When a new release has finished uploading on each of the group's sites, a command is executed to simultaneously copy it into a directory accessible by other users, and trigger an announcement in the topsite IRC channel. This event is known as a pre-release, and must occur at the same time on every affiliated site. Pre-releases may be also relayed to external Pre-channels to inform other couriers that a new release is available for racing.

The warez scene relies on strict release standards, or rules, which are written and signed by various warez groups.

Couriers

Couriers are a specific class of topsite users who earn their access by uploading new releases and filling requests. When a courier gains access to a topsite, they are often required to pass a trial test such as uploading a certain amount in a short period of time.

Couriers compete (race) against each other for respect, credits, access to other topsites, and fun. Couriers sometimes operate as independent (iND) couriers but most couriers band together in courier groups which provide support and friendship through camaraderie.

Topsite Staff Roles

Group Administrator

A group administrator ('gadmin') is a member of an affiliated group or courier group with user management rights over the group. Each group has a pre-negotiated number of leech and ratio users, or slots.

Nuker

Nukers are users with elevated privileges on a topsite, whose role is to stop users uploading releases that don't comply with that particular site's rules. A nuker monitors the site, ensuring that every uploaded release follows the local site rules, and greater scene standards. Nuked releases are not deleted, but marked with a NUKED- prefix (or similar). Nukers exercise discretion, and may nuke for any reason.

When a release is nuked, the offending uploaders lose credits according to the size of the directory times a given nuke multiplier. The multiplier is usually 3 times when a site rule is violated, and 1 time when a scene rule is violated.

Site Operator

A site or system operator (siteop/sysop) is in charge of the day-to-day operation of a topsite. They have full (root) access to the server and are able to manage users, groups, and topsite scripts and daemons installed on server. They decide on site rules, and site sections (eg TV Rips, XviD movies, MP3 music, etc). Site operators are also in charge of managing the site channel, and sitebot.

Takedowns

While these sites are protected with technologically advanced schemes, law enforcement operations such as Operation Buccaneer and Operation Fastlink have been able to gain access and shut down sites by infiltrating the pirate groups that operate on them. Operation Site Down (June 2005) was the latest significant law-enforcement attack on the warez scene. There were also busts in June 2006, with one US.biz site being busted, and several colos.

Not all takedowns are successful. Operation Bahnhof failed miserably when the officials entered an area that their warrant didn't include. Although they found several servers and terabytes of illegal material, they ended up being sued for illegal tresspassing, harassment and accused of planting evidence, as one of the Antipiratbyrån (Swedish anti-piracy group) employees was trying to infiltrate the scene to gather evidence, and in doing so violated Swedish laws against entrapment.

Software

Some software that might be used on topsites after some small modifications.

FTP daemons

• glFTPd
• glFTPd scripts archive
• WzdFTPD
• DrFTPD

Zipscript

• Project Zipscript

External links

• Wired article about the phenomenon: The shadow internet