Paradox (warez)

PARADOX Team
Paradox Crack
Formation 1989 (1989)
Purpose Quality deprotections / Demo
Founders
 Bad Boy
BlackHawk
Olivier
Stinger (Exit)
Clash
Website www.paradogs.com
(via Internet Archive)

PARADOX (PDX) is a warez–demogroup; an anonymous group of software engineers that devise ways to defeat software and video game licensing protections, a process known as cracking, which is illegal in most jurisdictions. They distribute cracks (software patches), keygens (key generators), and pre-cracked versions of entire programs. Over the years, distribution methods have changed, starting out with physically transported floppy disks and BBS distribution. With the expansion of the Internet they moved on to Usenet. Today most of their files reach the public over various peer-to-peer file networks.[1]

Paradox spyro 3

Paradox was originally formed in late 1989 by members of the Danish group Trilogy (Bad Boy, Black Hawk, Tas, Pcsu, QRD) and the French group M.A.D (Olivier, Stinger, The Surge, Clash, Tagada). They began by cracking Amiga software. The group died in 1991 when the most active members joined Quartex. It was reborn under the leadership of 'Maximilien' in 1993, with ex-Quartex members Black Hawk and Paragon as co-founders. Then it moved in to the Sega Genesis and SNES console scenes. They started cracking PC software in 1994. At the end of 1999, they cracked PlayStation game Spyro: Year of the Dragon (although they failed to provide a fully completable version), which was famous for very strong crack-protection, programmed by Insomniac Games.[2] 2 months later they released the full working version of the NTSC and the PAL one. In 2001, they released their last cracked game for PlayStation, and it was the popular video game Final Fantasy IX. In 2002, the team recruited computer black hat Evilgood, who is alleged to be one of the most qualified crackers of the time. His identity is still unknown. They have cracked games for other consoles and hand-held devices like the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and Xbox.[3]

Paradox has been noted to crack challenging dongle protections on many debugging and software development programs. The team also successfully found a method of bypassing activation in Windows Vista.[4] This was accomplished by emulating an OEM machine's BIOS-embedded licensing information and installing an OEM license.[5] However, with Windows Vista Service Pack 1, this crack no longer works correctly. Paradox was first to release SLIC 2.1 details & working crack for Windows 7.[6]

Demoparty awards

Raids and arrests

One of their members going by the alias 'Rokman' was arrested in 1990 for using stolen credit card numbers to make $1 million in long distance calls to other Paradox members for the purpose of file transfers.[10] Nearly all Quartex members in France, including Olivier, Clash and Tagada, were busted in 1991 in the Blue Box affair. Max 'MAXiMiLiEN' Louarn was arrested in the Nintendo copiers affair in 1993[11] and was held in preventive custody for three weeks before fleeing to Spain. Less than one year later, in 1994, Secret Service agents caught him while on trip to Washington in a vast calling card fraud affair.[12] He was sentenced to 5 years and 8 months by a US court.[13][14][15] Another of their members, alias 'tyson', was raided in 2001 as part of Operation Buccaneer.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SUBCULTURE OF THE SUBCULTURES". Web.archive.org. 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  2. ↑ Dodd, Gavin (17 October 2001). "Keeping the Pirates at Bay: Implementing Crack Protection for Spyro: Year of the Dragon". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  3. ↑ "Paradox releases first warez for Wii". Archived from the original on 2009-02-25.
  4. ↑ "Paradox beats Vista activation". AfterDawn. 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  5. ↑ Bannan, James (4 March 2007). "It's official: Pirates crack Vista at last". APC Magazine. Retrieved 2007-03-04.
  6. ↑ "Windows 7 Ultimate Cracked and Activated Permanently with OEM SLP Master Product Key (with SLIC 2.1) « My Digital Life". Mydigitallife.info. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  7. ↑ "EUSKAL 9". Euskal.org. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  8. ↑ "Suturne 1993 Results". pouët.net. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  9. ↑ "Alcatraz Pentcost 1990". pouët.net. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  10. ↑ "Paradox member arrested in New York State". - archived version of 1990 Washington Post article
  11. ↑ Petitjean, Gérard (1995-01-12). "Super-Mario et les pirates". Le Nouvel Observateur. Archived from the original on 2008-10-31.
  12. ↑ Noland, Terrance (1997-04-01). "The ring leader". Business North Carolina. Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Secret Service agents in Washington nabbed Frenchman Max Louarn in a sting for another calling-card scheme.
  13. ↑ "Phone card scam figure sentenced". The Free Lance-Star. 1995-02-13.
  14. ↑ "Hacker Sentenced". The Washington Post. 1995-02-12.
  15. ↑ "Telecommunications Fraud Leader Sentenced" (PDF).
  16. ↑ "Scene Busts". Retrieved 2012-09-18.
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