I too never seen "warez" used to refer to anything other than pirated software. You make a good point about the derivation; it probably is directly from "softwa

I too never seen "warez" used to refer to anything other than pirated software. You make a good point about the derivation; it probably is directly from "software". Adding a superfluous Z to the end of a plural mass noun was also a characteristic of l33tspeak, as I recall.