Piracy - did you ever get caught?

[sittingduck]

What an absolutely epic tale, Turran. Only way to top it was that if the Windows 95 CD that #1 got in trouble for had had an X on it (as in XPD's story)

Personally I made a small club of about 10-15 kids from school who also had Amigas and we pooled about 3 dollars each every month to buy copied games from a guy that I had found in an ad in a paper. We did that for a couple of years, and every batch of games came with printed flyers for all the new stuff that the supplier had gotten in. Pretty sure it was big business for him. I still remember his name - would be fun to find out if he ever got in trouble.

Us, we were just kids that didn't see the big picture regarding piracy. But we had a blast and I have fond memories of those days. I remember ads in the computer mags targeting pirates but that didn't really make us think too much.

[DDNI]

Wow great stories, thanks for sharing.

Just noticed that this 10 page thread is now exactly 10 years old today. I remember starting it as if it were only yesterday, amazing how time flies.

[outsiderz]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Maximilien/Paradox, do a Google search, he was probably the most famous one, I don't think anyone could top what happened to him.

WTF???
it´s happend in 2020. i have thought 1993.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-m...ecuter-custody

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Turran

When guinea pigs get sick, they usually become food in the wild so they don't really have an immune system to handle it. At least that is how I was taught. Dont know if its true.

It's true that they die that easy at least, it is kind of amazing it lived as long as it did. One of ours died pretty much within hours after being left in a drafty hallway while the living room was being cleaned. Fragile little critters.

[sparhawk]

I never got caught, but I never did sell my copies either, except in one case. It was not worth the hassle, because when I exchanged and there was a bad disc, bad luck. If I asked money for it, then people demanded that I should replace it and it was not so much oney that it would be worthwile.
Only guy I sold copies, was a police officer. He was the contact person for the shops, so he regularly went around the street, chatting with the shop people. When we talked, he told me that he had a sun who also has this computer that i was so fond of (C64) and he asked me if I could sell him stuff. Since I wanted to stay on good terms with him I frequently gave him new programs.
The good side effect of this was that often enough my tickets for wrong parking "vanished" on his station.

[DDNI]

@sparhawk Glad to see the Polizei are just as corrupt as our British rozzers

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by outsiderz

WTF???
it´s happend in 2020. i have thought 1993.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-m...ecuter-custody

I believe this is different thing, as that Galahad's post is from 2014.

[gimbal]

still an interesting read though

Wikipedia has some stuff on Paradox and MAXiMiLiEN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_(warez)

[outsiderz]

Originally Posted by Anubis

I believe this is different thing, as that Galahad's post is from 2014.

ups, watch out for the post date.

[Mixel]

Never got caught but got a bit of a passive aggressive telling off from a vague family friend at one of my parent's parties who I didn't know was a game dev when someone asked why we still used/liked the amiga slightly past it's heyday and I was like "I like the software and you can copy stuff!"

And they chime in "And that's why the Amiga is dying and we don't make games for it anymore." Lol. Extremely embarassing yet funny in retrospect.

I didn't just mean copy games though in a piratey sense, he could see we had shelves of boxed games, I meant, mostly.. you can write stuff to disk, but was too late by that point and I was too dumb and un-assertive as a kid to put my case across properly.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by gimbal

still an interesting read though

Wikipedia has some stuff on Paradox and MAXiMiLiEN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_(warez)

Wow it seems he got busted again in 2020, he is hardcore, pirate to the end. Hope he got off his case, normally if you get a criminal conviction they won't let you into the country or is that only with drug conviction?

[sneeker]

Originally Posted by Methanoid

Arcadia BbS raided Dec 1993. Long story

Telecoms fraud? 0800-890055 anyone?

From memory, wasnt that at&t? And your missing a zero before the 89 I think. I think a friends board actually had its number blacklisted as so many cards where being used to call it in the mid 90s.

089,090 and 091 where all country direct lines so you could call abroad for free from the uk.

[Methanoid]

No, brazilian operator... BlueBox... Bleep Bleep Kerchunk.... Blip Blop etc and you are away... Allegedly

[Phantasm]

the back to the bbs video series is looking at doing a video on the underground warez scene and is looking to interview people who were a part of the Amiga scene back in the day.


I know there are a few people on here who were active on the bbs scene back then (as I was). If any of you have interesting stories to tell and want want to be interviewed I can gladly pass your name on.



[ Show youtube player ]

[outsiderz]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

the back to the bbs video series is looking at doing a video on the underground warez scene and is looking to interview people who were a part of the Amiga scene back in the day.


I know there are a few people on here who were active on the bbs scene back then (as I was). If any of you have interesting stories to tell and want want to be interviewed I can gladly pass your name on.



[ Show youtube player ]

nice one.

[XPD]

Always wanted to be a scene "member", but here in NZ, it was bit of a quiet area
Not saying there wasn't a scene here, it just wasn't as prevalent as overseas