Hello!

Well, like i expected my letter to the scene about ripping/stealing serials
and keymakers from a few groups caused many responses. A lot of PPL told me
that i was right to write such a letter and they liked it very much. But of
coz the groups I mentioned as examples in the thanks.txt were not so happy,
especially VERSUS.

CORE Leader,

Let's hear first the words from the VERSUS Leader:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok.. This is not going to be a formal letter, so I get right on..

VERSUS was a founded 26th January (or there abouts) 1998, and is 7 months
old. We have been lucky and unlucky.  We have many friends but also have
created many enemies. We do not consider ourself as the #1 group in the
scene, and we realize we most likely will never be the #1 group.  We just
want to have an organized group and have some fun doing what we like to do.

Slowly VERSUS was getting to a decent level of fun and releasing ... quality
started to improve and so did the group organization. Communication was
good, a weekly newsletter was created, and it seemed like all the members
were happy with being in "the friendliest group.":)  (That was our goal. ;) )

But then, BAM! 1st bad news:   <SiRaX> You are using my keygens 

VERSUS did some major cleanup, and developed some enemies.  Some new
threats about how VERSUS is gonna die, which I didn't take serious, at
that time ... but now, well I am not so sure.

Today, I came home from school, and read THANKS.TXT. I was not too happy
about this because not all of the information was accurate in my opinion.
So a meeting was arranged with the leader of CORE and we discussed this
text and the problems it mentions. Yes, VERSUS did not check its crackers
as closely as we should have.  But after the chat with SiRaX we have made
some improvements to the group.  And we are careful now in checking out our
crackers and our releases. We feel we have come a long way in the past 7
months and have tried to learn from our mistakes (as all new groups --
even established ones -- need to do).

My opinion of VERSUS as it is today -- well, it's cool and straight forward.
Hopefully this response to the CORE Thanks.Txt will help to set this
misconception of VERSUS in the right direction.  Besides this setback and
loosing a GOOD crack to CORE, we're alright. :)  We are trying hard to
be a cool group who release something now and then, and so far I think we
accomplish this goal.  :)

I want to thank the CORE leader for taking time to meet with me today and
for agreeing to publish my thoughts on this matter.  In conclusion I would
just like to say, that this is a problem that is "scene-related", not CORE
vs VERSUS.  Each of the groups need to be better organized and take the
extra step to check out its members/crackers, etc. so that things run more
smoothly and to avoid mishaps like this in the future.

MC GUSTO (1 of 3 VERSUS FOUNDERS)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, back to me ...

I'm happy VERSUS stayed so calm. I heared of some problems VERSUS got
directly after this TXT. First of all I have to say: VERSUS has made
a positive developement. It's a fact that VERSUS used work from CORE
crackers in the past. I picked out just example groups (but i said this
already in the thanks.txt). I could have mentioned many more groups
that have stolen our work (and work from BLZ, UCF, DSI and so on). What
I wanted to show you is a generenic problem of the scene.

Let's look at this discussion capture I got some days ago:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

<PHANT0M> site nuke 2 MAILguardian.v1.0l.Registered-IND Stolen SR/CORE
<mgd> i dunno how
<mgd> you coulda made phantom a nuker
<mgd> nukes releases for being stolen?
<mgd> wtf how gaw
<mgd> err gay
<alex> yea
<mgd> you dont nuke shit for being stolen
<mgd> sigh
<mgd> how gay
<|nitro|> ahaha i kno
<|nitro|> sux
<PHANT0M> mgd: they shouldn t release that stuff, if they are unable to crack
<mgd> um
<mgd> if it wasn't cracked
<mgd> say so
<mgd> if it was stolen
<mgd> you cant nuke it as that
<PHANT0M> they use serials of other groups
<PHANT0M> so it s stolen SR
<mgd> so?
<mgd> nothing wrong with that
<[tdp]> lame
<[tdp]> you don't nuke just cuz it was stolen
<[tdp]> if it was stolen, that's their bad
<PHANT0M> i nuke it cause they are stolen
<[tdp]> it's still a legit release
<PHANT0M> NO
<mgd> ahhhhhhh time to kill the screen to ss
<mgd> not trading there no more :P

[..]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You read this shit ?! Blahh .. They even don't notice what they're
doing. What they're doing is getting credits for ZERO work of themself,
living like a parasite from the work of other groups. I mean not
upload credits on the site ...  i mean cracking credits. If u do a release
the cracker has mostly to do the hard-work part. All THEY (the guys in
the chat) think about is the release itself .. making credits on sites
with it. But this is not the basic idea behind the scene. Couriers don't
own the scene. They are just a medium of the scene to bring something
from point A to point B. The rules are set up by the releasers. They have
to do most of the work. Everything is based on them. If they don't crack -
the couriers have a shit to courier. They can trade then www freeware
from A to B.

What I notice is a lag of organisation in the newer groups. They have
"crackers" they even don't know really. They get cracks emailed from
ppl that have never been back-checked. Of coz these groups are upset now
coz i mentioned them in the txt.

All I want is that the groups keep checking their members and their work.
Don't release all cracks from new trial-crackers directly without checking
their work. Get some of the old cracking group spirit where noone did
a serial "regged" if a keymaker from the former version still worked.
They released then a newer keymaker... a keymaker they coded themself.
Of coz this is MORE WORK! Of coz other groups could race u then. Welp boys
... credits are really not all! Try to get more quality. Help ur real
crackers to raise their cracking skills and support them. Nothing is more
important than communication in a group. If the members don't know each
other very well the group won't exist very long.

What has to change is the ppl's attitude towards the whole thing. Open
a quality group and not a mass releasing group. Care more about working
releases and own cracks than about the size and quantity. Of coz CORE
is a mass releasing group. We have over one year a daily average of
3 or 4 releases. But CORE has made a very long development. When i took
over CORE I wanted to create a group like UCF .. just better organised.
Coz UCF is worse in organisation thingies :-)

Well we managed to create such a group but it was a long way. Stop
creating releases at all costs and go back to the basics. Change your
attidude and hunt down serial/keymaker thieves/rippers. Try to eleminate
them where u can find them. Coz they take out the fun from the scene.
And 90% of the crackers really just crack coz of the fun, the fame and
the learning process ... they care a shit about credits on sites.

So all i wanna say you is: KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR MEMBERS. Change your
attitude towards releasing.

For the last time: RIPPING/STEALING work from other groups' crackers
is mega lame. It has been always a problem. Even high budget util groups
have this problem. BUT it gets more worse every day with these lil
new groups that pop out of the ground daily with their "regged" releases.
(No - I don't mean VRS and TRPS now). If u want to release - then get
crackers first. Don't use cracks from other groups. 

CORE Leader,

Now some words from TRPS I found after my lil txt:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

       :0047ACB7 check out yourself. I read about Core's txt       
       about cheating by using their keymakers (or other           
       groups' keymakers) involving 4 groups including TRPS.       
       We will give you answers on .txt soon today. As for         
       me, I only repects to Vizion and Sirax as they are          
       CORE members and good friends of mine.....all the           
       rest...welp...u understand. They're the ones who also       
       helped me out to learn from beginning when I started        
       to learn cracking.. Cuz i like to do real cracking.         


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

QuoVadis.v.1.5.2.Regged.101.CORE.Serial.Free.WIN9XNT-TRPS

Hehe funny guys. But i hope u got the point. Don't make fun about such a
thing. All I said is that u have stolen work from us (may it also been
in the past) and that is a fact. I don't know how the groups will develope
in the future. How you already have changed - I don't know, too. I don't
know what your members will do in the future. I just wanted to make a
statement from my point of view about the global scene situation and
the attitude from some ppl towards cracks.

If you do your own cracks you will hear never a word from me again about
this topic.

Thank you for your attention!
signed
The CORE LEADER
(C)hallenge (O)f (R)everse (E)ngineering





I added my orginal letter for ppl that didn't get it. I just spreaded
it via dcc. My this rel get nuked or not on sites - haha :-)

---------------ORIGINAL LETTER FROM 08/17/98------------

Hello,

This letter is about lame groups that steal serials from hard working
groups. Did you  nukers ever look at releases that hit your
site? Obviously not ... otherwise groups like TRPS would get
a world-wide mass-siteban. They frequently use keymakers and serials
from CORE, UCF, BLZ or RBS (groups that do hard work in the cracking 
business) and noone seems to notice that. Look at the TRPS releases...
10% of the serials included in the NFO's are non-working, and 40% are 
stolen. But I never see them nuked. I bet there are siteops out there 
that would be happy to be affiled with this lame-ass group because
they release so much. CORE works its ass off to bring you tons of
keymakers and all I see is a mega lame scene that steals and rips our
keymakers without getting punished. This is the result of a VERY bad
organised scene. When i asked one day a DSI leader what he thinks about
a release that has been released under DSI with a serial done by a
CORE keymaker, he even didn't know they released it. The one who packaged
the release (he was the second leader of DSI) got the crack emailed by
a trial cracker. The other members of the group never heared of this
cracker being member of DSI. Welp - who the hell checks then the new
members and their work? I don't want to hurt DSI anymore coz DSI is
a good group. They just had two bad days where a new trial cracker
fucked around with them. Normally their work is ok. AND a lot of
lil crappy groups steal from DSI too. 

Since CORE exists it happened one time that one of our "crackers" used
a keymaker from another group to create a serial. He got kicked as cracker
from the group on the next day. This is how every good group should act.
COZ THIS IS NOT CRACKING! THIS IS STEALING!

CORE and UCF seem to be alone with their cracking philosophy. For other
groups it seems to be normal to rip our work and to create serials with
our keymakers to create "their" "Regged" releases. And no one except us
notices that?! PREMIERE used CORE serials. VERSUS used CORE Serials.
TRPS used CORE serials. And so on ... there  are a lot of these 
groups out there but what does the scene do against these ripping groups?
Nothing. It stays calm coz all it cares about is the KB-size of the
release. Who cares how long the creation of a keymaker took the crackers.
Or new groups like SpriteX ... does anyone look at their releases?
Their mega bullshit releases? These new groups pop out of the ground
daily. Did u ever notice they never have a cracker mentioned in their
nfo ? Or did u ever notice they release regged versions directly after
a cracking group released a keymaker for the former version and the
serial still works on the newer version? That some of these lil 
groups use work from other groups seem to be normal for them. I don't
call this normal! 

Let's look at a few examples:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

08/03/1998
MPEGPlayer V3.11 Windows *Registered* FROM TRPS

 Ŀſ  
     SUPPLiER......: RaYf00      REQUiRED CPU.......: Pentium 
۲  ۱   CRACKER.......: N/A        REQUiRED RAM.......:     16MB+  
  ڳ STRiPPER......: N/A       REQUiRED HD SPACE..:  16MB+ 
       PACKAGER......: RaYf00     REQUiRED OS........: W9598NT

    Unzip, unrar and run "xxxxx.exe".                    


Well i did this and unzip'ed this xxxx.exe! U know what the fuck it was?
A keymaker from CORE done by Vizion!

TRPS released also the former version of this cool mpeg player. Welp their
so called "cracker" did a nice serial. But the poor guy doesn't seem to
know a anythin' about cracking coz the serial was unique on every PC depending
on the PC data. SO his serial didn't work on other PC's. Noone noticed that.
So CORE released a Keymaker.Only to get this player regged on every PC.
What did TRPS ? They included our keymaker in their next release.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

08/03/98

             WinRescue 95 V7.05 Windows *Registered*          
  + ۲                                                   
 ۲޲ Ŀſ  
          SUPPLiER......: RaYf00       REQUiRED CPU.......: Pentium ۲  
           CRACKER.......: N/A          REQUiRED RAM.......: 16MB+ ĳ    ڳ
              STRiPPER......: N/A          REQUiRED HD SPACE..: 16MB+ ĳ         
                PACKAGER......: RaYf00      ŵ REQUiRED OS........: WIN95NT ۲


    Unzip, and run "setup.exe".                                   
    Serial : msR3I8aUi9y2E84L                                

You see this ? Cracker "N/A". Not Available.
CORE released the former version of this util. Serial was: msR3I8aUi9y2E84L

DID U EVER NOTICE FOR HOW MANY TRPS RELEASES THEY PUT OUT FIXES ?
(that often don't work 100%, too)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Welp, another day i came upon a capture from an UCF cracker:

Session Start: Fri Jul 03 02:38:40 1998
Session Ident: [CRASH] (crash@201-153-121.ipt.aol.com)
<[CRASH]> Can u code a keygen for Absolute FTP v1.0
<[CRASH]> i had the patch and the program :)
<_ryder_> i code no keygens only serials
<[CRASH]> k
[2:40] *** 
[2:40] *** | [CRASH] | is: crash@201-153-121.ipt.aol.com (1) --
       -+- CRASH OVERRIDE -+-
[2:40] *** [CRASH] on #UCF2000
[2:40] *** [CRASH] on irc02.irc.aol.com (ShiftF9 to change to this server)
[2:40] *** [CRASH] on [152.163.208.16] America Online EFNet Server
[2:40] *** 
<_ryder_> why do you need a keygen???
<[CRASH]> so i can update this in future versions.
<_ryder_> hehe a serial works too
<_ryder_> ;)
<_ryder_> gimme the url
<[CRASH]> can u serial it for me :)
<[CRASH]> k
<[CRASH]> i have it on mhd
<[CRASH]> 1 MB
<[CRASH]> small :)
<_ryder_> may be
<[CRASH]> i'll dcc
<_ryder_> oki
<[CRASH]> sorry
<[CRASH]> i got pingged
<[CRASH]> i'm dcc sending hold
<_ryder_> hehe oki np
Session Close: Fri Jul 03 02:53:27 1998

Session Start: Fri Jul 03 02:53:44 1998
Session Ident: [CRASH] (crash@pool027-max1.ds13-ca-us.dialup.earthlink.net)
<[CRASH]> thanks
<[CRASH]> if you can do serial
<[CRASH]> do
<[CRASH]> name: CRASH
<[CRASH]> group: TRPS
<[CRASH]> i've been trying
<[CRASH]> it's tough
<_ryder_> haha trps
<_ryder_> ?????????
<[CRASH]> ftp://ftp.vandyke.com/pub/AbsoluteFTP/aftp10.exe
<[CRASH]> try that
<_ryder_> its a lame cracking group
<[CRASH]> maybe faster than dcc
<_ryder_> no way
<[CRASH]> :)
<_ryder_> take another groupname
<[CRASH]> just help me create a keygen
<_ryder_> haha
<_ryder_> have other things to do
<_ryder_> man
<[CRASH]> k
<[CRASH]> name: CRASH
<[CRASH]> k
<[CRASH]> ferget it
Session Close: Fri Jul 03 02:56:50 1998

------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash (who should be very well known for he's tendencies in asking
ppl about their private life and for infiltrating groups), applied
as UCF Trial cracker and then asked UCF crackers to do serials IN
HIS NAME for TRPS. 

And now i ask the so important Mr. I-KNOW-ALL sitennukers... DO YOU
EVER CHECK RELEASES ?!?! Probably not - coz otherwise u would have
noticed that a lot of releases are based on non working crap
serials, stolen serials, carded serials or even stolen (ORIGINAL 
LOGO FROM OTHER GROUPS ARE STILL INCLUDED) keygenerators.

Welp i bet if you ban now all TRPS releases the guy who is responsible
for this piece of scene shit just renames his group and releases
his shit under a new name. And I have to tell you the whole story
again in a few weeks. So what we need is a change in the ppls' minds 
towards the whole thing.

And did u ever notice how many PGC releases are non working ? 

Stop RIPPING serials/keymakers from other groups. And I call out to
all site-nukers: KEEP CHECKING THE RELEASES THAT GET UPLOADED TO YOUR
SITE. If you notice a group that lives in the scene from the work of
hard working cracking groups then site-ban it - other sites will follow. 

Please care about this problem - EVERYONE!

We at CORE are thinking at the moment of a public channel where
we offer ALL of our keymakers to the public scene. But all I know
at the moment is that other groups will abuse this service by
leeching very fast and easy older keymakers from core to create
serials for newer versions of a special product. 

In the past cracking groups had a silent rule: NEVER release a 
"regged" release if another group did make a keymaker for the older
version. If the other group did create a keymaker for the former
version then u had to make also a keymaker for the newer version
(if this was possible). 

This rule got lost when all these lil new cheating regging groups
came. Their members are group-hoppers or affil collectors, 90%
of the members are couriers that never saw a debugger or hexeditor
on their monitor. If the group gets to worse its members simply
quit the group and then reform under a new name. Just look every
few months at member listings. U will see the same members time
after time using a new name for simply the same group. 

Groups that come into my mind when I talk about stealing serials,
and using keygens from other groups are: TRPS, VERSUS, SPRITEX,
PREMIERE. I know there are many more than just these examples I
focussed on. So how about following the rules a lil bit more? They
were set up to keep the scene running. At the moment these 
groups take out all the fun coz WE REALIZE that our work 
is being abused by other groups. And when we lose the fun we will
stop our work for the scene's benefit. Everyone can USE our work
as long as he doesn't re-release it to get new credits for it. 

signed,
CORE LEADER
(C)HALLENGE (O)F (R)EVERSE (E)NGINEERING


---------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF ORIGINAL LETTER
---------------------------------------------------------------------

