Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy

by Martin Paul Eve

When most people think of piracy, they think of Bittorrent and The Pirate Bay. These public manifestations of piracy, though, conceal an elite worldwide, underground, organized network of pirate groups who specialize in obtaining media before their official sale date and then racing against one another to release the material for free.

Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy is the first scholarly research book about this underground subculture, which began life in the pre-internet era Bulletin Board Systems, moved to internet File Transfer Protocol servers (‘topsites’) in the mid- to late-1990s. The ‘Scene’, as it is known, is highly illegal in almost every aspect of its operation. The term ‘warez’ itself refers to pirated media, a derivative of ‘software’. The Scene is an underground culture with its own norms and rules of participation, its own forms of sociality, and its own artistic outputs. This book describes what is known about this underground culture, its operations, and its infrastructures.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Technology

445 pages, ebook

First published December 1, 2021

Reviews

[Vasil Kolev · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads like a literary criticism of the warez - there are bits of information that would fit in 10% of the size, and a lot of stuff to show how smart and well-read the author is.

[Adrian Hon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating deep dive into the surprisingly formalised and specialised operations of elite digital piracy groups, marred only slightly by an unnecessary (and IMO incorrect) comparison to ARGs.

If you're looking for a fun history of warez, this is not for you. This is a deeply-researched academic book, for better and for worse – but mostly for better. Skip past the digressions on ASCII and debates on subcultural and post-subcultural theory and you'll be treated to a smart and well-written consideration of what makes the warez scene work.

[Garrett Jansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hopeful for a fun history on the foundation, infrastructure and aesthetics of the "Warez Scene". While the book does touch on these topics, it struggles from an identity crisis the entire time that drags down the quality of the work. Rather than a strong narrative, the author decided to apply the template of academic paper which I imagine is their comfort zone. While books with the structure of an academic paper can have great information, they're rarely enjoyable to read and provide no meaningful narrative. In this case, the entirety of the book is without personality, having no interviews and only catering a core argument that just underwhelms ("Warez Scene as an ARG"). The tangents don't feel related, adding bulk to a book that really didn't need it. They only seem included to show the virtue of the author rather than a useful challenge to any systemic issues even though the author tries to note that "watching anime" is their only example of "appreciating foreign culture" which feels kinda racist when you could just say these kids like weird cartoons.

Even that core argument feels flimsy and unassessed. Bits of the "Scene" are presented and the author says something like "As part of an ARG..." without ever meaningfully interrogating that idea. During the chapter on takedowns, the author presents the people as compulsive, needing to do this for some sense of community and power. While you could say that's an ARG, it feels reductive when there's more to say about the actual people involved and the fracture in their sense of self that would cause them to spend "12 to 15 hours a day checking for new releases". The idea is presented solely to paper over the fact that the author did not perform any interviews or try finding anything beyond the NFO dumps and news sites.

Ultimately, it's got some details but the structure is poor. I don't think there's going to be something better for some time short of the much better but much more limited in scope "How Music Got Free" by Stephen Richard Witt with its deep dive into the music industry, its conditions and the thrust that piracy placed upon it during the decline of the CD.

[Boyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ebook that delves into the covert cabal which is the origin for many of the leaked releases and the history that led to the present state. The author decided on an research-based investigation, browsing through the SceneNotice and magazine announcements. This was a page-turner for me and I profoundly enjoyed this read.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deep dive into the aesthetics and infrastructure of the ‘Warez Scene’ of the early and modern internet. This is a comprehensive text, deeply analysing the history and cultural significance of the scene, as well as its own rigid social strata and mores. At times it is a very technical book, although I am not technically minded at all and I still found it very readable.

[Steve Hiatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author went out of his way to be almost annoying in his use of obscure words. He seemed to take pleasure in making this book as dry and academic as possible. Still, there were some interesting insights in it.

[Nicky Masso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive book. do not overlook that 2020 publish date! information is very recent. I would only recommend a full readthrough to someone who already has an FTP site setup for their NAS or something. For everyone else, I envision this being referenced as a single point for further papers discussing the techniques and aesthetics of the warez scene.

Critiques: could have used another editing pass if meant to be read cover to cover. content was repeated, likely to help someone skimming for a specific quote. It did get annoying. Organization was somewhat loose, some sections would go into technical detail, others would say it wasn't necessary. Details on other places ascii art is made and shared was missing, in my opinion weakening the chapter on aesthetics.

[andrew y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing an academic book in this climate must be intensely hard and this is proof of it. Acknowledging the problematic fetishizing of the crusades visible through the name and logo of a criminal piracy group or writing endless pages on how piracy is actually a big problem on the high seas and co-opting the terminology is insensitive yet normalized… look I just wanted to learn about the Scene.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots and lots of info that was largely not known to me in this volume, learned a lot from it. Walking away from it, I can honestly say that it demystified a lot of things that were previously not well understood by yours truly.

I knew about the demo scene and everything by now but missing pieces like the way that people did it largely for kudos and prestige were not well understood, I don't think I got how well this one really actually blended and was compatible with capitalistic thinking. I had thought, what they were doing was very socialist-like if not outright socialist action, but in practice, the scene constructed a very elaborate system that basically pitted cooperative groups against each other racing to be the first to release just about anything. Not only that, but I've found the anime scene itself to actually be the most amenable though to the idea of being cautious.

You see, they created a sport, basically. Where release groups compete against each other to be the "First" to release something. I'm getting older though and far more patient and my own motives were unlike the other participants, I just wanted the free shit, I actually watched some of it occasionally.
Although if I'm fair, my collection of this stuff is now so large there are volumes of I will likely never get around to watching. And suffer from the problems any Data hoarder has.
I've never really cared who won or got things out first. It's not been my concern, really.
All the release groups have my gratitude and kudos for, you know, saving me monies.

It's why I don't want to see them get busted, and think, it would be better, if there weren't so many release groups and just one big super group that way Security concerns started to outweigh concerns with beating each other to the punch.

but, changing that apsect of it, would likely change the players who participiated. Because, Some people just like to be able to revel in the prestige. I mean I get it, I just... This makes everything stressful and it means you know if something has to be sent through the postal system you might slip up to get a package delivered overnight rather than using caution about how you send it like getting very far away from your home to send it.