Warez

Thu, Mar 28

The topic for today is software piracy. Beginning in the 1980s, an entire community of hackers coalesced around the activity of illegally trading commercial software. Given what we know about the age of those involved in the hacking scene, it's somewhat understandable that they couldn't afford the software that they wanted to use in many. Of course, the idea of stealing software was attractive to many others as well --- not always out of necessity. At first, this was a simple thing to do: one merely had to copy the data over to a floppy disk or BBS repository. Over time, elaborate copy protection mechanisms were developed and deployed by software publishers to thwart illegal copying. And technical means merely complemented the legal action against software pirates.We have three learning goals for today. By the end of our lecture class, you will: 

1. Have an understanding of the progression of software piracy from kids copying files to sophisticated cryptanalysis to break copy protection schemes.
2. Appreciate the legal means deployed by corporations enforcing their intellectual property rights.
3. Scrutinize the ethics surrounding software piracy.

The digital artifact for today is the .nfo file.

The slides for today's lecture are available .