-Is it illegal to possess backups. What do you thing?
-No, not at all. As a matter of fact companies encourage you to
make backups of their software. Use your backup for everyday use and save your
original media in a safe place for future use or to make another backup in case
your present backup media fails to respond or to run. Allthough more and more
software companies, anymore, tend to replace your worned out media with a new
copy of it, it's still a husttle to wait for the beaurocracy, delivery etc, and
you'll find that in most cases even cost a lot more in delivery than to have
burned your own backup.
The illegal part is when you make a backup for someone else with
or even without profit. You can't make a backup to sale it, nor to rent it, nor
to make a gift with it. Cyber-HOT-Line suggests not to make illegal
copies. Support the programmers' efforts.
Question(6):
-How safe is it to buy pirated software?
Answer:
-It is not safe at all. Don't forget that your credentials
(address, phone numbers, emails) are with the trader's client list. If they
catch the treader, there are good chances that you might be cought too.
Question(7):
-How and where can I find really low price illegal software.
Where are the cheapest traders, where they sell the
cheapest cracked titles around?
Answer:
-Usually look for classified ads (mikres agelies) in newspapers,
magazines and
at the internet.
Attention, bare in mind this. Cheap traders usually mean cheap people as well.
Why? There's a lot of crime involved in this illegal trading business, besides
piracy itself. Other important criminal acts directly involved with software
piracy include Money Fraud (printing and exchanging fake money bills), credit
card hacking, bank account hacking, email hacking, website pass and exploit hacking.
Even at the event of a simple, or multiple and usually unsuccessfull
attempts, the .net servers are tracing and track the offender down in terms of
his isp, his ip address "whois" and finally his personal account info that
he is registered by his isp. Even if the offender is using a free isp service
that he can give fake credentials.
Still very easy to track down his telephone
number which he was connected to the random ip address that was used by the free
isp at the specific day/time that the crime occured is enough to find him. Do
never think that a secret or not listed telephone number used to connect to an
isp means anything to the authorities.
Some other crimes, that cheap traders are involved in usually
include: Hacking of smartcards (for digital tv
platforms like HBO, NOVA etc.), hacking (OTE) telephone cards, the unlocking of
stollen mobile
phones and car stereo and much, much more.
Even if these traders are not involved into any of the above
illegal acts, but they even have or had criminal records for things, not
directly, having something to do with pirating, hacking, cracking and selling
illegal software/hardware, like for example stealing cars and/or motos (papakia
etc), then, if and when
they're arrested for any of the above or other reasons, they will definetly search their
premises, they will, of caurse find their pirated software archived, possibly their order and client books
etc.
So, their clients will be accused for buying stollen products and quess
what? YOU'LL BE ON
THEIR CUSTOMER LISTS. You 'll, as their client, wil be involved in a criminal activity and
that's not all. They 'll come right to you, searching your premises, this time,
for stollen software and don't you think that your desktop hard
drives and your closets and your desk drawers and your cabinets are so very much
innocent. The 'll be full of these traders' illegal titles and stuff.
My advise, don't buy pirated software, you jeopardize
your freedom and your wallet for fines, due to the reasons above. Besides,
support the software companies, support the
quality releases of cd and dvd titles. If you must buy illegal software be very carefull, you don't
need cheap traders who don't take any precautions and you don't know about it
either.
Choose a reliable source who moves in secrecy not a bomb who might be involved
in other activities as well. Buy from the oldest and the best in the scene.
Avoid to buy illegal. But if you must, then avoid to buy from
small traders, safer traders are the ones having few and large (quantitywise) and
respectible clients who return and buy stuff steady from them, instead of traders
who have a great number of small quantity clients (who buy a couple of
titles each time), usually teenagers not steady clients at all.
Avoid less educated and impolite traders who talk like criminals,
trying to hustle you around and are full of pride and confidance. Avoid being exposed very often to traders
for your software needs, you do when you're visiting to buy a couple cd or dvd titles (one, or
two per visit), rather, make rare but large in quantity orders). Be on the
safe side, shop smart. Shoping cheap and changing traders around trying to find
the cheapest source it's damn and will eventually get you in a lot of trouble in
the future.
It's just not safe not to follow these guidelines.
Question(8):
-How do I use VideoCD and where do they play?
Answer:
The Video CD titles play in CDi Decks, Video CD Decks, PC (with Windows Media
Player), Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation v2.0 and Sega Dreamcast.
Question(9):
-What do the MP3 concern musicwise?
Answer:
The MP3 concern International as well as Greek music.
Question(10):
-Allright I downloaded an .iso or .bin from a BBs or the
internet what do I do know?
Answer:
- Happy Steps in maintaining a properly burned, error free
version of a pirated piece of software.
1.) Leech the original rars (this is the only standard in
releasing under compression).
2.) Open the xxxx.sfv file and make sure it is formatted
correctly so that your appropriate cyclic redundancy checker can read it
(win-sfv32.exe or pdsfv). Here's an example of a BAD SFV to use with
win-sfv32.exe (however it works on Microsoft, Linux server systems and hoopy's
pd-sfv, use gltpad hoopy iso toolkit or comparable checker).
Generated by HoopySFV
filename.r00 C46D96FF
filename.r01 1C03CA69
filename.rar 12550B24
Here's one that is GOOD to use with win-sfv32.exe.
Generated by SFV32 v1.0a
filename.r00 C46D96FF
filename.r01 1C03CA69
filename.rar 12550B24
or... ; Generated by WIN-SFV32 v1.1a on 1999-09-27 at
04:55.56
filename.r00 C46D96FF
filename.r01 1C03CA69
filename.rar 12550B24
*notice the semicolon indicating that this line is NOT part of
the CRC checksum. The numbers/letters following filenames is the CRC code. DO
NOT touch this, otherwise all your disks will be falsely interpreted as bad.*
3.) Open win-sfv32.exe, commonly referred to as WinSFV and
browse through the explorer like interface and find the directory that you
downloaded the original disks/rars from.
4.) Double click that directory or click the NEXT button while
that directory is highlighted.
5.) Under the ACTION box, make sure the VERIFY FILES button is
selected. Ignore all other options, as they are unnecessary in verifying the
integrity of your disks/rars. Then click NEXT.
6.) This process will take approximately 3-5 minutes on an IDE
harddrive and 1-3 minutes on a nice SCSI harddrive. Upon completion, files that
are tested OK and have their CRC check comply will be highlighted in green,
those that fail or are bad/corrupted will be in red. These disks are damaged,
must be re-leeched, and TOTALLY irreparable.
7.) Assuming that all your disks are in good shape and you have
all the disks (read the nfo or .sfv file to see what the file names of the disks
are and how many there are) begin to decompress the files by selecting the
xxx.rar or xxx.001 file to begin extracting from. Open up a window of winrar and
guide its explorer-like view to find the dir and double click the xxx.rar or
xxx.001 file. From there you can extract the file using winrar or suitable
extraction/decompressing program. This process is lengthy; go do something else
for about 10 minutes other than staring at your monitor and absorbing harmful UV
radiation ;). CiFE and FLT have been known to use .001 disks instead of .rars.
15,000,000 bytes is the most common size of a disk, whereas 20,000,000 are less
common but often found in many PSX releases.
8.) Once fully extracted you will
a.) have a .bin and .cue sheet or
b.) end up with a piece of shit called a .iso
file. Something you don't want due to no coding for ecc data among other things.
If in the sad chance that it is a .iso file, use NERO, EZ-CD CREATOR, OR DISK
JUGGLER (I recommend ez cd creator since this seems to be many releaser's
choice) to burn the image by selecting an option something along the lines of
"burn cd from a cd image." NOTE that you cannot test the integrity of
an .iso file. If, however, you get a legitimate and quality release that is a
bin file, you must
a.) burn at your own risk without testing the
integrity of the .bin (Intel binary file) using binchunker v1.6 or later
or
b.)test the bin (DATA ONLY) and burn
happily
9.) Now you must make sure the cue sheet is in proper order for
burning. here's an example of a BAD CUE SHEET. ...from
Scooby.Doo.The.Mystery.Of.The.Fun.Park.Phantom-FLT...
FILE "c:\my documents\my porno section\because I
am\a\pervert\SCBYDOO.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO PREGAP 00:01:74 INDEX 01 52:32:10
TRACK 03 AUDIO INDEX 00 53:59:45 INDEX 01 54:01:45
TRACK 04 AUDIO INDEX 00 55:31:42 INDEX 01 55:33:42
TRACK 05 AUDIO INDEX 00 56:24:23 INDEX 01 56:26:23
TRACK 06 AUDIO INDEX 00 57:24:22 INDEX 01 57:26:22
TRACK 07 AUDIO INDEX 00 59:19:45 INDEX 01 59:21:45
TRACK 08 AUDIO INDEX 00 61:19:44 INDEX 01 61:21:44
TRACK 09 AUDIO INDEX 00 63:15:67 INDEX 01 63:17:67
TRACK 10 AUDIO INDEX 00 65:16:58 INDEX 01 65:18:58
--->>> Notice the path c:\my documents\my porno
section\because I am\a\pervert\SCBYDOO.BIN" BINARY. This is totally
fuxx0red. Take out the path so it ONLY reads "SCBYDOO.BIN". The
filename in the quotation marks should only be the name of the .bin file
(commonly, but not always, the same name as the cue sheet file; .cue).
Here's a GOOD cue sheet, properly edited. FILE
"SCBYDOO.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO PREGAP 00:01:74 INDEX 01 52:32:10
TRACK 03 AUDIO INDEX 00 53:59:45 INDEX 01 54:01:45
TRACK 04 AUDIO INDEX 00 55:31:42 INDEX 01 55:33:42
TRACK 05 AUDIO INDEX 00 56:24:23 INDEX 01 56:26:23
TRACK 06 AUDIO INDEX 00 57:24:22 INDEX 01 57:26:22
TRACK 07 AUDIO INDEX 00 59:19:45 INDEX 01 59:21:45
TRACK 08 AUDIO INDEX 00 61:19:44 INDEX 01 61:21:44
TRACK 09 AUDIO INDEX 00 63:15:67 INDEX 01 63:17:67
TRACK 10 AUDIO INDEX 00 65:16:58 INDEX 01 65:18:58
--->>> You can opt to take out the quotation marks or
leave them in; it's entirely your decision.
NOTE: more responsible releasers will do this part FOR YOU. So
you may be able to skip this step.
10.) After completion of this step you can either test the
integrity of the data ONLY or skip this and burn ASAP.
10a.) To burn ASAP load up CDRWIN or
FIREBURNER. In CDRWIN, click the upper left box (record disc). Then go to load
cuesheet, find where you unrar/decompresed the original disks/rars (location of
xxx.cue file), and open it. Once the cue sheet is loaded CDRWIN will give
pertinent information regarding the cd image. Information like cdimage size in
minutes, seconds, and frames and number of tracks. NOTE: if the cd image size is
over 74:00:00 (minutes:seconds:frames) then you must use an 80minute cd and/or
have a cdr capable of burning more than 74minutes (overburning/oversizing a
disk). Then hit the START RECORDING button. While a cd is burning do not run any
other programs in risk of a buffer underrun. However, this problem is not
serious when you have a P2-300+ and more than 64 MEGS of PC100 SDRAM.
11.) If you're nit picky and just can't stand having an impure
cdimage, test the integrity of the xxx.bin file. To do this you need binchunker
1.6 (also available in the files section of isonews.com). DO NOT use binchunker
1.7 to test the data integrity of a bin file. On a lighter note, you can use 1.7
to convert to .wavs and .iso. Open up binchunker and select FILE->LOAD CUE.
Find your ALREADY EDITED CUE SHEET from step 9 and open it. Once opened it will
give information about the number of tracks, etc about that particular .bin file
(some contain data, audio, or both. VCD's often contain TWO tracks. The only
track of importance is TRACK2, which contains the AVI sequence <audio and
video data read by a vcdplayer>). Select the appropriate track you want to
test (often the first track is the data track on apps/game cd images); data for
apps/game isos, TRACK2 for vcd images, and TRACK1/2 for PSX images. Lastly, go
to FILE->SCAN FOR CORRUPTION option and wait for a few minutes until its
completed. The status bar is directly adjacent to the SELECT ALL bottom. NOTE
that you cannot test the integrity of an audio track. This is ONLY done by
selecting the respective audio track and going to FILE->CONVERT, choosing
.wav option, and saving that .wav as a file. Open the .wav file with any audio
player (winamp or windows media player) and listen to the file. Unfortunately
this is a very cumbersome process.
12.) Once binchunker has fully tested the integrity of the
xxx.bin file, it will either say:
a.) Scanning Track 1...
Calculated M1 EDC does not match EDC value in sector offset
127808
Calculated M1 ECC_P does not match ECC_P value in sector offset
127808
Calculated M1 ECC_Q does not match ECC_Q value in sector offset
127808
Header error detected in sector offset 127809
Calculated M1 EDC does not match EDC value in sector offset
127809
Calculated M1 ECC_P does not match ECC_P value in sector offset
127809
Calculated M1 ECC_Q does not match ECC_Q value in sector offset
127809
Header error detected in sector offset 127810
Calculated M1 EDC does not match EDC value in sector offset
127810
Calculated M1 ECC_P does not match ECC_P value in sector offset
127810
Calculated M1 ECC_Q does not match ECC_Q value in sector offset
127810
Header error detected in sector offset 127811
Calculated M1 EDC does not match EDC value in sector offset
127811
Calculated M1 ECC_P does not match ECC_P value in sector offset
127811
Calculated M1 ECC_Q does not match ECC_Q value in sector offset
127811
Header error detected in sector offset 127812
Calculated M1 EDC does not match EDC value in sector offset
127812
Calculated M1 ECC_P does not match ECC_P value in sector offset
127812
Calculated M1 ECC_Q does not match ECC_Q value in sector offset
127812
This bin contains errors. (or some variation thereof)
OR...
b.) Test passed.
This .bin is suitable for binchunking/burning. (or some
variation thereof)
If choice (b.) is resultant then your file's a GOOD bin!
Conversely if choice (a.) is resultant, then you're out of luck and you
a.) have/had bad disks/rar and blatantly
skipped the above steps in testing your disks with WINSFV or
b.) the releaser made a bad bin. If you
followed the above steps, you can satisfactorily say it was a bad release,
otherwise its your problem
13.) If you tested your rars/disks and they came out 100% OK as
well as the .bin file, then you are ready to burn your cd image, reap from your
efforts :) Follow step 10a.) and burn the .cue/bin combo.
ENJOY YOUR PROJECT. SUPPORT THE SOFTWARE COMPANIES WHO MAKE THE
SOFTWARE. ENCOURAGE HIGHER EDUCATION. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
Question(11):
-How do I learn more about SFVs?
Answer:
SFVs
1. WHAT ARE THEY? a. FAQ 2. CRASH
COURSE PLEASE... a. CHECKING b. MAKING
3. CRC32? a. WHATS THAT? b. ISNT
THERE A BETTER ALGORITH c. source code -> http://www.cyber-hot-line.gr
4. MISC a. FIRST LINE PROBLEMS b. COMMENTS
c. FTPDs d. SHORT FAQ Q:
How do I uncompress a .sfv file? Q: WinSFV error:
"Unable to identify the type of the input file"? Q:
Is WinSFV the best? What is better? Q: Are SFV files only
pirate's tool? Q: But RARs implement CRC32 checks, why sfv
files?
SFV (Simple File Verificator) files are used to ensure if files are:
- not corrupt
- not missing
For example, with RARs its important that we got all the parts and that
none of the RAR files is corrupt... If it is RAR will tell us (if its new RAR
that is). However to know that rar file 020 is corrupt we need to have
previous 19 files to test... SFV allows us to test any file at any time
without the need to have other files.
Further more for mp3s we might never notice a file missing (afterall, other
songs will play allright) but thanks to sfv its easy to spot which file is
missing.
Using your SFV checker point to SFV file on which to base your checking.
Some SFV checkers then will ask you which files you want to test, usually we
say all files, but sometimes there is a need to test just one file (ie:
after testing all files we see that one file was screwed, after
redownloading we just want to check that single file, not the whole release,
for corruption).
Then somewhere you click next or process or check button which will check
all files for you and in the end report to you:
1. which file is ok
2. which file needs to be redownloaded
3. which file is missing
based on that you can know what to do next...
ps: most people use sfv checking on their ftps and it can be that you
could have downloaded hundreds of files without the need to rely on sfv...
Many release packagers will create an sfv for you (ie: Morgoth's
MP3Releaser) however, most sfv checkers should be able to create sfv files
(since it is the same algorithm).
Usually you head to create/generate sfv file section, mark the files
which are to be included in sfv check (all the rars/nfo/mp3s) and click a
button to generate.
The program could ask you for filename of the sfv file...
CRC32 stands for an algorithm: Cyclic Redudancy Check and 32 represents
how many bits does the final calculation represents. The algorithm is a sped
up way of finding remainders of division...
say we got a number: 123 and we divide it by 5... the answer is: 24 +
3... the 3 is the remainder..
when we divide it by 5, we know the remainder is between 0-4
Say we got a number: 12342878729874120987 and we divide it by 7.. the
remainder is 6..
now lets assume the contents of a file (a file is basically bits and
bytes which are just numbers) are the number we want to divide... and we
remember just the remainder..
The remainder will be your crc number...
But you will say: "its impossible to divide a number with
15,000,000 digits that fast, otherwise we would be cracking all those credit
card numbers..." well, we are not really dividing, we are just
trying to find out the remainder.. and we dont call sfv a remainder
algorithm but Cyclic Redudance Check afterall... This has to do with the way
HOW simple the CRC can be calculated (simple being relative term)..The thing
is that its just a simple set of XOR gates and left shift operations..
Thats why CRC check is so popular, it can be easily implemented in the
hardware... thats why RARs, Zips, Arjs, Internet:TCP use it... ;D
Ahh.. the old age question... Yes there are better algorithms... you see,
CRC32 generates 32bits... 32bits are not enough to ensure that our 15meg
file is unique..
You see, 32 bits gives us 4,294,967,296 bit combinations, while simple 15meg
file has of them: 5,287*10^3084 (thats in scientific notation, it means the
number has 3084 digits)
as you can see there are many different 15meg files and there is a
possibility that our CRC32 will generate same code for two completly
different files..
However this is not really a problem.. Usually when files get corrupt
they dont have ALOT of changes being made (few bits/bytes) which are not
enough to be corrupt and still generate a valid code... Another thing that
saves us is that we generate SFV files on relatively small files (15megs)
not complete isos (700meg)...
But as I said, better algorithms do exist... For example large files
(actually, irony, linux Isos) are verified with md5 algorithm as opposed to
sfv... MD5 uses 128 bits plus has better avalanching than crc32 (this means
even a single bit of difference will make significant impact on the
output)... Why is md5 not used? sfv became popular, md5 is catching on
however, but has not as wide use as md5.
Futher reading recommended:
RFC 1320 is about the MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm.
RFC 1321 is about the MD5 one.
Also you might want to head to local bookstore and take some Compression
books (crc checks are used in compressions alot) and Networking books
(again, CRC is popular).. Also books on descrete math might be a good help
(data integrity issues, and data mapping spread, error detection, automatic
error correction). Local university/College is always a plus... ;D
Here's an example of a BAD SFV to use with win-sfv32.exe (however it
works on Microsoft, Linux server systems and hoopy's pd-sfv
(pdsfv.isonews.com); use gltpad hoopy iso toolkit or comparable checker like
PSi's asfv)
