Bulletin Boards. Dial-up bulletin boards presented the first real problem of on-line piracy. These were individual computers that could be dialed up by modem, where software could be posted and made available for download to other users of that bulletin board. Often these sites operated free of charge. Some of these sites required a form of barter one first had to post a software program for others to download in order to have the right to download programs already posted.
E-mail. Electronic mail enables computer users to communicate with and transmit digital material to other users or groups of users. Unfortunately, the uses of e-mail extend to the exchange of pirated software and the advertisement, solicitation and subsequent sale of pirated software by mail .E-mail users can distribute software by attaching files to their messages or by encoding it into the text of their messages.
News Groups. News groups are established Internet discussion groups that operate like a public e-mail in-box. Participants can encode pirated software into the body of messages they post. The software is often broken up into small (1-to-1.4MB-sized) files to make downloading easier. Newsgroups devoted solely to software piracy have been established. Since many newsgroups are archived, they act as storehouses of illegal software.
IRC. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a real-time, interactive Internet chat system you see what others type as they type it. Because of its immediacy, IRC can be a popular way of spreading the word about new "hot" pirate sites which permit downloading. Like news groups, IRC discussion groups (called "channels") can be used to bring together interested buyers and sellers. Some have been established as marketplaces to advertise recent or temporary pirate software sites. Pirates attempt to avoid detection by advertising their sites on private channels, and operating them only a few hours a day.
FTP. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard that allows disparate computers to exchange files quickly and easily. Such exchanges include the uploading and downloading of software programs. Computers established as FTP sites can contain enormous quantities of program files, along with other information. When exploited by software pirates, they facilitate the distribution of large volumes of copyrighted software programs. Pirates sometimes penetrate computers at corporate, government, and educational and use their FTP capability to store and make programs available for downloading. At one time, users required knowledge of Unix and FTP commands to find and access FTP sites and to download files. FTP-capable browsers on the Worldwide Web permit point-and-click navigation and downloading.
Site Links. The graphical and trend-setting nature of the Worldwide Web has inspired pirates who once operated underground and within small groups to create in-your-face, brazenly illegal web sites and engage in extensive acts of self-promotion. One popular species of web site provides links to other sites from which software can be downloaded. The creators and operators of these on-line pirate directories hunt for new or interesting links to make their site the biggest and the best..
Direct Links. Some pirates make software available on the Internet by housing a web page and an FTP site on the same computer. Such a one-stop shop has its conveniences, but it also has several obvious limitations. To offer a wide selection of software programs to a large number of people requires a large amount of computer resources, storage space and maintenance.
Remote Links. Because of the limitations of direct linked sites, the trend seems to be toward remote linking to program files. These remote-linked sites essentially retrieve software stored elsewhere, e.g., on an FTP site on a remote computer. Often their web pages contain links directly to the remotely-located file. By clicking on the link, the user initiates a file transfer and can download a program directly to his or her computer.
"Elite" Activities. Notwithstanding the public nature of web piracy, a "warez underground" still exists behind the scenes. It is comprised of so-called "elite" pirates, self-annointed experts who traffic heavily in pirated software and usually engage in related activities, such as creating "cracks" to circumvent copy protection, acting as couriers to move pirated software about, warehousing large quantities of pirated software, and supplying counterfeiters with material.
Circumvention Information. The Internet has become a repository of information for circumventing software protection devices. Hacker sites offer serial numbers, access codes and software program "patches" that bypass or circumvent encryption or other technical protections that the software publisher may have applied to its products. Using a search engine and the key word "crackz" (the code word for circumvention sites), BSA recently found more than 368,000 web pages that offer "patches" many of which are specifically designed to defeat these technological protection measures.
Internet Auction Sites. Internet auction sites which provide an electronic forum to sell, and bid upon, virtually any consumer product or collectible are an increasingly popular venue for software pirates. Unlike traditional pirate software sites, the leading Internet auctions are primarily markets for legitimate products. Moreover, the auction sites are used only to link buyers and sellers and not to download software. Instead, software is delivered to the winning bidder in CD format by mail or other traditional means. Because of their apparent legitimacy and growing popularity among cost-conscious consumers, Internet auction sites afford software pirates a unique opportunity to reach a much broader pool of software users, most of whom would not knowingly purchase illegal software. The pirates typically defraud bidders by claiming that the illegal software is genuine product obtained at a deep discount through wholesale channels. However, test purchases have confirmed that almost all business software offered through auction sites is counterfeit or otherwise infringing.
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