What's the deal with that? I'm super appreciative of it because it's incredibly convenient to pirate Ableton or Toontracks software or any of 10,000 amp modelers out there (you often don't even have to INSTALL it), but why would that of all fields attract so much talent?
Well...
That's a good question. Strap in again - I should probably spoiler this shit, but wtf.
Btw, before we start, I just bought a second copy of Ableton Live. Fucking Pain. I just spent 200 bucks getting the latest upgrade to Live 11 Suite, but those German fuckers don't let you use old versions. I needed 32 bit, and so had to find an old copy of Live 9 Suite on the 2nd hand market. Cost me another 200 fucking bucks. Grrrr.... And I still need to spend the same AGAIN, to get a copy of Live 10 Suite because that has performance enhancements over later versions. Anyway, I'm good for now.
Cracks exist for Ableton. Best cracks are always by R2R. They have a keygen I believe for Live. Works pretty good. Problem is, when you want to mix and match on a machine that they are fingerprinting. All audio companies (just about) do that now. They take a unique identifier of your hard drives, gfx, cpu, network card, soundcard, versions of DX installed etc. etc. etc. This is how they allow you just two measly fucking installs of software that costs over 500 fucking bucks! You can beg them for extra installs, and as long as their records show you aren't taking the piss, they will usually give them.
So...
Wtf would anyone want to pirate? Well, because of this shenanigans and shit. Problem is, as I said, once you got a legit copy, and they got your legit details, you better learn how to use a Firewall to a pretty advanced degree. You better know how to edit the hosts file to a requisite degree. If you get busted using cracks, they often just ban all your accounts from that machine. Not necessarily talking about Ableton here, but some companies do.
Having said that, there is a new crack out by R2R that runs an emulator, so it's not even really cracking or patching the software, it's more hijacking the authorisation process. And that is why people are able to run legit Cubase Pro (which I also have and costs over 500 bucks) along with 'cracks' of Nuendo (1000 bucks or more) plus their other VST shit like Absolute which is a suite including Halion and Groove Agent.... enough of that...
So yes it is possible to mix and match depending on the software you have legit installed and the software you want to 'try before you buy'.
Ok, with all that said -
but why would that of all fields attract so much talent?
Because audio software sometimes implements the strongest Copy Protection on the planet. So strong in fact, that it is mathematically impossible to crack it without quantum computers. HASP dongles and the like. Steinberg, who make Cubase, implemented this protection for several years. So much so that there was NO cracked Cubase from version 5 on, up until very recently when last year they said they were abandoning that protection and doing away with their Dongle (now implemented via USB). AiR were the last to crack Cubase at v5. I have a running copy - works great. By the way, great thing about buying the latest version of Cubase is that is allows you to use ALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS - full licensed. So I'm good.
Since they abandoned their uncrackable Dongle protection, they have been cracked black and blue and you can get the very latest version of Cubase for 'free' if you know where to look. Also Nuendo - which is their post-production suite - has been cracked to hell and back again. Everything they do, within days, was cracked by the master crackers that are R2R. In fact, they just released a new crack of both Cubase and Nuendo and Halion today. Halion is 35GB download. Another cracking team called VR sometimes crack Cubase and all that but they mess about with system files they shouldn't and it's not such an elegant 100 percent working solution.
Now, R2R are master crackers, but even they can not break the laws of physics, of uncrackable encryption routines. Having said that, they did crack some pretty hard encryption shit with iLok and many said it could not be done. But they did it. You now find many programs protected by dongle (encryption key) - iLok - on the cracking scene to freely download. Sure, some of it didn't work perfectly, but that was because the developers put in secondary protections and timebombs. Those that didn't (and many didn't because they thought the protection was mathematically uncrackable) are now fully cracked and working one hundred percent.
As a user of audio software yourself, you know that there is one thing that matters above all - stability. And something is never fully cracked until there is 100 percent stability. There are rumors of 'Scene' cracks where Cubase (pre version 12 where protection was Dongle) was cracked, but they have never got in to the 'wild' so many dispute their existence. Sometimes there are cracks of software that only the crackers distribute amongst themselves. That much is true. But a crack breaking the encryption of Cubase would get out sooner or later. There are cracks of it out there in the wild, but they do not work 100 percent, so are not considered fully cracked. To this day, not a single version of Cubase from version 6 to version 11 has been cracked or is out in the wild, and is 100 percent fully functional.
The protection that Empress seems to have cracked is fairly small potatoes compared to the uncrackable eLicenser, so it's not a massive mathematical feat. It might be comparable to groups cracking iLok (which everyone said was uncrackable due to its super powerful encryption). There are just some things that can NOT be cracked. There is a developer in the Audio world called Sir Audio Tools. And his protection is fairly simple. But it relies on mathematically unbreakable encryption just stored on a text file. And R2R have said they can crack it if they get a legit copy of the program and a legit license key. So whilst it is mathematically impossible to break it without all parts of the equation, it is doable if they have someone willing to provide the OG software and their very personalised license key. So far, no takers. Lol... many such cases...
Another reason why the audio world attracts so much high end talent to break the protections is because a lot of developers are quite small in nature and can sometimes go a bit over the top with their protections. They don't pay the money to employ high end encryption systems like HASP or eLicenser, but they scan your machine and delete your shit. Tone2. This is like a red rag to a bull. Plus these developers brag about actively pursuing and prosecuting anyone caught with their crack software. Another red rag.
At the end of the day, programs like CAD or 3D stuff like Cinema4D or Maya or 3DSMax are all very expensive - much more expensive than audio software. But these companies know that it doesn't matter if people crack their software if they can't use it. If you do work that goes out to corporations all that shit is checked. So if you want to earn thousands, you better had spent thousands on your autocad/3D software. Pimple-infested soy boys in their bedrooms badly re-creating manga are just losers - their work will never get further than Deviant Art.
So there is an incentive to make these programs hard to crack, but not TOO hard. Sure, some stuff like Modo is a bit more difficult to get hold of because they have a 'b' in their bonnet about cracks. But super big companies like Autocad and Cinema4D and Maya and 3DSMax know that the chickens will come home to roost for them if some spotty kid gets good at their shit and ends up using their softs as their weapon of choice later. Of course, most of them have to learn new softs to fit in to whatever pipeline there is, but you know, it helps if they already know that shit to start with. Neither has anything to lose in this game. And few will become bay raitt.
Besides you still have so much quality stuff out there for free - Blender for example. Even Wings, written in Erlang of all fucking languages, is a knock-off of Nendo, which bay raitt cut his teeth on before leveling up to Mirai and getting the gig for LOTR.
I think even to this day bay uses Mirai. Those that have used it say it can't be beat. By the way, you will NOT find a copy of Mirai in the wild. Don't exist. There are reasons for that as well.
There are many ways to copy protect a program. Some use brute force encryption like eLicenser and dongle. Some use iLok. And not all iLok has been cracked by the way, some of it is still unbeaten. Teams still working away to be the first to provide a 'working' crack. Some companies like u-he use wit and guile to make timebombs in their software. This works as well. In fact, there is a kind of dialogue between developer and cracker in this case. But things have gone pretty quiet since they (R2R) worked out how to circumvent all that in an even more fiendishly deceptive way than the dev was using. It's all illegal at the end of the day, but they found a way that worked. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Just like how some forms of encryption can't be mathematically cracked, you can install back doors. NSA and FBI and CIA do this all the time. Not to mention the old Rubber Hose Decryption.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-hose_cryptanalysis
What R2R did was a fiendish form of crowd sourcing where they actually got people to give them their legit serials so they could work out what the inner protection was. And it worked. It took some time, but now every single program u-he has made has been cracked and is freely available. They even made a personalised keygen app where you could put in whatever name and it would generate a valid license key for you. Now, you see, the timebombs don't work. Though they had beed defeated on that front, they used another method. Now the program never timebombs because it believes it is a genuine copy because the key is valid. Fiendish, Simple, Effective.
But as I said earlier, they (u-he for example) aren't going out of business. I just bought more shit off them again even though I have it fully cracked. I'm honest in that regard. I pay for and buy the software I use. I also won't give links to cracks or crack sites, though I am happy to answer whatever questions I can.
I still don't feel as if I have answered your question though Matt Damon. Let me try again.
Audio software relies heavily on DSP. It's one thing being a programmer and being proficient in C++ or Assembler. But it's another thing being able to code DSP for Audio. Sure other fields exist for DSP, like working out Bomb fallout or Nuclear fallout or Fire spread, Wave propagation. But all of these fields tend to be in the industrial world. So you don't get these programs available for the average person.
The people that can code these audio programs therefore tend to be pretty clever at protecting them, those that bother. This is a challenge.
A lot of people like to make music. Sure, a lot of people like to draw and do 3D and there are cracks out there for that, but they aren't as heavily protected as audio apps for reasons already mentioned. Plus music attracts a certain type of person. To be good at music you need to be kind of good at maths. And some of these crackers are REALLY good at music (listen to their keygen music) and even better at cracking.
I've still not really answered your question. I'll leave it at that for now.
But I must say this. While there are some really talented crackers (reverse engineers) out there with regard to Audio Software, there is only one that really shines head and shoulders above the rest. I've mentioned who they are earlier. Without this team, which is made up of old members of ASSiGN cracking group, there would be none of the latest and fully working cracks of iLok and Steinberg software. They are just exceptionally talented and for whatever reason have dedicated their lives to cracking audio software, not games, or whatever.
I dare say, that when someone that clever learns how to use a disassembler or debugger or decompiler like SoftIce or IDA or WTF, they could pretty much crack any software known to man. But for some reason, it's music software that seems to be their bag.
One cracker I know when he was on top of his game claimed he could crack any software known to man. Maybe, maybe not. But he gave up the game when he was ahead and works as a librarian now in the US. Other crackers just drop out of the game with regret. They realise they have not been outside for 10 years and didn't realise the time had passed. And they regret it.
Apart from games (which this thread is about), there is only really the scientific and the audio and the visual left. Each have been addressed. Somewhat.
www.wired.com
