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  Cracking
Terminology | Dictionary | Explanation

Software cracking is the modification of software to remove encoded copy prevention. A crack breaks the protection of copy prevention and trial/demo versions, using keygens or serial numbers, hardware keys, and avoiding CD check (noCDs). Scene groups who release games & software have very good crackers who break the security of the software.

The first software copy protection was on early Apple II and Commodore 64 software. During these times the PC scene was small and fragmented. There were the occasional small groups and often not individuals releasing and cracking. But these cracked programs usually only ever remained in the community local to person cracking them, and on his BBS. Game publishers, in particular, carried on an arms race with software crackers. More recently, publishers have resorted to increasingly complex countermeasures to try to stop unauthorized copying of their software. Most of the early software crackers were computer hobbyists who often formed groups that competed against each other in the cracking and spreading of software. Breaking a new copy protection scheme as quickly as possible was often regarded as an opportunity to demonstrate one's technical superiority rather than a possibility of money-making. The cracker groups of the 1980's started to advertise themselves and their skills by attaching animated screens known as crack intros in the software programs they cracked and released. 		 
     





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