Inside the Shadow Internet

Paladin144 writes "Wired has a report about the mysterious 'pirate networks' that obtain new movies, music & games before they are released and spread them throughout the net. It's not as simple as putting a movie on LimeWire. These people are highly organized and very paranoid about secrecy. They maintain a hidden network of top-level FTP sites that get the best files first and allow them to trickle down the pyramid and into many a slashdotter's sweaty little fingers."

I thought it was generally known

[saskboy]

These people talk and probably spend a better part of the day or night on IRChat and do so because they have no more social life, than the average /.er.

God bless them

The Rules

[da3dAlus]

The first rule of the shadow internet is, you do not talk about the shadow internet.
The second rule of the shadow internet is, you DO NOT talk about the shadow internet. ...

Software?

[Anonymous Coward]

All I want to know is where to get FlexLM crack kits... All the files I got that were supposed to be like this great information were copy-and-paste jobs of 1994 usenet posts.

yes, ther is nothing like

[geekoid]

spending hours and hours developing contacts so you can get a copy of a movie filmed from inside a theater.

yeah, that'll hurt the industry.

Let me guess...

[worth]

You live with your parents?

Secret society...

[Create an Account]

I think I just read about these guys in The Da Vinci Code.

* Gasp *

[Anonymous Coward]

These villians have resorted to Gopherspace! No one will ever find them now.

Don't all it the SHADOW INTERNET!

[The Bandit]

If you do this, that would make the MPAA and the others "THE LIGHT" of the Internet. This makes me want to up-chuck TocoBell food and re-eat it.

Re:Well..

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why you need to shut and lock your bedroom door. You never know when your parents will walk on in...

it's on!

[BoomTechnology]

Mess with the best, die like the rest.-Crash_Override

Busted!

[dj245]

In April, federal agents interrogated Frank and impounded all his computer equipment. So far, no charges have been filed. "But the Feds had no idea about Half-Life," he boasts. "I was never connected to that shit. If they found out, I'd be in jail."

So the pirate the feds arrested, interrogated, and impounded in April, but didn't file charges yet against, is the Half-life guy. That narrows it down quite a bit.

this is old news

[Anonymous Coward]

we read this the week before it was published.

Re:Umm, 'scuse me mr. reporter, its "VPN" ..

[Anonymous Luddite]

>> Virtual Private Network.

More like "Virtual Pirate Network"

Which one?

[macz]

Is this the shadow internet invented by Al Gore?

Or run by Dick Cheney from a secure location?

What is it with Vice Presidents getting all the crap jobs?

Re:Age old struggle...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry, eventually your voice will break too. In the meantime, go rent (or rip off) the movie "Swimming with sharks".

Secret?

[age of reason]

"These people are highly organized and very paranoid about secrecy."


That`s why they made Wired.

Re:Let me guess...

[cammoblammo]

When I was 13 I still wasn't even allowed to use the phone without asking. Didn't matter, my ZX81 wouldn't even talk to the Dataset, let alone a telephone.

Re:The Rules

[noidentity]

What the hell are you talking about? Ignore this guy. He's just making it up.

Re:Well..

[JohnsonWax]

So, have you done it again?

Yours truly,
Undercover FBI Dude

Re:Wannabes

[Rolo Tomasi]

I don't get that. Wouldn't it be better if they sent an average looking hitman, so he would be less conspicuous? I mean, why does he have to be heavy or strong when has a gun? So he could kill the journalist "even better" or what? Doesn't make any sense.

Hell, if I ever wanted to take out a hit on someone, I'd hire a midget with a knife. Nobody would expect that. Even if the victim gets warned, nobody would take it seriously. "Dude, look out for a midget with a knife!" "Riiiight."

Re:I thought it was generally known

[ScrewMaster]

Yes ... a terrabyte is what you call it on Earth. If he were back on his home planet, it would be called a "Fenigwisnokbyte". That said, good spelling (or otherwise) is not a particularly good indicator of native intelligence.

The Shadow Internet

[dr_dank]

The Shadow Internet is just like the real internet, except we all have goatees.

So True

[logic hack]

So very true. I remember I was talking to some ops on this channel calle-*NO CARRIER*

Re:Pathetic

[McDrewbie]

Hey there are only so many girls in the world. Those that can't get any need to keep busy somehow.

Re:HL2: "almost a year of reprogramming"

[ian rogers]

This too reminds me of something.

The classic tale of the guy who downloads a song, and then the guy he downloaded it from starts downloading the same thing back from him. The first downloader messages the second one asking what he's doing and the guy replys "Stealing my song back, dumbass."

Re:Pissed off people

[thomas536]

Did anyone else find it ironic when they say at the very end: ``Please leave this message intact when stealing our images. thx :)''

Or am I missing something?

Re:Well..

[bigberk]

i'd love to see today's kids pull off something underground. "Hey let's set up an elite MSN chat room and trade WMV files!" ... "yah! wow this will be just like in the movie hackers!" ... "hold on let me turn up some techno [www.di.fm]... "send me over the_swan_episode_3.wmv!" ... "hey is that filename Unicode? iTunes is havin problems adding it to the playlist" ... "This is the MSN Passport police, we have forwarded your logs to the MPAA"

Re:Well..

[Kn0xy]

"Shut the fuck up."

Oh what do you know Mr. *.ipt.aol.com...

Re:Excellent overview of the pirate network

[Anonymous Coward]

Crudely drawn graph. [img153.exs.cx]

Re:I thought it was generally known

[Veamon]

some like to defeat copy protection, most like the social circles and ego they've got from being first to release or having the best stuff to offer.
Dude #1: So dude, what you do this weekend? I went out and got some ass, drank some beers, and got more ass...
Dude #2: I stayed at home all weekend and spent the whole time cracking Winzip 9.0...
Dude #1: Whoa...teach me....


Who cares about these people? They get a boost in their social circles?? The only friends they have are online...jeez...

Re:Let me guess...

[Goldberg's Pants]

I had some friends who were a ways up in the rankings on the Amiga. When FAST, the Federation Against Software Theft (look them up on Google, they did some hilarious print ads) were busting people locally, these two friends panicked. One buried his disks in his back garden. The other, worried they'd come calling and find his 600 or so disks... Kindly bought them round my house to hide them.

I didn't mind. Gave me time to go through them all:)

Oh, and said friend who buried the disks in his garden was also into phreaking, and buried all that stuff too.

Ah, those were the days...

Re:Well..

[Lord_Dweomer]

Please, allow me to rephrase and condense the parent's post that somehow got modded +4 interesting.

"I used to be 1337! No really, I got caught, so I'm really cool, right guys?"

Re:Let me guess...

[teeker]

Yeah but did you have an Amiga 1000 in a suitcase that you could use from in a car while dialing out via alligator clips to a neighborhood SAC point?

10 geek cool points to anybody who remembers QSD's Telenet NUI...now those were the days...

(Cause I never heard of any of those kinds of things).

Re:Let me guess...

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Back then, you called long distance to the BBS of interest.

And let me tell you, using a 300bps modem really was like walking to school in the snow, uphill, both ways...

Re:The Rules

[ceejayoz]

The third rule of the shadow internet is, if you talk about the shadow internet, a 14 year old pimply faced nerd threatens you with a supposed 350 pound hitman with a glock.

Re:Thank goodness for [Circumstantial evidence]

[Anonymous Coward]

See Walmart et al 2004.

Re:Let me guess...

[WoodenRobot]

I remember one thing that FAST tried to discourage piracy that really deserves 10 out of 10 for ingenuity. They claimed that pirate software wouldn't run properly on your Amiga, and would cause it to malfunction slightly. This would cause odd power surges through the Amiga's huge power supply (the Brick), and this would produce big electromagnetic fields that would GIVE YOU CANCER.

I can't wait for the **AA to try that one.

Re:Secret society...

[The Cydonian]

The Piratory of Sion has a long and chequered history of protecting ancient secrets which, when revealed to an unsuspecting public when the Age of Aquarius kicks in, will cause untold chaos and shake the foundations of the intellectual property belief system as it were.

I think I speak for the rest when I request everyone to not belittle the Piratory of Sion by comparing it with obviously fictitious "organisations" such as the Priory of Sion.