While most pirates use BitTorrent to share files, many pirates also use the seemingly antiquated Usenet newsgroups as well.
On Usenet newsgroups, pirates can upload programs anonymously, and anyone can download them anonymously as well. No matter how hard they might try, the authorities can only identify that software piracy is occurring; they can't trace the offenders.
Initially, Usenet newsgroups were rather cumbersome compared to the point-and-click convenience of web pages. Trying to find a particular program meant scouring through multiple newsgroups. Also, Usenet newsgroups imposed a fixed file size of 10,000 lines per file, which meant that large files, such as pirated programs, had to be broken into parts, which were downloaded individually and then reassembled. If even one part were missing, the program wouldn't work. As a result, Usenet newsgroups often proved too troublesome for less tech-savvy users to handle.
To make searching for files among newsgroups easier, programmers have created a new file format, dubbed NewzBin (NZB), to turn Usenet newsgroups into a fast indexing and downloading resource for warez.
To search a Usenet newsgroup for files, you can visit the more common ones, such as alt.binaries.warez, or you could use a Usenet newsgroup search engine such as alt.binaries.nl (http://alt.binaries.nl), BinCrawler (www.bincrawler.com), Newzbin (www.newzbin.com), or Find Free Files (www.findfreefiles.com), as shown in Figure 6-7.
Figure 6-7. By searching through Usenet newsgroups, you can find a pirated program to download, such as Adobe Illustrator or VMware.
Once you find the pirated program you want, you can use a newsreader program that supports NZB files, such as NewsMan Pro (www.newsmanpro.com), Binary Boy (www.binaryboy.com), NewsBin Pro (www.newsbin.com), or News Rover (www.newsrover.com), as shown in Figure 6-8, to download it without having to search manually.
Combine a NZB-enabled newsreader with a high-speed, dedicated news server such as NewsDemon (www.newsdemon.com), GigaNews (www.giganews.com), or AstraWeb (www.news.astraweb.com), and you can start downloading all the warez you want without anyone knowing who you are.
People have been pirating software ever since computers have been around, and that is not going to change anytime soon. People in developing nations and countries such as China and Russia pirate software because they can't afford it otherwise. That doesn't make piracy right, but given that the cost of a single copy of Adobe Photoshop is more than most people in the world earn in a month, it's safe to say that piracy will always be a more enticing option than buying software honestly, at least for some people.
Figure 6-8. A newsreader can help you find warez in a newsgroup, such as a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista along with a patch to disable Windows Vista's product activation feature.
To fight back against piracy, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have used several techniques with varying degrees of success. Initially, the MPAA/RIAA targeted individuals sharing enormous numbers of files off their computers, such as a thousand or more. By suing these individuals, the MPAA/RIAA hoped to scare away others from sharing files too.
To further discourage piracy, the MPAA/RIAA also "poisoned" the filesharing networks with bogus files. If people kept downloading bogus files, the MPAA/RIAA hoped that they would abandon the filesharing networks and turn to legitimate ones instead.
Next, the MPAA/RIAA started targeting the companies that made the filesharing programs. During 2005, the MPAA/RIAA managed to sue and shut down the publishers of Grokster and WinMX. By taking away the software used to swap files, the MPAA/RIAA hoped to shut down the filesharing networks one by one.
For their latest tactic, the MPAA/RIAA has targeted the search engines that provide access to pirated files, such as BinNews.com, which allowed people to search Usenet newsgroups for warez, or IsoHunt.com, which provided links to BitTorrent files, such as full-length movies or major applications like Adobe Photoshop.
Generally speaking, finding a pirated program can be tedious—and getting that pirated program to work can sometimes be more frustrating than going out and buying it. For hackers, software piracy is a challenge. For the average user, piracy is appealing only when it's convenient. But to dedicated software pirates, piracy can be a way of life, and nothing the software publishers can do will ever stop it.