DEF CON 18 - Jason Scott - You're Stealing It Wrong! 30 Years of Inter-Pirate Battles
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN brings it up in threads on warez, cracktros and the demoscene as a funny, informative history of the piracy scene.
What it is
Jason Scott's DEF CON 18 talk tells the history of software piracy over thirty years, centered on the feuds and drama among rival warez groups. It is full of archival material and insider lingo.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2014 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec alnwlsn · 2025-03 · on “Copyright and the Demo Scene”
Related, and a personal favorite of mine: DEF CON 18 - Jason Scott - You're Stealing It Wrong! 30 Years of Inter-Pirate Battles [this video]
Recommends patrickyeon · 2014-06 · on “A texture-mapped raycaster in 128 bytes”
As CountHackulus says, basically "drama". If it amuses you for some reason, you might want to check out "Jason Scott - You're Stealing It Wrong! 30 Years of Inter-Pirate Battles" from Defcon 18. [this video] The meat of the talk starts around 24min. edit: while re-watching, I should warn you lots of foul language and some NSFW imagery
Cites pdkl95 · 2019-08 · on “The Art of Warez [video]”
> ACiD While I never had any talent for drawing (with ANSI or otherwise), I spent most of the time in my high school AP Computer Science class hanging out with Rad Man[1]. We wasted probably half of the school year using the school's BBS computer (286) and modem (2400 baud) to log into various bay area BBS (esp..Code Room). Fun times... (and now I kindof wish I could play Barren Realms Elite) > I also don't remember much of a crossover between the ANSI scene and the demoscene Yah that's right. Jason Scott gave a fun talk[2] about warez/crack intros, which eventually evolved into the demoscene[3]. > the only way to access a BBS was through a terminal emulator If you were feeling adventurous,
Cites RobGR · 2021-03 · on “The Art of Warez Documents the Lost ANSI Art Scene (2019)”
Reminds me of this presentation by Jason Scott, examples around the 24:00 min mark: [this video] Jason has a similar ( maybe the same ? ) Defcon talk, in which the goons apparently mis-schedule something and he starts in, is told someone else is going to present, and just power-speeds through the whole presentation in 3 minutes while the other presenter gets ready. I can't find that video though.