4 ms·
Cracking was a 90s term for pirating software
by demarq 3y ago
Cracking was a 90s term for pirating software
- itsnotlupus 3y agoCracking is about removing anti-features, typically copy protections. It pairs well with pirating, but neither one strictly requires the other.
- nonethewiser 3y ago> Cracking is about removing anti-features Anti what features? Piracy?
- function_seven 3y agoAnti-backup, Anti-I-don't-have-a-cdrom-on-this-machine, Anti-I-lost-the-stupid-dongle, etc. Like parent says, cracking and piracy pair well, but I've had to do it many times just for compatibility reasons, on software I had purchased.
- Dylan16807 3y agoAnd just anti-convenience! Nobody wants to swap CDs purely to tick a checkbox.
- xxs 3y agoThe anti-what-word-is-on-the-17th-page-3rd-paragraph-of-the-handbook was a very common on for so many games.
- nonethewiser 3y ago> Anti-backup, Anti-I-don't-have-a-cdrom-on-this-machine, Anti-I-lost-the-stupid-dongle, etc. All perfectly understandable to me. But from the perspective of the people designing the anti-something system, wouldn't they call it piracy? We can argue if piracy is a charitable enough name for bypassing copyright protections but that's irrelevant in terms of whether or not that is the thing the software provider is trying to do.
- phpisthebest 3y agopirating software (movies, and music) is a term from the 90's by the MPAA, Riaa, and Games industry in attempting to link the act of simple copyright infringement, a civil non-criminal violation of the law to violent robbery on the high seas... Cracking is a method of removing undesired features or inclusions from software, often licensing controls, or other anti-consumer features. Many many many people "cracked" their software who where not eganged in the act of copyright infringement, they legally owned the software but for a number of reasons has no desire to run the invasive software bundled with the game or content they purchased.
- dylan604 3y agomy favorite use was for software that required a USB dongle. if you lost the dongle, you lost access to the software. there is not "back up" option. so the cracking community came up with a way to emulate those dongles. the obvious abuse followed. we used the software for legit 1:1 installs to physical dongle on blade servers where all of the dongles could not be installed
- extraduder_ire 3y agoMy favourite failure case of this is dongles on hardware devices, like lighting controllers. Especially when the dongle does in on an exposed edge of the device and can get knocked loose. I've heard stories of them getting disconnected because they were bumped, and the whole unit goes dead five minutes later. At least it's not immediate.
- Stibinator 3y agoI nursed my Lightwave dongle through my early career as an animator. I've lost so many pairs of glasses, several wallets, a couple of phones, but I know exactly which drawer that usb stick is sitting in now. Not that I reckon I'll ever touch LW again.
- timmb 3y agoThat was the scariest term they could come up with? The romantic swashbuckling seafarer, antagonising empires and declaring his own rules? Surely they could have done better. 'software fraud', 'software theft', 'forgery'... hmm well there's a reason I don't work in marketing obviously.