The battle between  warez scene groups and P2P oriented ‘non scene’ groups (who usually release on private/public BitTorrent trackers as opposed to scene topsites) has been raging for quite a while now. Initially the scene declared war on P2P due to the easy accessibility it gave to scene releases which were meant to be shared only among scene members. However now things are a little different – P2P groups with good sources have grown in numbers and they sometimes beat scene groups into releasing some popular pirated material. With all these changes, the scene’s hatred towards P2P might not just be about security anymore. It could even be because of ‘competition’.

Following are several Scene Notices that triggered the latest episode of e-drama series Scene vs P2P. The first notice accuses scene group APOLLO of stealing encodes from What.CD, the popular private music torrent tracker. The second notice contains APOLLO’s reply and then the war rages on for four more scenenotices (some of these include screenshots/images as ‘proof’). For those interested in reading them, we’ve included download links below:

  1. Group_ApoLLo-Pre_FLAC_Converted_Releases_From_Wut.CD-(PROOF_iNSIDE)-2009-ApoLLo [Download]
  2. Response_To_Group_ApoLLo-Pre_FLAC_Converted_Releases_From_Wut.CD-(PROOF_iNSIDE)-2009-ApoLLo [Download]
  3. Set_Your_Goals-This_Will_Be_the_Death_of_Us-PROOF_THAT_FNT_RETAGGED_OUR_RIP-2009-ApoLLo [Download]
  4. 30_Bucks-You_Will_Move_It_Like_A_Real_Donkey_O_Toes-2009-ApoLLO [Download]
  5. Another_One-Just_To_Show_You_Suck-2009-ApoLLO [Download]
  6. VA-What_About_Another-Real_Perm_Ban-2009-ApollO [Download]

We don’t really know if APOLLO really stole encodes from what.cd or not. But it’s kinda ironic that even the scene member who accuses APOLLO of stealing from What.CD and trashing p2p himself is actually an active member of the BitTorrent tracker. Once again this is E-drama at its beast so read it and forget it :)


5 Comments

  1. Fes // 7/21/2009 01:15:00 PM  

    of course they there is no way to know if they are stealing releases from what.cd without being on the site.

    oh well, scene vs. p2p. Scene isn't even fast as before in pre-release imo.

  2. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 7/21/2009 03:47:00 PM  

    Fes,
    I think when it comes to Game and App releases scene definitely has the upper hand.

  3. qwertz // 7/21/2009 09:04:00 PM  

    yes, because cracking actually require some talent, unlike mp3s..

  4. Nipun // 7/22/2009 11:43:00 AM  

    mahagedara wage

  5. Mustard // 7/30/2009 09:27:00 PM  

    I don't think people mind the competition, I would imagine that is half the motivation to release anyways. I think its the fact that as the p2p groups do not pre normally they do not have to follow any rules, IE Dupes, and quality standards.. Lowering the quality of the pirate scene. If these groups wanted to release through the scene assuming they can follow the rules they could probably find somewhere to pre, and get a bit more for their efforts than access to a bit torrent tracker.. The scene dislikes p2p generally because it exposes them to trouble. The scenes strength (no dupes, competition, quality control) are also what cause the problems, because now releases are going further thanks to p2p if you release a game and win the race, every single pirate copy ever made will almost certainly be using your release. This means some of these groups are then liable for millions of $ of copyright infringement. This is why I believe the scene dislikes p2p, when only people who contributed had access, the companys didn't loose as much cash and didn't care.. Now that any tom dick and harry can download something off some torrent site without working in anyway for it, that is likely to be converted into lost sales and unneeded attention for these groups.