Anonymous interview with a former participant in the cutting scene - 2

Almost 2 years ago, I was translating an anonymous interview with a former participant in the cutting scene . Specifically, their group was engaged in films, therefore, both in the interview itself and here, in Habré, people were interested in how things were going in other areas of the scene. It turned out that after that incident, anonymous interviews were also given by members of groups specializing in music, programs, including people who were directly involved in hacking games and software, and even one “outcast” who transmitted (and for money) releases directly from the scene on the trackers, which is known to be strictly prohibited.

I will begin with the shortest and simplest interview, with the former courier of one of the largest groups that dealt with music. The role of the courier on stage is small, but his view and opinion may also be interesting to someone. Courier distributes releases from the group site to other sites around the world. By “sites”, hereinafter, FTP scene servers are meant. I recommend to familiarize also with the history and structure of the scene. The interview was taken in 2009, but despite the fact that, as they say, “the scene is dying”, there are still several hundreds of music releases on mp3 and flac there every day.

How did it all start?

An acquaintance with whom we constantly communicated in IRC once invited me to his little website. I think I stayed there for 3 months (I just sat there, talked on the channel, met people), like someone invited me to other sites. I gradually began to transfer data between sites (there was no rating or monthly quota, I did it for fun). Over time, I was able to get to a larger site and go there for a 2-week trial period. And then the sites became more and more.
')
Have you ever regretted what you did?

Never. And now I do not regret.

Did you do it from ideals like “information should be free” or just because you could?

Information on the stage is not free. This is a limited circle of people who share it among themselves. Idealism is not here, as well as monetary benefits. We wanted to be the best band. It is pride and glory.

What do you think about the right artists to pay? And what other sceners think about this?

Most groups call for paying for the work of artists. And the majority with whom I spoke, buy films and music, etc., if they like them. I understand, it sounds ironic, to urge to pay when they distribute free of charge. But sceners do it for the sake of the race, and they always did it, and the torrents turned everything upside down, there is no competition there, just the desire to download files, instead of paying to disk.
Personally, I don’t think much about the rights of artists. I buy a CD, DVD, or vinyl, not in order to support the authors, but in order to physically possess the product, not the files on my computer. And in general, I like how they stand on the shelf.

Why did you leave the stage?

I left because it was taking too much time. It was a couple of years ago, I already started working, and when I came home, I wanted to take a break from everything and everyone, there was no desire to fulfill the monthly quota and all that. Not that I could not, just did not want to.



How much time per day did you spend there?

In the worst of times (or the best, how to look), I participated in the process from the morning right out of school (via a remote encrypted connection to the home computer), and then when I came home, until late at night. I had two monitors to monitor the transfer on one, and chat on the other or watch films. Later, when I got an autotrader, I usually just left it on while I was sleeping or studying, and only checked in the morning and after school that everything was going as it should.

What is an autotrader?

This is a small script that recognizes text on the IRC channel of the site and issues FXP commands to the client for transfer. For example, the site bot produces:

  [SITENAME] <user> has just started racing <releasename> in <category> 

The script automatically recognizes the release and category and issues the desired FXP command. However, the stage is very hard on the lining when using scripts. If somewhere you blink twice, most likely you will be banned from this site. Different sites have different rules. For example, on some British TV series are forbidden, such a thing scripts can not recognize, because for them all the TV shows in one category - TV shows.

If you did not receive the money, what was the motivation?

Motivation? Win the race. When I wrote it, it seems it looks a bit strange, but that was the main reason. And also the feeling of secrecy and the “exclusive club”, with all the security measures, was very attractive from the very beginning. And of course the opportunity to receive any programs, games, etc. at the speed of light. The motivation of the older sceners was also the following: “we love music and films ... and we love them so much that we cannot just keep them.”

Do you still have access to the top sites?

Unfortunately not. Sometimes I miss him, but it took me too much time.

I remember, about 10 years ago, most of the large warez groups were practically open. They had open IRC channels on dalnet / efnet. Now, after all the sensational raids, how difficult is it for a person from the outside to get on these channels or get access to top sites?

I would say it’s almost impossible for a person to get access. Looking for connections, and most importantly, trust.

How much IRC was used in you and in other groups?

IRC is the primary means of communication. Most people use LinkNet because it was originally designed for secure connections. Some use after-all. In addition, we all used FiSH encryption. Large groups usually keep their own IRC server.

What servers use topsites? I heard many of them are in .edu domains. How do they go unnoticed?

Most sceners avoid servers in the US and the Netherlands, and in data centers (you never know who can keep an eye on them). Many topsites are located on company servers. IT admin puts the server if he is sure that he is the only one who can control it. That's right, they come to universities, again if the admin is confident in his environment.

You can find out which hierarchy was in a group, which roles?

Usually the group has a leader who works with sources and partner sites, the sources give us the disks before they go to the stores. Then there are those who are squeezing / making releases, and couriers who distribute them. We also had a couple of technical specialists, in case something goes wrong.

And how did these “sources” get the music? Did they work in the factory where the discs are printed?

For the most part they worked in stores, some on the radio. I know, there was even someone from the top of the music business. We talked on some trivial topics, but of course, it was impossible to ask where exactly who works.

And yet, how did you persuade them to give you music, because they risked, could lose their jobs and so on?

Many came through a friend who knew someone who knew, etc. Many are ready to give us discs in exchange for access to a huge amount of material that is on the scene. In addition, they knew about the security measures that cover the whole thing, and everyone could choose if they wanted only an account to download, or join us, to communicate on the channel.



Where did your band eventually release its releases (torrents, rapidshare, IRC, usenet)?

We did not spread them anywhere. Releases are transmitted only by couriers to the scene's FTP sites. Any public laying out of releases is considered a security risk, and any scener seen in such activities will immediately be banned in all groups and on all sites with which he was associated.

I still do not understand for whom all this is done? It turns out that the scene makes releases only for yourself? Why take such a real risk? Maybe it's not the result, but the process itself?

People devote themselves to the scene because of what they get from it: access to multi-terabyt archives of releases, going back to God-knows-what-year. But access is not everything. Community. Passion. Consider it a hobby. Compare with torrent trackers: people invest so much power for free, at the risk of being arrested, and they (unlike the scene) do it openly. What is their motivation? (comment perev .: obviously here we mean closed overseas trackers, which really work for free and without advertising)

How is the process of "nyukaniya" release? Did you have such cases?

Yes they were. Not many, but there were. People may be wrong. And the process is this: some dude finds an error in the release (breaking the rules or some technical problem), he goes to the pre-channel and writes something like

  ! nuke <release> <nuke reason> 

and then the bot adds an entry to the database, and transmits the information to other channels, and there the bots transmit it further and further until the whole scene receives a message that such a release was nyuknut for such a reason.

So the scene is completely for the stage only? Just to be the first to make a release?

Yes, being first is the main thing. Groups are competing in who will first release an album (film, well, or what specific features of the group), couriers are competing, who will quickly push the release to other sites. The one that overtook more files from the release, he won the race. For example, in the release of 40 RAR files. If I overtook 25 of them, and you are 15, it means I won.
Scene is a competition. Of course, the sceners download for themselves, but in the NFO-files you can often see messages from groups, where they urge people to buy this CD, and not just download. This is because the scene has nothing to do with file sharing or sharing is caring.


You always say "overtake"; Does this mean uploading files to the site?

Not. "Overtake" is to transmit via FXP. This is a direct transfer between sites. FXP == File eXchange Protocol. The file does not get on the courier's computer, it simply gives the command to the FTP site to start transferring to another FTP site, hence the high speed.

Suppose I am on sites A and B, and I was just offered a trial period on site C. They tell me if I want to stay with them, I have to overtake 20GB in 2 weeks. And if I see that someone announces a release on the IRC channel of site A, I immediately begin to overtake him from site A to site C. And while I do this, someone else joins the race, trying to overtake the same release from "their" sites. If I find myself faster than others, that is, I will overtake more files by the end of the race, it means I won, and the IRC bot of site C will issue something like this on the channel:

  -------- Top 5 Racers on <release> --------
     1. technofencer --- 6 Files / 386mb --- 2919kb / s
     2. etc. 

And now these 386MB, which I was able to overtake on the release, are deducted from my 20GB quota and will remain 19.6GB. If the speed between sites A and C turns out to be too low, and this release is also announced for the race on site B, I can decide to switch to site B on the move.
There is one more factor: on site A, from where I take a release, it does not appear immediately either, it is also overtaken by someone there. And if that person has a low speed, then no matter how good I am, I will lose, because I simply will not have the necessary files.

I do not understand why Site A simply does not automatically transfer files to Site B? By your answers, it turns out that they transfer files between themselves, and not through your computer, then why do you need to do it manually?

(another person answered)
It happened historically. Each site belongs to someone, everywhere its admins and users. Initially, the sites were in groups, where they laid out their releases. There is no money on the stage, but the site owners wanted to get something in return, so they entered ratings (for every X bytes, you can download Y bytes from the site). Then people (usually also sceners, from other groups) began to upload their releases there in order to get strangers. Then there were people who were not in any group, but had access to several sites, so they began to exchange among themselves, so that they could get a rating to download what they wanted. They became more and more, and they began to compete with each other, so there were races.

No one gets a release just like that (except maybe the site owner and his friends), and if the sites somehow automatically exchanged files, all of this would have lost its meaning. Why would the owners risk falling into jail if they gave everyone access just like that? And if no one is given access, then why bother with websites? In addition, if the transfer was automatic, probably in the case of the capture of the owner of one site, they would all fall down like a house of cards.

Why is stage music released in mp3 and not in other formats: AAC or even FLAC?

On the stage, everything is done according to the rules. In my time, MP3 was standard. I understand why people want to flac, but you can also listen to mp3. Seriously, I doubt that you ever came to a disco, and thought this: "Fu, yes they have the whole Mouzon here in 192!"