Warez on Usenet are basically gifts - testimony
              to the power and stature of the giver. Files are
              posted for all to download, free. Just fire up
              your newsreader, point it at an appropriate
              forum, and a list like a home-shopping catalog
              of the latest software spills down your screen.
              There is no pressure, but if you download and
              you like the vibe, you are expected to join the
              community and contribute uploads whenever
              possible.

              On the freewheeling IRC chat forums, warez are
              no longer gifts - they're trade goods. The
              rewards are greater, but you've got to work for
              them. The IRC channels are 24-hour stock
              exchanges cum street markets: FreeWarez,
              Warez96, Warez4Free, WarezSitez, WarezAppz,
              and WarezGamez. There are private channels,
              hidden areas, and invite-only piracy parties. And
              there are no free lunches - every piece of
              software has to be paid for, in software. The
              more recent the application, the higher its value.
              The ultimate bartering tools are zero-day warez
              - software released by a commercial house in
              the last 24 hours, cracked if necessary and
              uploaded. The prizes for good zero-day warez
              vary; you may get instant download status on a
              particular server, logins and passwords for
              exclusive FTP sites, or admission to the ranks of
              a powerful cartel like the Inner Circle.

              "Zero-day sites are very Èlite stuff," explains
              paid-up Èlitist TAG. "People can get access only
              if they can move a few hundred Mbytes a day.
              Most are invite only. The average IRC warez
              trader doesn't get that kind of access unless he
              puts a lot of effort into it." Zero-day warez
              trading is a fraught business; competition
              between groups often leads to malpractice. "You
              get a lot of first releases with bad cracks," says
              TAG, "just so someone can say they released
              first. Then two days later, you get a working
              crack. We get most of our freshest stuff from
              private FTP and courier drop sites."

              If your software collection is more mundane,
              you can trade one piece directly for another. But
              with so many unpoliced egos in one place, this
              can be risky. People will often welsh on deals,
              allowing you to pass them a file and then
              disappearing into the ether. Cunning traders will
              barter with "trojans" - zipped-up files of gunk,
              realistic enough to carry out half the
              transaction. In extreme cases, someone may feed
              you a virus.

              A step down from zero-day warez are drop sites,
              where fresh cracks can be found for the cost of
              a download. Some drop sites run on the trader's
              own machine; others piggyback on government or
              corporate mainframes, shareware mirrors, and
              university networks. Often they're only in
              existence for 24 hours, or on weekends when the
              sysops are at home.

              Wherever you end up, you'll be struck by the
              extreme politesse and measured courtesy, united
              by a common language. "Greets m8. Have appz,
              gamez and crackz on 129.102.1.3. Looking for
              Pshop 4.0 beta. L8ter." "Have 1.5 gigs of warez
              on anonymous T1. Upload for leech access. /msg
              me for more info. No lamers."