This article may not conform to the neutral point of view policy. A Wikipedian has nominated this article to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. Software cracking is the modification of software to remove encoded copy prevention. Distribution of cracked software (known by 'the initiated' as "warez"), or patches to circumvent software protection on software (commonly known as a "crack" or a "[k]") is generally an illegal (or more recently, criminal) act of copyright infringement. Contents 1 Software cracking techniques 2 Groups devoted to software cracking 3 Legality and software cracking 3.1 Countries in which software cracking is Illegal 3.2 Countries in which software cracking is legal 4 Positive benefits of software cracking 5 Example of software cracking 6 Side topics 6.1 Windows Vista Software cracking techniques Software cracking is most often done by software reverse engineering. Examples of reverse engineering tools: Amiga platform ReSource IBM PC compatible platforms Turbo Debugger Regmon, Filemon. w32Dasm SoftICE Unix based platforms (such as Mac OS X) gdb nm Groups devoted to software cracking Some groups devoted to developing tools for software cracks and the distribution of cracked software include the Phrozen Crew, UCF, CORE, TNO, DrinkOrDie and SnD. For details, see list of warez groups. Legality and software cracking Software cracking is legal in some countries and illegal in others. The use of cracked copies may also be legal or illegal, but it is a separate question. Countries in which software cracking is Illegal In the United States, the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) legislation made software cracking, as well as the distribution of information which enables software cracking, illegal. However, the law has hardly been tested in the U.S. judiciary in a case of reverse-engineering for personal use only, and many feel the DMCA is unenforcable in this area. Countries in which software cracking is legal Russia Positive benefits of software cracking Although software cracking is generally damaging, it has some positive effects. For example, the warez groups have helped in increasing the popularity of some file formats such as XviD or MP3. They have been a significant factor in the domination of companies such as Adobe, Borland, and Microsoft, all of whom have benefited from rampant piracy since the 1980s (vast numbers of college students adopt applications from these companies as they are readily available; many go on to use them in their professional lives, purchasing legitimate licenses for business use). Example of software cracking The most common software crack is the modification of an application's binary to cause or prevent a specific key branch in the program's execution. This is accomplished by reverse engineering the compiled program code until the software cracker reaches the function that contains the primary method of protecting the software. The binary is then modified so the key branch will either always execute a specific region of code or skip over it. Software developers are constantly developing techniques to make this modification increasingly difficult. Almost all common software cracks are a variation of this type. One example of this modification is a no-CD crack. If a person has lost their application's CD or installed the program from a friend's CD which must be returned, a no-CD crack can allow that person to continue using the software. Installing no-CD cracks also gives the user more freedom and convenience. No-CD cracks remove the need to put the CD into the CD-ROM drive, thus making access to the program easier and less of a chore. In addition, it removes the need for the software to load verification data from the CD-ROM or DVD, which is typically up to hundreds of times slower than the harddisk, making program start and execution faster. Another example is a crack that removes the trial period from shareware or trials making the product function as the full unlocked version. These cracks usually are programs that patch the program executable and sometimes the DLL or .so linked to the application. Similar cracks are available for software that requires a hardware dongle. Another example occurs when businesses break the copy prevention of programs that they have legally purchased but that are licensed to particular hardware, so that there is no risk of downtime due to hardware failure (and, of course, no need to restrict oneself to running the software on said hardware only). There are a number of sites on the internet that let users download no-CD cracks for popular games and applications (although at the danger of acquiring malicious software that is sometimes distributed via such sites). Although these cracks are used by legal buyers of software they can are also used by people who have downloaded or otherwise obtained pirated software (often through P2P networks). Side topics Windows Vista Software cracking might become much harder to perform with the release of the Fritz-chip in combination with certain software, like nexus in the next major operating system from Microsoft, Windows Vista. Due to the incorporation of various encryption/verification techniques, the operating system has been claimed "unhackable". These claims have caused quite a stir within the cracker community, which is already preparing for the challenge.  This software-related article is a stub. 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