Nuke (warez)

Global nukes

Titles can only be officially labeled as "nuked" by people who have special access to a listing database, often referred to as "nukers". The nuke is issued by a nuke command in a nuke channel. For example:

!nuke release reason [source] (nukes a release)!unnuke release reason [source] (unnukes a release)!renuke release reason [source] (renukes a release)!modnuke release reason [source] (modifies a nuke reason)!snuke release reason [source] (a silent nuke: not announced in announce channels)!oldnuke release reason [source] (for old releases, also a silent nuke)

Erroneous nukes are usually "un-nuked" easily, by the same people who have access to issue nukes, that nukes and unnukes happen on IRC. These nuke networks have their own guidelines on how to nuke a release. In 2008, twelve of those nuke networks created a coalition to work together "to ensure nukers bias, nukewars and many other problems that plague the nuke scene become a thing of the past."

Local nukes

Local nukes or site nukes can be issued by a topsite administrator and are only applicable to that site. Each individual site has rules for which kind of releases that are allowed. e.g. no VCD releases. Hence a locally nuked release can still be valid.

Nukewars

The situation where a release is nuked or unnuked more than four times is called a nukewar.

Example of a nukewar. The first two columns represent the time when the release was pred or when a nuke was issued. The next column is the category of the release. In this example two releases were released at almost the same time.

2007-03-08 04:15:26 TV Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV2007-03-08 04:15:32 TV Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR2007-03-08 04:16:16 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV NUKED dupe.XOR.same.day2007-03-08 04:20:21 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR NUKED lost.race.to.NoTV2007-03-08 04:21:59 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV NUKED dupe.XOR.03-07-20072007-03-08 04:22:46 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV UNNUKE fix2007-03-08 04:23:12 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV NUKED dupe.XOR.2007-03-072007-03-08 04:23:46 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV UNNUKE NoTV.pred.first2007-03-08 04:24:47 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR NUKED dupe.NoTV.2007-03-082007-03-08 04:38:41 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR UNNUKE is.fine2007-03-08 04:39:23 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV NUKED dupe.XOR.2007-03-082007-03-08 05:18:23 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV UNNUKE won.race2007-03-08 05:18:50 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR NUKED dupe.NoTV.2007-08-032007-03-08 05:20:22 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR UNNUKE fixing2007-03-08 05:24:03 NUKES Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR UNNUKE fix_won.race.against.NoTV

Another source shows different timestamps. The clock of a computer is not always accurate. This and the difference in timezone partially explain the time difference. This shows why this nukewar was started.

2007-03-08 03:14:07 TV-XVID Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-XOR2007-03-08 03:14:14 TV-XVID Crossing.Jordan.S06E07.HDTV.XviD-NoTV

ZoNeNET, EthNet and oneNET confirmed the precedent to leave both releases unnuked when groups pre within the same second.

The.Game.S06E18.HDTV.x264-ASAP NUKE dupe.EVOLVE.2013-08-21/ZoNeNET UNNUKE fine_pred.same.second.so.both.rls.are.fine/ZoNeNETThe.Walking.Dead.S04E12.PROPER.HDTV.x264-2HD NUKE dupe.KILLERS.2014-03-03/ZoNeNET UNNUKE fine_both.pred.within.one.second.of.each.other_basis.has.been.to.leave.both.alone_ see.zonenets.unnuke.on.The.Game.S06E18.HDTV.x264-ASAP/EthNet NUKE dupe.KILLERS.2014-03-03_KILLERS.won.the.proper/ZoNeNET UNNUKE fine_groups.pred.within.the.same.second_precedent.is.to.leave.both.unnuked/oneNET

Another example is the nukewar about the TDRS2K10 ruleset. The name between the square brackets is the nuke network where the nuke originates from. Each of those networks in this example was also a council member network.

Nuked on 2009-11-14 15:15:09 [LocalNet] crap_signing.grps.are.crap_for.small.changes.create.a.adendumUnnuked on 2009-11-14 15:20:56 [oneNET] this.ruleset.is.real.and.legit.leave.it.aloneNuked on 2009-11-14 20:51:10 [Nuclear] signing.grps.are.crap_for.small.changes.create.an.adendum.or.rebuttal.to.tdrs2k9_invalid.rulesetUnnuked on 2009-11-14 20:52:23 [LocalNet] invalid.nuke_nukenets.do.not.have.the.authority.to.invalidate.rulesets_such.things.are.left.to.section.groups.and.leadersNuked on 2009-11-14 20:52:25 [Nuclear] signing.grps.are.crap_for.small.changes.create.an.adendum.or.rebuttal.to.tdrs2k9_invalid.rulesetUnnuked on 2009-11-14 20:52:26 [LocalNet] invalid.nuke_nukenets.do.not.have.the.authority.to.invalidate.rulesets_such.things.are.left.to.section.groups.and.leadersNuked on 2009-11-14 21:23:31 [Nuclear] no.leading.groups.signed_valid.nuke_2k5.was.rewritten.with.2k9.inserts_release.a.rebuttal.or.addendumUnnuked on 2009-11-14 21:55:04 [LocalNet] invalid.nuke_nukenets.do.not.have.the.authority.to.invalidate.rulesets_such.things.are.left.to.section.groups.and.leaders _it.is.not.your.duty.to.decide.which.groups.are.good.enough

Examples

Examples of content that could be "nuked" include non-working software, non-working cracks, videos with out-of-sync audio, watermarked videos, or music recordings with excessive "skips". The reason for a nuke is based on violations of the standards that must be followed.

Pre network

Pre network (aka Nukenet) is a collection of databases which share information about releases among the members of the network. There are approximately 20 different pre networks. Peers can be linked to more than one network. Linking to other network provides information which isn't available on peers local pre network. Such information can be .sfv, .m3u, .jpg, .diz or .nfo files.

Pre database

Each release that gets released will result as a record in a pre-database. This record will at least contain the time the release was released and the release name (the name of the folder that contains the files of the release). The size and nature of the release are often provided too. Nukes are linked with their release in these databases when a nuke is issued. To check if a release is nuked, a scener uses an IRC channel to query the database by typing commands. These IRC channels are called pre channels and are often not accessible for the general public. The database is updated automatically through spidering topsites or by catching pre-release announcements from site channels. The purpose of these different worldwide and mirrored pre databases is to check for fakes and that for example a music album or movie isn't pred more than once and thus reducing traffic.

List of public predb websites

There are now several public websites and IRC channels that list the contents of pre-databases. Most of them are regularly updated and show nuke reasons next to their release. They can be regularly down, very slow when searching or disappeared entirely. The server time is shown on some of them.

https://pre.corrupt-net.org/ or https://pr3.us/ - 5.8 million releases

https://layer13.net/ - More than 7.2 million releases and 3.9 million nfos in the database.

http://predb.me/ - More than 5.9 million releases in the database.

http://www.d00per.com/ - Database started on 2009-09-16 and has 2.2 million records.

http://predb.org/

http://pre.c-burns.co.uk/pre.php

https://pre.lethe.ca/ - Database with 6 million releases. There are 161098 nuked releases (3%).

http://prolikewoah.com/pre/ - 807,323 releases since 2014-03-27 00:49:27

https://prescene.tk/ - Database with only MP3/FLAC releases. 2.3 million records.

Pre channel

A pre channel is an IRC channel in which a prebot announces new warez (pre) releases in real time. Pre channels are generally provided as a convenience to members of the scene, often in conjunction with a topsite. Pre channels are typically private.

Advantages:

Members of a pre channel are notified about new warez releases as they are released. This is of particular benefit to couriers and release groups.

Pre channels commonly announce when a release is nuked or un-nuked.

Pre channels provide a search facility that allows users to find out if a release exists, when it was released, and if it has been nuked. This function may also be used by release groups to avoid dupes (duplicates).

Pre channels are also used for topsites to measure how fast they received the release, otherwise known as the pretime.

Disadvantages:

Pre channels are often supplied with events from other pre channels, so spam may spread quickly. Many prebots employ elaborate filters to ensure only valid release events are announced.

It just gives you the release name and no quality details, plot/features or links to downloads.

List of public IRC pre channels

http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2010/09/corrupt-net-new-p2p-friendly-irc.html

http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2010/12/list-of-public-pre-trace-services-to.html

https://opentrackers.org/links/warez-scene/#rlsdb

Prebot

A prebot is commonly known as an automated script in IRC channels that announces new releases and can let users query its database to view past warez release dates and nukes, among other things. Another kind of prebot was adopted in 2000 due to the increased competition among release groups. This prebot automatically distributed new releases to affiliated topsites of a group to release faster and more efficiently. This solved geographical and time zone related issues.