View source for Skyhigh 16 Pirate BBS - Behind the screen

BBS - Bullentin Board Systems - Boards and so on...

These are words that doesn't   really mean   much   to me.
Sure I have a vague feeling of what they are, but
that's also about it!

I think that I'm not   the only one. So when I found this
article in a computer magazine I decided to share it
with the rest of you. So let me make it perfectly
clear that all I have done is to translate it into Eng
lish. Nevertheless I find it to be very exciting.
Ok let's go!!


PIRATE BBS - BEHIND THE SCREEN

'Ordinary' pirates has gradually lost some of the mys
ticism connected to them, and many computer owners
has pirate copies in their diskboxes. Copies which are
bought through mailorders from a pirate. What the
fewest knows something about are the Bullentin
Board Systems around the world. Here is not alluded
to official and legal boards, but to the pirates own
BBS systems. Here you can download the newest
games via modem; and both crackers &amp; hackers uses
these boards for distribution and communication.

GLOBAL PIRATE BOARD LIST

The programmes of the pirate BBS are the same which
are used in the legal part of the modem world, but
the way it's runned is much different from the way
normal boards are runned.
Their phone numbers are not open to the public, and
often they have numerous safety precautions before
an user is accepted. Still many of   them are more   hos-
pitable than normal bases.   Worldwide there are about
765 registrated private boards. Not registrated by
the authorities ofcoz, but on the pirates own list
for Elite Boards. Even countries as Poland is repre-
sented, and all in all 23 different countries is said
to have pirate boards. To that there are numerous
'legal' boards which runs with special   file areas,  from
where priviliged users can get cracked software!

GAMES FROM ABROAD

The users are mainly the persons who're also on the
normal bases, but sure there's someone who only are
on the pirate boards. In common they have that they
like this kind of contact.
The kernel is ofcoz the file areas on these bases,
and here you can   find the newest games   the same day
as they are released, or maybe even before. Several
megabytes are downloaded every day.This often hap-
pens through the fastest modems available on the
market. It's not unusual that the newest games are
fetched abroad, if a group in this country is   the first
who has cracked it!

HACKING DOCUMENTS

Pirate boards are occupied almost the entire time,
and that is even though many of them has several
phone lines. Even the new ISDN lines can be found on
some bases, and the biggest bases are working with
no less than up to 8 lines.
Both crackers and hackers are regular visitors on
these bases, and connected to the last mentioned
you can find thousands of files dealing with hacking
in various contries. The hackers even releases their
own magazines in the shape of textfiles on the board
Various prints of hardware, which can help them to
cheat the phone companies, are also widely spread.

AN UNIQUE STYLE

Ofcoz the users are communicating mutual on these
bases,  but the 'tone' is very different from other BBS
systems. Whether the way of talking is more liberal
or not is not to be discussed, but many will probably
say that it looks like   a   row of   quotes from the latest
HIP HOP record.
The bases are not connected in nets like many ordi-
nary PD boards. An area can therefore easily seem
'dead' if the users prefer to use their time online to
leech the newest games. At that point normal boards
are a lot more exciting if you can deal with the for-
mal tone.

TELEPHONE ABUSE

As the most users and sysops get enormous phone-
bills on several hundred ?!? (dollars/pounds.), a way
out of this, is for some pirates unfortunately :
phreaking. Phreaking consists   of buying calling cards
on the black market, and after that calling on the
credit of not-knowing Americans. These cards can be
obtained through corrupt AT&amp;T employes. It is often
about hundreds of cards arriving at the country at a
time. The result is a bill on thousands of dollars for
the unlucky owner.
Another way to cheat the phone companies are the
socalled boxes (bluebox/blackbox a.s.o. -ed !), which
is a hardware gizmo connected to the telephone. De-
pending on which type there's used,  the exchange are
cheated to 'believe' that the phone is hung up, or
the call is registrated with another subscriber.

ALSO WORKING AS MAIL ORDER COMPANIES

As a game often takes up several megabytes, the
most pirate boards often only accept modems with
speeds on 9600 bauds or more. Most of them uses
16800 baud modems, which allows a file transfering
speed at 1600 - 2000 bytes per second.
Some of the boards therefore run small mail order
companies too. As a kind of back up to the board.
The pirates has partly succeeded in giving a better
service than even the biggest commercial companies.
That itself is both frightening and in the same time
very impressing.

STEADY AMOUNT OF PIRATE BOARDS

The amount of pirate boards is surprisingly not in-
creased characteristic the latest years, and the
'market' for pirate copies are apperently satisfied,
but as the most fast modems are quite cheap now, we
can expect that more users will be capable of get-
ting software on these boards.
whether that amount will increase radically in the
future or not, is only guessing.

The question whether these boards are helping the
computer to survive or trying to kill the few prof-
fesional supporting companies still left is up to YOU
to answer. No matter what, then they are very alive
&amp; kicking, and maybe they aren't that mystic anyway!!




Next is an interview with a sysop of a board. To pro-
tect his real identity plus his handle/group they
have decided to call him Mr. Warmstart.

+ = Questions
- = Mr. Warmstart


INTERVIEW WITH " MR. WARMSTART "


+  Please tell us how you became sysop on a pirate
board!

-  I originally started up with a pd-board, however
with a little elite in the background (elite is here
meant as cracked software -ed!), but as time went
the users were asking more and more for elite. At
last they were almost only there for elite. most
didn't really care about the pd.
Then I got in contact with some users who had re-
gular elite boards. Through them I got access to
the before mentioned boards, and started opening
my eyes for the elite-world. After that it turned
more and more to elite for me, as I saw that this
was what the people really wanted. Today I run
VERY MUCH elite.

+  It's a common perception that pirates makes a lot
of money. Is that in force for you as sysop for a
pirate board ?

-  It has never been   my intention   to make money of it,
and I never have.   I rather lost money becoz of the
enomous phone bill I have recieved through time!
There are some persons   who are   running postorder
on their boards. Not that I will say it's many. I'll
guess apx 15% of the danish boards have this ser-
vice with cracked software. Primary this service is
for users with 2400 baud modems only. They might
make a little money. Enough to buy more phone -
lines and hardware, but it's   not a profitable living,
though I will presume they do make a fair share.

+  What contact do you have to the people who are
cracking the games ?

-  I haven't got direct contact with the people who
cracks the games, but as they often are users on
several elite boards I can write them messages on
these boards. I get the software, which I give to
people, via modem from other pirate bbs's in Den-
mark and the rest of the world.

+  Pirate boards are often a symbol on mysticism for
people who doesn't have modems. Is it a 'closed'
world for you who uses these bases ?

-  No it's absolutely not a closed world, and it's by
the way rather easy to get access to several
elite boards if you know their phone numbers. It is
only the pd boards who runs elite secretly who're
hard to get access to. For the time beeing I have
account to private   area on   4 pd boards in Denmark.

+  How many users can be found on a base like your
own ?

-  At the moment I have about   280 users,   though they
aren't active all of them. Becoz of soo many calls
the lines are almost always busy. Often you can't
get through to my board untill   6 in the morning,but
that's the way it is with almost every board. It is
exciting to have access   to   these experiences via a
bunch of cool games a.s.o, which you can only find
on these boards.

+    How do you see the fact   that   selling or giving away
games is actually illegal ?

-  I don't really think much about it,   as it's so normal
Do you ever think about that it is illegal to copy
video tapes from the television and give it to your
friends ? It is just as illegal as selling games !

+  Don't   you feel a certain guilt,that   the   big software
companies doesn't develop professional software
for the c64/amiga anylonger ?

-  I'll say that I feel like the ones who are copying
tapes for eachother eventhough it's illegal !
By the way then the serious users are not using
the c64/amiga but the pc. Apart from this then my
board also have illegal pc games in an area for pc
users. This is just as illegal, but it's not that the
producers of pc programmes has been more suc-
cesfull in stopping the illegal sellings. I know
that there also exists pure pc pirate boards. The
pc users also swaps cracked software. Some times
in a larger scale than people expect.

+  I have on a pirate bbs found documents about jour
nalists from several magazines, that have stated
themselves negative about the pirate world. Their
full names and addys were published, and people
were encouraged to stay away from them. Are
these people not easy targets for harassment ?

-  It is true that documents with names and addies of
people you should not talk to are to be found on
some boards. It's the more tough kernel who would
like to be left alone,  and often it's people who are
not interested in the lies who're spread/published
about the pirate world. Thes journalists are not
objective, but are only trying to be the hackers &amp;
crackers enemy number one.

+  You mentioned the 'tough kernel'. Who do you refer
to with that ?

-  The tough kernel are the persons who're cracking
the games. They are not interested in stopping,
becoz of the money they're making. The relation
between them and us are just fine,and by the way  :
they are not as tough as they sound like!!

+  At last the inevitable question. Are you not afraid
of getting caught ?

-  If I get caught, well then I get caught. But I think
the police has much to do with a lot of other
things than to be interested in what I'm doing.

--------------------------------------------


Yeppa, finally you reached the end of this chapter.
I hope you found it just as exciting as I did.

I would like to get a comment or chapter by a sysop
concerning this chapter. Is the pirate world really
like this ! - Is it really that easy to get access to a
pirate board, -and don't you feel guilty that the
software companies doesn't develop much software
anylonger ?

To me it's sound like a world of it's own, but gee, I
might be wrong like hell. So if any of you out there
have something to add, please send it to this addy :


BIZ KID/CAMELOT

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