From yhou@athena.cs.uga.edu Sat 04 Mar 95 19:14:42 Newsgroups: comp.security.unix,comp.security.misc,alt.irc,alt.2600 From: Save The Internet Sender: Save The Internet Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost Path: hobbes.cc.uga.edu!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!insosf1.infonet.net!newshost.marcam.com!news.mathworks.com!uunet!!usenet.netcom.com!savethenet Subject: IRC being used for software piracy (Warez) Date: 3 Mar 1995 16:46:06 GMT Lines: 3273 Xref: hobbes.cc.uga.edu comp.security.unix:12458 comp.security.misc:10232 alt.irc:22121 alt.2600:59434 I have had for some time information about the use of the internet for transfer of illegal pirated software. Recently, however, I have realized the severity of the situation, to the tune of thousands of software pirates using IRC to further their crime. In the past, lists of ftp sites abused to this end have been posted, I have obtained a list of the people who frequent the "warez" IRC channels (#warez, #warez1, #warez2, #warez3, #warez4, #warez5, #warez6, and possibly others). Since these channels are usually invite only, they are often hard to get into, and because those people will not tolerate anyone who does not take part in their crime, I was not able to stay in long to get detailed logs of their conversations. However, it is quite obvious that they openly trade pirated software (even from spending several minutes in the channel, this can be observed) and do not use these channels for legitimate means. It would seem that the lower numbered (#warez, #warez2) channels are the most exclusive, available to only those thieves with the newest "zero day" pirated software. From /who listings, I am appending a listing of people who have frequently been in the #warez* channels. Complete who listings would be posted, but they are quite large in volume and duplicates among different channels and different IRCNAME's would have to be removed, bringing us back to the exact same listing. Names are in standard IRC nick!user@host format, a best attempt was made to sort them in reverse (domain, subdomain, host, user, nick), to make it easier for administrators to search for their own system. It is *STRONGLY* recommended that administrators of systems in which these users are on check their directories for pirated software or extremely large disk usage. Gross misuse of the Internet such as this, and the toleration of it, brings us one step closer to the regulation of the internet that would essentially destroy it. Help work with the anarchy to save it. And if you don't care about the net and the millions of people it affects, at least care about yourself and the risk you incur by allowing pirated software to be traded through your system, even unknowingly. It would be much better for the media to learn that a problem was recognized and dealt with than for them to report "software piracy runs rampant on the Internet, system adminstrators do nothing to stop it." This is not a case of free speech or violations of an ancient law, but of a serious problem that cannot be ignored. Stephan!martinva@studs.sci.kun.nl Xantor!robin@RULS20.fsw.LeidenUniv.nl Mauk!tahir@annex1s21.urc.tue.nl DMD!s385043@annex1s27.urc.tue.nl [Kamujl]!tahir@annex1s33.urc.tue.nl _umak_!tahir@annex1s33.urc.tue.nl Kamu!tahir@annex1s40.urc.tue.nl [[][]]!tahir@snail.stack.urc.tue.nl TJerk!Tjerk@Wit399402.student.utwente.nl Hustler!hustler@slip38-114.xs4all.nl Slane!jlist@xs1.xs4all.nl *EOF*