Know that all reality is not certain.

The Internet is recognized as a tool greatly simplifies the sharing of files. The illegal files that can be found on the web networks peer-2-peer services like Bittorrent or hosted on Rapidshare and MegaUpload come in small part of Mr. or Mrs. everybody, but most of what ' may be called the "Scene" (English term).

What is the "Scene"?

The "Scene" is the organized crime of the Web. This level of the hierarchy of files piracy is responsible for the illegal distribution of numerous films, music albums, video games or applications. The "Scene" is composed of several teams specializing in the distribution of several types of files:

• Deviance, or EMPORIO VENGEANCE for video games;
• TNT iSO or immersion applications;
• FMC, BPM or QMI music;
• ALLIANCE, LiNE, DiAMOND or vomits for movies;
• LOL or XOR for TV-Show.

Operation of the "Scene"

The "Supplier"

If you take a look at the hierarchical pyramid for pirated files ¹ , the first step is reserved for "Supplier". It is composed of various people around the world with direct access to media materials. This is the very source of all content to be distributed by the second new "Scene". Without this level, organized crime would have no content for resale on the international market and the distribution on the Topsites .

There are three main categories of files sold by the "Supplier":

1. Movies: pirates who make up this category are those who film in the cinema to produce versions of " CAM "or" TELESYNC "movies, who can have access to the coil projection to produce" Telecine "and also those who working in the film industry and flying versions of production (which may not sound effects or visual) to make " Workprint ". This category includes all the movies in theaters, on DVD, VHS or pornographic.
2. Music pirates who make up this part of the "Supplier" distribute albums, compilations, single or EP format MP3 (VBR mainly two or CBR 320) or any other format if the quality of media allows. They often have access to machines of copies (pre-sale) or are part of the music industry.
3. Applications: the "Supplier" distribute Windows or Mac applications. Hackers are sometimes developers who steal a copy of the application or business once people have access to the machinery of reproduction in pre-sales.

The "Supplier" sometimes sell their illegal files to "replicator" that will make smuggling mainly to the Asian market, Russia and Europe and also to certain groups within the "Scene".

The "Scene"

The level of the "Scene" includes groups specializing very closed (as mentioned at the beginning of the article) in various sectors of hacking files. These groups are composed of experts in encoding, " reverse engineering "(to create crack, keygen, etc..) and in various other areas. They are responsible for "releaser" pirated content on "Topsites."

A Topsite is a FTP server used for fast distribution, storage and archiving of illegal files. The topsites are a lot of precautions to remain invisible to the authorities, including using techniques advanced cryptography . FTP servers are the most common glFTPd , DrFTPd and ioFTPd .

The "releases" must meet several standards within the preset "Scene" in order to maintain a certain level of quality (video, audio, nomenclature, etc..) ² . The different groups are motivated to "releaser" files in previewed as a result of competition between groups. Each "release" can be delivered by a single group. You can see the history of recent "releases" by going on a "pre-channel" or following a public feed, as ORLYDB.

A pre-channel is an IRC channel where you can see in real time the latest "releases" conducted within the "Scene". If a certain "release" does not respect the standards set, another group can "nuke" and substitute the corrected version. It is possible to "nuke" a release if the soundtrack of a film is out of sync (oos, out.of.sync), if the file has been stolen from a peer-2-peer (stolen.from.p2p) if another group has already "releaser" (dupe), etc..

To conclude ...

I have dealt in detail only the first two levels of the hierarchy because they are relatively unknown in the eyes of society. Soon, the "facilitators" will give the public access to these files, while "filesharers" are those who will find them on public or private trackers.

Things to consider is that these files from the "Scene" are not intended for these two sub-levels of distribution, because they attract too much attention from the authorities and could harm the "Scene . Moreover, there is some rivalry between these levels of the pyramid that I may be in a future article. Hoping you have about the subject ...

1. Pyramid of Piracy - RIAA [ ↩ ]
2. History Standards Scene - SceneReleases.info [ ↩ ]