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27 Years of Warez Scene Release Info Leaked in Giant Database (Torrentfreak)

Usually, when a leak is made by the warez scene, it’s usually material created by someone else - a movie, music, games or software. This time the leak is of their own material. A huge pre database of 2.6 million entries has become available on the internet, containing information on warez scene releases dating back to 1980.

An .NFO file (information file) is a small text file included with warez releases on the internet. They can be viewed with applications such as Windows Wordpad or a dedicated viewer such as DAMN NFO Viewer. These files usually include a lot of information about the particular release and on occasion, directions on how to remove copy protections, sometimes with included registration serial numbers. These text files are the semi-public face of available Scene release information, presented in a friendly format.

Although .NFO files are widely available to the public via sites such as NfoDB, VCDQuality and Nforce (who all have sizeable databases) it’s almost unheard of that an almost complete database of Scene release information should become available for enthusiasts to download, which is what has happened, says the Czech iNFO.w4Club.

According to the .NFO included with the release, the MySQL database covers the period 01/01/1980 to 07/07/2007 and comprises information on some 2.6million Scene releases.

Included with the release is a script for anyone wishing to maintain and update the database by adding new entries. Nearly 1.4 million releases have files and size information included but there are claims that some of the release times may be inaccurate.

It’s being suggested that the database was ’stolen’ round 12 months ago but there is conflict over the method by which this happened. The person who copied the database suggests that he managed it because the administrator used a really weak password but the admin is insisting that the guy is a hacker and employed some sort of exploit to access it.

Although the copy of the database was taken 12 months ago, it seems the last 12 months have been added using the included script.

For those enthusiasts willing to undertake a 50mb+ transfer, the database can be downloaded here.