Defacers and Pirates

[alittlebitnumb]

I was sitting in IRC wondering something. Is the politics and structure of pirates similar to defacement groups?

I do not follow the defacement culture very closely other than the defeced pages and the "greets," "****s," IRC channels they bash or promote, or just the messages they send to one another. Looking way back in defacement archives, I see different groups form, break off into smaller groups, flame each other.

I have followed pirates closer. In their web sites, NFO's, cracktro's and other docs show a very complex, devoted culture with a politcal structure. Every group despite differences follow strict guidelines and "standards" when releasing pirated software (ripping, encoding, nfo's, diz's, compression etc....). I also notice pirates are always on the move and looking for greener pastures as law enforcement, anti-piracy groups and system administrators plug the holes and pipelines. The thing is, I see in the NFO's similar things defacers leave. "greets," "****s," and messages to other groups.

Another interesting thing is the way undercovers know the lingo, language, culture and structure of these groups pirates or defacers. I read how one in Operation Buccanneer (The FBI sting on one of the largest and oldest pirate groups Drink Or Die) gained the pirates' trust and gained access to the main pipelines and "council meetings" in IRC.

Now the discussion I pose here is: How are defacement and pirate groups the same? How do law enforcement get to know the culture so well?

Cheers

[Tiger Shark]

Just a wild a$$ed guess here.......

The defacers probably get very little attention from law enforcement while pirates will get quite a bit..... why? Money...... The piraters are taking cash from a few very large special interests - music, movies and software - the defacers are more scattered in their activity and therefore do not attract the big money to chase them down....

[t2k2]

I think that they (federal gov't) may be receiving much more pressure at this time to go after the pirates - especially since there has been such a vested interest by the Entertainment companies to increase profits. They feel very violated by this whole "underground" software business, but it's not really a business, I guess, since there is not a monetary profit involved. On the other hand, there is fame and recognition.

[alittlebitnumb]

On the other hand, there is fame and recognition.

Indeed. Even the pirates that ar elong dead such as PWA, they are still revered and are considered maryrs so to speak. I think Razor1911 is still around, but I have not seen anything from them lately unless they forced themselves further undergound or stopped all forms of contact in fear of getting caught.

regards