Talk:Software cracking
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Groan . . ., whilst the "we reflect how things are, not how they should be" this entry also has to acknowledge the many other activities, most of them legal, that many programmers call hacking, and will probably have to explore the degree of disjointedness (though sometimes not as clean as some would claim) between the PC cracking/warez communities, the demo coders and their ilk, and the Unix hackers that have gravitated to Linux, BSD and so on. --Robert Merkel.
This page answers the question asked on [[Hacking]] wondering why Hackers got confused with Crackers. <sarcasm>Thanks a lot, buddy.</sarcasm> -- Ed Poor
Redirected to talk:Hacker and talk:Software cracking — Preceding unsigned comment added by The Cunctator (talk • contribs) 07:36, 12 December 2001 (UTC)
re first para
What's the difference between illegal and criminal? --bodnotbod 04:50, Feb 21, 2005 (UTC)
- Its a grey area really, for example in the USA reverse engineering a program thats encrypted is "Illegal" according to the DMCA but its not really "criminal" as far as intent goes. Whereas someone cracking software protection for purposes of distributions not only "illegally" breaking the law but is "criminal" in intent. Basically its a matter of legality vs. intent. ALKIVAR™
15:00, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- Not exactly. "Criminal" is something you can be prosecuted for - not sued by a private party, prosecuted. Reverse engineering in violation of the DMCA is a violation of civil law (not civil law as opposed to common law, civil law as opposed to criminal law - sometimes called private law). You have to have a private party sue you for a civil offense. Trademark and copyright infringements fpr noncommercial purposes are a few examples. A copyright infringement where somebody is selling, AFAIK, is actually criminal. 74.78.116.93 (talk) 07:29, 26 November 2008 (UTC)
- Simple copyright violation (rights infringement) is contrary to statute (hence illegal), but not criminal. It could result in a civil suit where the offended party could claim recourse for the infringement, but not a criminal prosecution and possible convition. The concerted effort to deliberately circumvent protection technologies is not only illegal it has been made expressly criminal, and subject to prosecution. Cain Mosni 22:31, 2 July 2006 (UTC
Needs a History section
Needs a History section. The famous Bill Gates letter accusing everyone of being a pirate might frame the discussion though of course the first Microsoft software didn't have any copy protection. I assumed the first software cracking was on early games on the Apple II and C64. There should be a discussion of the use of aliases and splash screens and the distribution network of BBCs (often with the phone number on the splash screen). This is tangential to the subject of actually doing it, but there is a real history there that ought to be documented here. Tempshill 18:47, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
- Ite... that's going to be a hack, er, heck of a project, trying to find resources that can document the history of software cracking. I'm also curious: Do we mention specific groups? Link to possible articles about them? Link to their websites (if still extant)?
- Not that I'm saying I'm not interested in working on the history here, of course, but it'll take some doing. If nobody minds, I'll be legally conservative in my linking and try to not get wikipedia in trouble. c.c
Removed outside links
These links seem to be self serving and not entirely relevant to the article. Although they do contain a small amount of history, it seems that they have been posted here to increase someone's google ranking than to actually contribute to the article. I think a general references section should be added however. I haven't found any suitable sites as most disappear quickly due to their nature or are simply spam havens with no useful content. Also, sites that contain huge lists of outdated cracks with no actual academic content are simply not appropriate. I don't feel this article should become a shelter for links to direct sources of pirated software, but rather a way to gather information on the culture and technical data related to software cracking. fintler 13:44, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
Removing links b/c you don't want to create a "shelter for links to direct sources of pirated software" isn't helpful. Most people looking for cracks will type "cracks" into Google while those researching the issue would find it helpful. If you want to squelch the ability of people finding cracks for software you should delete the whole article so they don't know the concept exists. I don't recommend this though. Dcsutherland 20:51, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Text removed 5-July-2006
User [[::User:87.230.120.46|87.230.120.46]] ([[::User talk:87.230.120.46|talk]] · [[::Special:Contributions/87.230.120.46|contribs]]) appended the following to the intro para:
- It is a great way to get back at the money hungry software corperations who only gives out demos and want you to pay for the full version. It's free but (Sadly) illegal. There are groups like Revenge Crew, Agression, etc. that help people get the full versions for free.
I've removed it because it seems POV and unencyclopedic. Does anyone want to argue for restoring it, or try to create a more acceptable version?
Cheers, CWC(talk) 08:22, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
It sounds like something someone would say in a chat room, and besides the general idea of what is said here is being brought up in the BSA reference and a few other places. 152.131.13.1 17:51, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
desperate and damaging measures
"publishers have resorted to desperate and damaging measures such as StarForce"
is this really needed to be said in this way? Does not sound like NPOV to me. -Sedimin 10:12, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
- Good point. (On further thought, our StarForce article says it has been damaging, both to publishers and to players. Nevertheless, this language is not encyclopedic.) Cheers, CWC(talk) 15:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
Has a point!! Shareware nag screens are annoying and it should be legalized!!
It's a good thing for Microsoft and Adobe
I removed the following paragraph because it is unverifiable and uncited:
Cracking has also been a significant factor in the domination of companies such as Adobe Systems and Microsoft, all of whom have benefited from piracy since the 1980s. Vast numbers of college and high school students adopted readily available applications from these companies. Many of these students would then go on to use them in their professional lives, purchasing legitimate licenses for business use and introducing the software to others until the programs became ubiquitous. Cornlad 20:14, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
I agree, well done
extermin8tor
Hey! I was looking for that!! well atleast its here! - Annonymus.
As a matter of fact, there is a wide spread theory that creacked software CAN be good to some companies. This is because hardware/OS companies require third-party companies to produce software for their hardware/OS,m but the software companies are only going to produce the software IF the hardware/OS is popular enough. So while Cracked OS don't give the producer money directly an as a matter of facts, makes them lose some, they may help more than they hurt. Picture that Creacked OS make the OS more popular (particularly among those who would have not buy it otherwise=, and the increse in popularity leads to more software creation by third-party companies, which in return attracts more users who are willing to pay for say software.
Besides, if the thrid-party companies software are cracked, it means that users who have that OS will be able to obtain a better experience from their OS without paying extra money, making the OS more interesting to the consumers.
We need to look for some good source of this for citation (some academic study, maybe?), but otherwise is good info. - Ancho_panza, 2011
Effects section
The effects section is'nt entirely ontopic, this article is about computer software cracking, this is done by crackers and warez groups, so why is the distribution of xvid and mp3 included in the article. In my fairly informed opinion I think that someone should correct this, as it is off-topic.
corect me if im wrong though
Annoying!
Shareware is annoying!! With the nag screens and limited feature im glad cracks exist!
This has nothing to do with this article & is off topic, please stay on topic --VandalRemover 22:06, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
Cracks.AM = Dangerous
Cracks.AM should be removed, because it's a very dangerous site that may destroy your computer. According to SiteAdvisor Cracks.am is RED
Evidence: [1]
According to WOT Protection rating system, it's rated as "Untrustworthy"
Thank you for your time, Jinyaho. --Jinyaho 13:21, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
Jinyahoo, I totally agreed with you, Cracks.AM should not be in this article, 2nd it's dangerous, 3rd it shouldn't be any "Copyright Material Cracking" On wikipedia, for these reasons it WILL get Removed
Commodore floppy drive. Wha?
Currently says: "For floppy drives at first errors to the floppy were intentionally written to the floppy and the software would look for the errors. Because of the operational of Commodore Floppy Drives this would cause the floppy drive heard to bang against the edge and could cause the drive head to become misaligned."
I think this is unclear. I'm not certain of the facts of this case, but I think it should probably be corrected to something like this:
- For floppy drives, errors were first intentionally written to the floppy disk and then the software would seek to read the errors. Because of the operation of Commodore floppy drives this would cause the floppy drive head to bang against a limiting edge and could cause the drive head to become misaligned.
If my changes remain true to the facts I think they improve the intelligibility of the passage. Alas, I did not save my old C= magazines where one might find reliable sources on this. (This was before the public Internet, for you youngsters.) If you can verify or falsify this, please comment here or make the change. I think it would help to state (or restate, since it is mentioned in other contexts) why the software seeking to read the errors served as copy protection in this case. —Blanchette (talk) 22:27, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
- I have rewritten some of the history section (in particular the parts about floppy drives and ROM cartridges) before I saw this discussion. Check out the newer version and see if the intelligibility is improved. Feel free to change as needed. Someone needs to add some info about usenet and internet activities, as I left only a token sentence from the previous version. —Blazotron (talk) 04:45, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
engineering dongle thing
"An example of this could be an expensive engineering software that requires a dongle to operate." - Can someone give an example? Just curious, I'm not doubting that it happens. 74.78.116.93 (talk) 02:49, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
Changes by David Calman
Oh really? Malicious users should be banned off the site right now! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ms dos mode (talk • contribs) 05:10, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
timeline trouble?
"Microsoft reduced common Windows based software cracking with the release of the NGSCB initiative in future versions of their operating system."
I don't follow this statement; it seems to say that Microsoft reduced software cracking in the past by doing something in the future. 75.17.157.194 (talk) 21:02, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
Fragment Alert!
Under the History section: "Of course cracking the software to expect good sectors made for readily copied disks without the need to meddle with the disk drive." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.124.5.68 (talk) 15:08, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
I really appreciate this article's neutrality.
Thanks to the contributors of this page, I think that it is an excellent example of neutrality! Steven (talk) 01:58, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
I removed the following as its opinion
Cracking has also been a significant factor in the domination of companies such as Adobe Systems and Microsoft, as these companies and others have benefited from piracy since the 1980s.[citation needed] Vast numbers of college and high school students adopted readily available applications from these companies. Many of these students would then go on to use them in their professional lives, purchasing legitimate licenses for business use and introducing the software to others until the programs became ubiquitous.[1]
Industry response section - antivirus companies
Are there any reliable sources that go into antivirus purposely giving false positive results for cracked software? Here is a forum thread at norton.com where the forum leaders are saying that Norton Antivirus is supposed to flag illegal patches as viruses. [[2]] That is a huge part of the software industry response. Information on it, along with countermeasures, would be informative. 94.222.176.14 (talk) 16:04, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
Industry response section
I'm thinking that the "Industry Response" section needs to be removed or merged into the history section. The stuff said there is a bit outdated. fintler (talk) 13:32, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
Crack intro Merge
I oppose a merge of Crack intro. Consider merging Crack intro into Demoscene instead. fintler (talk) 13:43, 8 April 2010 (UTC)
- ^ "Why Piracy Hurts Open Source" (PDF).
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