Pirates with Attitude were established by Bar Manager and Orion in February of 1992 as a splinter group of irritated International Network of Crackers members. They were tired of what the gaming scene of the time had become and so they made it known that the 'adults of the group' left their former affiliation to form PWA.

Ironically for all this talk the early years PWA were not that good. It had one of the worst reputations for not only releasing poor quality titles but also for duping, mistakenly rereleasing other group's releases.

The words C00L and PWA simply do not go together. So there is no way a 'C00l' supplier would even be interested. PWA is the only group this year to release more megs of DUPE shit than NEXUS! (sorry for ragginh but this is FACT!). Razor Blade in 1993.

Mockingly for a time PWA were not known for their piracy but were best known for their home-brewed software. This mostly consisted of freeware PCBoard executables, software that was designed to add additional functionality to underground bulletin board systems.

The BBS Archives has a very large list of these PWA PPE releases and includes links for downloads.

Overtime things did pick up for the Pirates With Attitude. They eventually worked out a usable supply system where they offered workers in the computer software supply chain cash and other incentives to supply the group. It meant PWA had ready access to internal, pre-manufacture software as well as an exclusive range of obscure enterprise products that at times were retailing for tens of thousands of US Dollars.

One defendant, Justin Robbins, of Charlotte, N.C., was an employee of Microsoft Corp., and allegedly supplied Microsoft programs to PWA and the Sentinel site. Robbins also allegedly allowed Rothberg access to Microsoft's internal network, using Robbins' identification and password.

Also as part of the conspiracy, the indictment alleges that defendants Brian Riley, Tyrone Augustine, Brian Boyanovsky and John Geissberger, all Intel Corp. employees, arranged in December 1998 to supply hardware for the operation of Sentinel. At that time, Sentinel's storage capacity was limited and Boyanovsky allegedly told Rothberg that he could provide substantial storage capacity for a piracy site. Rothberg, Boyanovsky, Riley and Augustine allegedly agreed that Intel employees would be given access to the software available on Sentinel in exchange for sending Intel hardware to the site operators in Canada to expand Sentinel's storage capacity. U.S. Department of Justice Press Release.

So it was this example of insider supply as well as the acquisition of a large number of respected groups including The Corporation, SCOTCH and SCUM that lead to PWA being a powerhouse for much of the later 1990s.

Unlike the horribly competitive, immature and bitchy gaming scene of this era the application scene that PWA associated with was much more civil, mature and friendly. There were often well known friendships between different groups including a strong relationship between PWA and what were technically their archrivals Drink or Die.

An excellent example of this good nature within this sub scene was shown in 1996. Orion the retaining founder of PWA briefly retired from his group and the scene. But he reappeared 7 months later to form the group known as Legends Never Die as a rival to PWA. In his own words he wanted to see if he could repeat the same success he had with PWA but with a new group. Yet surprisingly despite potential challenge and potential for conflict there was never any bad blood between either groups as they still retained an amicable friendship during their lifetime.

Competetion, always there is a competition... PWA is the main and the best competitor... but ofcourse, it is all FRIENDLY competition :)..we help each other to work better and work for the same aim..just in different teams...". Jimmy James from 1995 who was the leader of Drink Or Die.

PWA downfall stemmed from their success. They had drawn unwanted mainstream attention to themselves through their releases of Microsoft owned products. Software releases such as the much hyped Windows 95 and Office were released to the scene weeks before they were due in retail stores. In August of 1995 there was a news report on CNN TV which mentioned the group, a first where a group was specifically referred to by name on television.

While PWA was one of the first groups to garner this unwanted mainstream media attention it would not be the last. On the 4th of May 2000 the Department of Justice publicly released 'U.S. INDICTS 17 IN ALLEGED INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE PIRACY CONSPIRACY'. In it stated that 10 members of the group had been arrested and charged under a new federal law.

This was a horribly significant event for the scene as it was the first bust of its kind since the passing of the No Electronic Theft Act that had been passed a few years earlier. A United States federal law that had changed the legal status of software copyright infringement for non-commercial purposes into a criminal act.

Within hours of the arrests the world's mainstream media had reported of the Department of Justice's takedown of PWA. It was under this pressure that the leader of the group who was by then an unwilling federal fugitive put out a final scene release which announced the demise and closure of the group.

This takedown of PWA by US federal law enforcement was the first time that such a large scale bust had succeeded in targeting participants by using inside snitching. The paranoia created from this as well as the reality check of being classified as criminals lead to a complete overhaul of the scene and pushed it deeper underground while leaving it slightly twisted and introverted.

There was no more public publishing of information about any group or member activities and communications between persons from then on remained private. One could suggest that after this bust the scene lost its naivety and innocence. Little did they know though that the takedown of PWA was just the start of what was to come.

This is the most significant investigation of copyright infringement involving the use of the Internet conducted to date by the FBI. It demonstrates the FBI's ability to successfully investigate very sophisticated on-line criminal activity. Kathleen McChesney, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2000.

Significant Events

• 1992 . PWA is founded after a number of members split off from International Network of Crackers
• 1993 . PWA release their first of many PCBoard PPE applications
• 1993 . PWA founders rejoin INC for a reformation of the group and PWA becomes utility/application only.
• 1993 . PWA absorbs SCOTCH
• 1995 . PWA, along with DOD and NTA release Microsoft's Windows 95, though PWA also releases Office 95
• 1995 . PWA merges with one of their major competitors, SCUM
• 1996 . PWA merges with another competitor, The Corporation
• 1996 . Orion, founder of PWA retires from the scene. He returns half a year later and forms Legends Never Die
• 1998 . PWA releases Microsoft's Windows 98
• 2000 . PWA is taken down in the first major FBI operation involving the targeting of a group over just an individual