"The Scene"
The main definition of the scene is the pretty unknown worldwide network where people trade pirated goods, like dvd's, movies, games, applications etc. The word "Warez" refers to goods that are under copyright that are in violation of the copyright laws. So the scene is basically the community of people that trade all these illegal goods over the internet for no profit but just to share them with the world.
It does not involve the selling of them for-profit.
So you're probably still like WTH is the scene seriosuly?
The scene contains releasegroups and solo releasers that release pirated goods.
No, they do not release their stuff on scene sites right after they rip the DVD.
The Scene is very underground. It is kind of like a chain and starts with the releasegroups and topsites
Topsites
Topsites are very fast FTP servers that have connection speeds of a considered minimal 10Mbps to a normal 100Mbps and have 500GB to many TB's of HDD space. They are extremely underground and nearly impossible to find. Administrators of topsites are very paranoid and change their ips frequently to keep from being caught mostly using ip bouncing. Also you dont just go and sign up. You must know someone who knows an Admin there because your ip will have to be allowed on the server or you cannot even connect to it.
But what happens at these topsites. Well this is where your Simpsons Movie from PUKKA was first uploaded. What you thought PUKKA was actually a member of torrentsite? Lol. This is kind of a hard concept to pick up for some but its true and very real so listen up.
Release Groups and Releasers
Releasegroups and solo releasers connect to certain topsites and upload their release to that topsite. Then others called Racers race the release to other topsites to try to earn upload credit so they can get download credit (yes topsites do this also). Then they download other releases and try to get them to other topsites and get download credit at those topsites. And you see how the process works.
These releasegroups and topsites are the top of the chain and most of the content that you see on your private trackers comes from them especially the trackers that only allow scene material.
So you are starting to understand that our pirated goods are not just uploaded to all the private trackers. They work their way down the chain and as you have seen the beginning of the chain starts with topsites. Topsites are the core of "the Scene" and the network of underground topsites is where the scene lives. Without topsites, the scene would not be what it has become and releases probably wouldn't travel as fast.
Everything originates at topsites. Well not everything but usually everything. On a site you might see a Diehard DVD uploaded by XXXX123. That doesn't mean that XXX123 is a part of a topsite. It just means that he is a user at that site and ripped the Diehard DVD for upload. Does this mean that XXXX123's release is a scene release. Well yes and no. Technically, XXXX123 is in the scene but not at the core. He does not follow scene rules and he rips the DVD the way he wants and thinks suitable. Therefore it is not an official scene release but it is a release in the scene. Usually it is a official scene release if it has the name of the releaser or releasegroup next to it or the NFO file will contain custom graphics and be very informative sometimes asking for help and certain things like that.
Usually if a release is not a scene release there won't even be an NFO and there might not be a releasegroup or releaser name attached. As you probably can figure out, all the releases at scene torrent site or any other tracker with scene in the name usually will only allow scene releases that follow scene rules and originated at topsites.
We will now work our way down from topsites to show you where the material arrives after people get it and share it on topsites.
FXP Boards
WTH is FXP? FXP stands for File eXchange Protocol. It is a vulnerability (an exploit) in FTP servers that lets them share data with each other - FTP SERVER to FTP SERVER. All this process needs is the command and off it is sharing its data with other FTP Servers. They usually use forum software such as vBulletin or IPB and usually use a credit system just like topsites. This provides very fast speeds and keeps servers very unknown in the FXP world since FXP usually uses hacked servers and hardware not set up for illegal activity.
Now you're interested! Thats right. FXP boards usually rely on Scanners, Hackers, and Fillers to infiltrate innocent servers and use them as grounds for illegal material. This lessens the risk of getting caught by anti-piracy agencies and adds greatly to the community. The Scanners are the people that scan multiple ip ranges of fast servers for vulnerabilities like open ports or easy to crack programs. Then they tell the Hackers the IP's and the hackers do the main work of exploiting the vulnerability to its fullest by installing a rootkit (a running process in the background thats not supposed to be there). The rootkit usually is a FTP Server application like SERV-U and will run on the victims computer making that computer a full-fledged FTP Server. The Hacker then will pop up at the FXP Boards and post the Username and Password of the newly hacked FTP Server. Now on to the last stage. This stage is where the Fillers will take all the pirated material he gets from other pubstros (the name of these hacked FTP Servers) and load it onto this Server. Once he is done loading all the latest warez, he will go back to the FXP Boards and post the download links.
As you can now see how FXP Borads work, this is a very illegal activity since it involves hacking into innocent computer systems. But nevertheless, this activity still happens on the world wide web anyway and is very popular among many groups.
Now onto some more fun...............[[IRC Trading]]
In the IRC world, there are two types of pirated channels that can be run and are usually run from people with lots of access to pirated material like FXP Users.
These channels include user-to-user (Fserve) channels that mainly use mIRC's file server function and other scripts to share data right off their hard drive.
The second type of channels are the server-to-user (XDCC) ones which are usually set up with iroffer and can be hacked servers or servers that are used in FXP also. These servers usually provide very fast speeds by putting users on a queue making users wait to download the material until there is enough bandwidth to supply the user with high speeds.
As you can see, a release has to travel very far just to get to these irc channels and I'm not even done yet!! Also I'm sure you can see that this is a chain that just keeps going all starting with original release on those topsites^.
NewsGroups
NewsGroups are very much like IRC mixed with Forums. They were mostly used to share information but soon the servers that held all that info started holding other things too like pirated warez. Ofcourse users found a way to transfer files through NewsGroups and soon all kinds of warez would filter through there. Now NewsGroups aren't that hard to access but to download things you will need a little more experience. Such applications needed to connect to these NewGropus are caped newsreaders and a couple of them are Newsleecher an Xnews. Now this next category might sound awfully familiar to you. Its called:
P2P
This the final stage of the traveling of a release. P2P users are actually classified into two categories--the kiddies (the 10 year olds who use Limewire and The Pirate Bay)--and the major P2P'ers that usually join private trackers and share invites to get into better ones. By most sceners, P2P'ers are looked down upon because they make material to easy to get to and the security is usually very low which can put the sceners at bigger risks. Also, P2P'ers are the most targeted in the media as being the "Dangerous Pirates" since they are the easiest to be busted by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA. As I'm sure you know how P2P works. Bittorrent is used the most and can sometimes have very slow speeds. That is why lots of senior P2P'ers use private trackers which require you to have a certain ratio in order to stay a member. This in turn creates faster upload speeds since everyone usually tries to max out their ratio by uploading as much as they can of a torrent.
As you have probably figured, P2P has the largest pirate base since it is the easiest to access by n00bs. But what most P2P'ers dont know is that most of they're releases come from very underground, smart, and extremely illegal sources .
Conclusion
So am I in the scene? If I upload a torrent that i totally created myself, is that a scene torrent? Dude, these topsites sound so hardcore; where can i get in?
Technically, yes you are a part of the scene. But you are a part of the wrong side of the scene. Since, the core scene hates P2P'ers, you are considered on bad side of the scene. Now if you upload a torrent to that is a copy of halo 2 cracked so that the single player missions can be played, it is a release in the scene but it is not a official scene release. For it to be an official scene release, it has to have originated at a topsite usually. As for where you can find these topsites, I or no one else will give you any information on where you can access topsites or try to get you into a topsite. Not that we have information on them or are even a part of them, so dont bother to even start searching. Now dont try to guess some names or see one on a site and try to connect to it. You must know somebody that can get you in and get ur ip address range opened on the topsite to let you connect to it. Its kinda like the topsites ban everybody until they accept a new member then they allow his ip. Also, once you get in, its not like you can just download a bunch of shit and thats it. You will have to upload and download things repeatedly. It's kind of like who can upload and download fastest. Its just a race pretty much the whole time and its not really as cool as it sounds.
Release Databases
So you have heard of nforce.nl and VCDQuality from probably reading the "-what you need to be an- Uploader" page on some scene torrent site. What these places are are private communities (nforce and VCDQuality are really the only public ones) that track and list every scene release and contain the NFO and info about that release. These places are used by almost all sceners to see what has been uploaded already and what hasn't. It also helps them check for nukes and bad releases. This altogether keeps the material on the scene very reliable and usually never duplicated.
Now you know pretty much there is to know about where your torrents usually come from. You understand the process which these files go through and how they are copied very quickly and spread very rapidly. You have learned how underground warez can be and that not all pirated materials are originated in torrents. I would say you're pretty smart now. I also advise you not to go around talking about topsites and FXP Boards as users of them are very strict about being very secret and private.
Scene Tags
PROPER -
Due to scene rules, whoever releases the first Telesync has won that race (for example). But if the quality of that release is fairly poor, if another group has another telesync (or the same source in higher quality) then the tag PROPER is added to the folder to avoid being duped. PROPER is the most subjective tag in the scene, and a lot of people will generally argue whether the PROPER is better than the original release. A lot of groups release PROPERS just out of desperation due to losing the race. A reason for the PROPER should always be included in the NFO.
SUBBED -
In the case of a VCD, if a release is subbed, it usually means it has hard encoded subtitles burnt throughout the movie. These are generally in malaysian/chinese/thai etc, and sometimes there are two different languages, which can take up quite a large amount of the screen. SVCD supports switch able subtitles, so some DVDRips are released with switch able subs. This will be mentioned in the NFO file if included.
UNSUBBED -
When a film has had a subbed release in the past, an Unsubbed release may be released
LIMITED -
A limited movie means it has had a limited theater run, generally opening in less than 250 theaters, generally smaller films (such as art house films) are released as limited.
INTERNAL -
An internal release is done for several reasons. Classic DVD groups do a lot of .INTERNAL. releases, as they wont be dupe'd on it. Also lower quality theater rips are done INTERNAL so not to lower the reputation of the group, or due to the amount of rips done already. An INTERNAL release is available as normal on the groups affiliate sites, but they can't be traded to other sites without request from the site ops. Some INTERNAL releases still trickle down to IRC/Newsgroups, it usually depends on the title and the popularity. Earlier in the year people referred to Centropy going "internal". This meant the group were only releasing the movies to their members and site ops. This is in a different context to the usual definition.
SPEC RATIO TAGS -
These are *WS* for widescreen (letterbox) and *FS* for Fullscreen.
RECODE -
A recode is a previously released version, usually filtered through TMPGenc to remove subtitles, fix color etc. Whilst they can look better, its not looked upon highly as groups are expected to obtain their own sources.
REPACK -
If a group releases a bad rip, they will release a Repack which will fix the problems.
NUKED -
A film can be nuked for various reasons. Individual sites will nuke for breaking their rules (such as "No Telesyncs") but if the film has something extremely wrong with it (no soundtrack for 20mins, CD2 is incorrect film/game etc) then a global nuke will occur, and people trading it across sites will lose their credits. Nuked films can still reach other sources such as p2p/usenet, but its a good idea to check why it was nuked first in case. If a group realise there is something wrong, they can request a nuke.
NUKE REASONS :: this is a list of common reasons a film can be nuked for (generally DVDRip)
** BAD A/R ** :: bad aspect ratio, ie people appear too fat/thin
** BAD IVTC ** :: bad inverse telecine. process of converting framerates was incorrect.
** INTERLACED ** :: black lines on movement as the field order is incorrect.
DUPE -
Dupe is quite simply, if something exists already, then theres no reason for it to exist again without proper reason.
