[njohnson747]

I've seen people online lately going on and on about someone (or something) called "Razor 1911". Sounded mysterious - and I suspected it had something to do with online software piracy of some sort. Big time, as it turns out.

Well, I didn't have to look very long to get some answers online - at Wilkepedia.com, for starters. I was surprised - and more than a little impressed at the audacity, longevity and unclear motivation for such a bold and illicit venture.

Razor 1911 (RZR) is a warez and demo group that crack and repackage games at a phenomenal rate and are known either directly or indirectly by most anyone online who has seen a RapidShare links list for such software.

According to the computer crime division of the United States Department of Justice, Razor 1911 is the "oldest game software piracy ring on the internet". They've been at it since the days of the Commodore 64!


On the 14th of October, Razor 1911 showed their strength by releasing Battlefield 2142 to the online scene 5 days before its in-store launch.

Details: The group was originally founded as Razor 2992 by Doctor No, Insane TTM and Sector9 in Norway, October 1985 as a Commodore 64 software cracking group. Shortly after, they changed from 2992 to 1911 as an internal jab at the lamers in the scene who tended to overuse the number 666. The suffix "1911" translates to 777 in hexadecimal.

Between 1987 and 1988 the group began to move away from the Commodore 64 and migrated to a new hardware platform, coding demos and cracking games for the Amiga PC. In the very early 1990s Razor 1911 made another transition, this time to the IBM PC, foremost as a cracking group, but still continuing to release highly regarded cracktro loaders, demos and music.

Razor was a dominant supply group on diskette from 1992 until diskettes were abandoned for CD-ROMs. A Razor 1911 trainer (October 1999)In 1995 diskette releases were rapidly being supplanted by CD-ROMs so Razor 1911 moved into the CD-Ripping scene. Though not the first to begin CD-ripping, Razor had a lot of success and became the one of the most successful release groups throughout all of 1996.

Razor once again took on a new challenge when the ISO scene was formed. Razor 1911 began to release ISOs when they became the standard of the day, led most significantly by The Punisher. He was instrumental in Razor's recovery and its solid performance in the ISO scene. Following The Punisher's retirement, Razor was led by various different people and underwent some internal problems in the form of leadership challenges. This was solved when Pitbull, an old Razor member from the 1990's, took over the leadership role. He was still the leader at the time of "Operation Buccaneer", an international anti-piracy operation which led to raids at the homes of over 60 piracy suspects worldwide.

oops.

Shane E. Pitman age 31, of Conover, North Carolina a leader of Razor 1911 who went by the pseudonym "Pitbull", was sentenced to 18 months in jail "for conspiring to violate criminal copyright laws" as part of Operation Buccaneer.

Sean Michael Breen age 38, of Richmond, California, a leader of Razor 1911 since the early 1990s pled guilty in July 2003 to two counts of copyright infringement in violation of Title 17, United States Code, Section 506(a) and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2319, and to three counts of mail fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341. He was sentenced February 10, 2004 to 50 months in prison and three years of supervised release, for violating the criminal copyright laws, and for defrauding Cisco Systems of hundreds of thousands of dollars of hardware. Mr. Breen was also ordered to pay restitution of $690,236.91 to Cisco Systems. Mr. Breen's 50-month sentence is the longest imposed to date of the more than 40 individuals worldwide targeted by Operation Buccaneer. In a separate investigation by agents from the United States Secret Service, Mr. Breen also admitted that he had illegally used an online customer account of Cisco Systems to order hundreds of thousands of dollars of hardware by falsely posing as one of Cisco's existing customers. Mr. Breen arranged to have the hardware delivered in separate shipments via Federal Express to "Comptel Logistics," a shell company that had been created for the sole purpose of receiving the fraudulently obtained hardware. Mr. Breen and his business partner rented a storefront in Oakland to act as a business location for Comptel Logistics and to receive the hardware. After receiving the hardware, Mr. Breen sold it on the "grey market" at a heavily discounted price.

Stupid.

Almost exactly on the date that Sean Michael Breen was released, Razor 1911 started releasing games again. They have been releasing games fairly consistantly ever since, and now seem to be one of the biggest competitors for RELOADED at cracking the newest titles.

According to the Demo Divisions IRC channel on EFnet, the rls-division has returned.

Shane Pitman now seems to have changed his ways and has a prominent role on popular forums Neowin.net, most notably as part of their podcast.

Read more at their site: http://www.razor1911.com/

[Hyperx]

Great read. Been seeing Razor 1911 for years now.

[amk]

Pretty cool that a group like that has existed for more than 20 years. Of course, I've never heard of them. They're watching me right now. Good story.

[jod]

sorry who???

[Pooka]

What a gang of fucking tossers...

[mic123]

Fuckin Legends

[satman]

damn.....whats with these "pirates"......why can't ppl just pay the obscene amount of money asked for by the software and hollywood companies and buy everything legally ffs.....sheesh !!

[Pooka]

Originally Posted by mic123

Fuckin Legends

Legends my arse, they're fucking lamer tossers. They'd be really fucked if they ever tried to handle a real life...

Oh well, back to editing my LiveJournal...

[pvtpile]

I have downloaded loads of stuff from razor1911

[njohnson747]

Originally Posted by pvtpile

I have downloaded loads of stuff from razor1911

The word on the street is that all of their ISO images come with a crack and a serial keygen included standard - embedded in the image itself and found under the file name 'Razor1911". Convenient.

They seem to have fun getting the hottest stuff out and cracked right when it is hitting the street. Many of the newest games (MS Flight Simulator, Battlefield 2142) require online registration to activate the product but Razor1911 already has the necessary crack (or cracks) ready to go for those encryptions as well and embedded in the ISO image. They are indeed the Razor...on the cutting edge, pun intended.

But I'm left to wonder why. Why spend so much time and incur so much risk and potential legal wrath to accomplish a task which brings nothing more than anonymous notoriety at best and jail time at worst? It's not like these guys are getting paid to do it, after all! I'm a generous guy, sure - but not THAT generous and not at such risk with the reward being the unspoken thanks of total strangers.

It must be the cache within the warez community that brings them the non-monetary payoff that keeps them going. Releasing their wares out onto the internet scene is not the payoff for them, I'll bet. The payoff is knowing they cracked something highly coveted first, cracked it best, and distributed it to the masses without getting busted most importantly. The thrill of the crime - so to speak.

Seems like a lot of risk for such a reward. But then I don't have the skills to join Razor1911 much less the motivation. But to each his own. Bully for them.

[th3n00b]

I have never, personally or proffesionally, heard of or downloaded anything from t his supposed "warez group." I have no idea what you're talking about as I buy all of my music and games from the government appropriated channels.

[moonman]

You can download pirated games and software? Where would one get something like that? I thought BestBuy was the only place to get that sorta stuff. Geez, there seems to be a lot to this internet thing. I just thought it was here to host noobsters. Are there other things that would get you in trouble that can be done on the internet?

[super_fuzz]

I halfway remember downloading my first prog and there being a weird file called an *.nfo file. I clicked it, windows wanted to open system info, and I cancelled. Then I decided maybe I'll open it with textpad, and lo and behold i read razor1911. That might have been 98' I think.

[aranthorn]

PC 4-eva

[FauxReal]

There are a few groups that come to mind when I think about prominent pirates... Razor 1911, zleet who were couriers for other groups. I saw a lotta RZR stuff being couriered by them. Radium had the audio software scene down... oxygen took over after they disappeared. Phrozen Crew is another that was pretty big. Razor and Radium though... they made thier own keygens as often as possible.

[makkerc]

these guys make really bad music too

[amk]

VOPB, or Very Old Post Bumpage. That's futuristic forum lingo bitches. At least it gave me an opportunity to read this again, it is a good story.