WinRAR Nukes Pirate Keygen But is a “Good Guy” Towards Regular Users

[Matrix]

 

WinRAR is one of the most recognizable pieces of software in history and one that's effectively free to use, forever. Nevertheless, the company behind the product still has to deal with infringement, something that was highlighted in a complaint filed against a keygen creator this week. That said, WinRAR informs TorrentFreak that no one should really need to use a pirated copy of its software.

There’s a high probability that most people reading this article will be familiar with the image on the right.

 

That’s because in computing terms, data compression tool WinRAR has been around for what seems like forever.

 

Indeed, with its 25th birthday coming up next April, WinRAR launched before many of its users were even born. Nevertheless, it has stood the tests of time and according to the latest estimates, now has around 500 million users.

 

Indeed, the company told us this week that WinRAR is the third most installed software in the world behind Chrome and Acrobat Reader. The reason for that, at least in part, is the company’s liberal business model.

 

Perhaps the most curious thing about this ubiquitous tool is that while WinRAR gives the impression of being free, technically it is paid software. Users get a 40-day period to trial the tool and then, if they like it, they can part with cash in order to obtain a license.

 

However, WinRAR never times out and relies completely on users’ inclination to pay for something that doesn’t need to be paid for to retain functionality. As a result, WinRAR has huge numbers of pirate users yet the company does pretty much nothing to stop them.

 

Those who do pay for a license get rid of a ‘nag’ screen and gain a couple of features that most people don’t need. But for pirates (and the tool is massively popular with pirates), an unlicensed WinRAR still does what it’s supposed to, i.e unpacking all those pesky compressed pirate releases.

 

Of course, there are people out there who would still rather not pay a penny to use a piece of software that is essentially free to use. So, in order to obtain a ‘license’ and get rid of the nag screen, they use a piece of software called a ‘keygen’ that generates one for them.

 

The company behind WinRAR doesn’t seem to care too much about casual piracy but it is bothered about keygens. This week we spotted a lawyer for the company Win.rar GmbH filing a complaint with code repository Github targeting such a tool.

 

“We have put in a licensing generation system that is impossible to decrypt (until now that is). This system works by our employees generating a unique .key file and the end user putting it in their WinRAR installation directory so in that way the product activates,” the notice states.

 

“It violates our technological measures by the repo holding the source code and the compiled application to a custom-created keygen which is built to bypass our licensing generation system and allows end users to create their own unique .key files for no charge which therefore bypasses our technological measures.”

 

The format of the DMCA notice is part of a growing trend. It doesn’t claim that the keygen copies WinRAR’s code but instead states that it violates the company’s rights by breaching the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. As such, the notice cannot be easily countered.

 

“This GitHub repository violates a section of 17 U.S.C. § 1201 which is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” the notice adds.

 

“Since 17 U.S.C. § 1201 doesn’t have a counter-notification process if GitHub does not provide one then appealing of this notice is improbable. GitHub is legally not required to provide an appeals system for anti-circumvention cases.”

 

Github didn’t waste any time taking the repository down but before it disappeared, this is what it looked like. Notice the Chinese text at the top, which is of special interest.

The author of the tool identifies as Double Sine or DoubleLabyrinth, hailing from Tianjin University in China. He or she seems to have created the keygen as a technical challenge but there is some irony to be found in the coder’s location.

 

Since 2015, WinRAR has provided a completely free version of WinRAR for regular users in China. This, the company said, was to thank people for sticking with WinRAR over the years.

 

“We are proud to announce that after years of hard work, we now finally provide a completely free Simplified Chinese version of WinRAR to individual users in China,” a note on the local website reads.

 

“You can now officially download and use WinRAR completely free of charge from winrar.com.cn, without searching or downloading cracked products, or looking for illegal versions, or downloading from unsafe websites at risk of security.”

 

Speaking with TorrentFreak, a representative from WinRAR’s marketing team couldn’t immediately elaborate on the specifics of the DMCA notice but noted that people shouldn’t really have a need to pirate its product.

 

“Indeed this is an interesting case, as we also don’t see the necessity of using a pirated version of WinRAR instead of our trial version. We know that our licensing policy for end customers is not as strict as with other software publishers, but for us it is still important that WinRAR is being used, even if the trial period might be over,” the representative said.

 

“From a legal perspective, everybody should buy at the end of the trial, but we still think that at least uncompressing content should be still possible as unrar.exe is open source anyway.”

 

The company also highlighted the existence of cartoons and memes on the Internet which relate to WinRAR’s indefinite trial, noting that “we like all of them and it meets our sense of humor.”

 

Perhaps more importantly, however, the company understands the importance of maintaining the positive image it’s earned by not persecuting users who use the product beyond its trial period. Going after them isn’t on the agenda but they would prefer people not to go down the piracy route.

 

“n the field of private users we have always been the ‘good guys’ by not starting legal actions against every private user using it beyond the trial period, thus we also don’t understand the need of pirated license keys for WinRAR,” the company concludes.

 

Rival open source tools such as 7-Zip offer similar functionality for free, no keygens needed or nag screens in sight. But, for the majority of users, WinRAR remains the tool of choice, even after a quarter of a century. It’s a remarkable achievement backed up by an intriguing business model.

 

Source

[frankl1n]

Yes winrar is a great tool and its creators are very liberal when it comes to piracy and winrar, quite awhile back the even gave out a lifetime key to anyone who wanted it! So I really dont understand why they are doing what they are doing now concerning this keygen, unless it is simply to appease the DMCA.

[mp68terr]

There was a time when winrar was kind of mandatory to have, either installed or as a portable app. Nowadays , as noticed, archive managers like 7-zip (or tools like uniextract) are doing a great job too. Had no use of winrar for years.

[funkyy]

On 12/7/2019 at 8:57 PM, frankl1n said:

Yes winrar is a great tool and its creators are very liberal when it comes to piracy and winrar, quite awhile back the even gave out a lifetime key to anyone who wanted it! So I really dont understand why they are doing what they are doing now concerning this keygen, unless it is simply to appease the DMCA.

Yep, a while ago one of the original creators of WinRAR put out a link to a reg file for anyone to download and use, and this reg file allows you to keep WinRAR activated for life.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, funkyy said:

Yep, a while ago one of the original creators of WinRAR put out a link to a reg file for anyone to download and use, and this reg file allows you to keep WinRAR activated for life.

Hope that it still lasts even a newer major version is out tho.

[funkyy]

On 12/9/2019 at 1:41 AM, Edward Raja said:

Hope that it still lasts even a newer major version is out tho.

Yep Edward Raja....see screenshot attached.

[casa]

@funkyy can you share/send me that reg file?

[okru]

4 hours ago, casa said:

@funkyy can you share/send me that reg file?

Hi casa,

here is it :

Site: https://www.mirrored.to
Sharecode: /files/0LOOSSTI/free-key_from_the_author_.rar_links
 

Regards 

[steven36]

On 12/7/2019 at 6:57 PM, frankl1n said:

Yes winrar is a great tool and its creators are very liberal when it comes to piracy and winrar, quite awhile back the even gave out a lifetime key to anyone who wanted it! So I really dont understand why they are doing what they are doing now concerning this keygen, unless it is simply to appease the DMCA.

Before the FFF Keygen it they was  quite hard on banning leaked  keys during beta . They was never liberal about Piracy it was the FFF  hacked  there protection . Before FFf Keygen it there were only Patches  and leaked keys for years and we used  it without keygens . Besides UnRar is free  and works in all free and open source  archivers  . Only pirates care about packing stuff in rars  .Most real developers use Zip , tar.gz and 7z  that is free compression methods . You dont even need Winrar anymore as all of them can unpack rar ,  unless you want to look cool  like your pirate buddies.  Rar  compression is closed source and  wants a key  if you  want to remove the nag. 

 

  When you say they always been liberal about piracy  makes me question how long you been pirating this software ? Because  it's not true  just because they gave a free key to people don't mean there liberal about piracy  that just means they rather you use it for free than pirate it  and they can always change there mind if they wish.  All this proves is what i've known for years and part the reason I use Linux now mostly .  There is no such thing as a lifetime crack  and them Nuking  the keygen proves it .

 

For me to unrar rar /rar5  files with Gnome Archiver  i just hadto  install unrar

sudo apt-get install unrar

For me to uncompress and compress 7z  with  Gnome Archiver

sudo apt-get install p7zip 

it came with zip and  tar.gz   .

 

Same with JDownloaer 2 if you want unpack Rar5 you have to go to the devs website and download and update unrar for it.

 

I mostly  just use  JDownloaer 2 to unpack big files automatically  Gnome Archiver for smaller stuff i just download with Uget  or XDM .

 

 

I still have Winrar on Windows 8.1 but not updated it in awhile.

[TrojanK]

On 12/8/2019 at 5:15 AM, Mach1 said:

The author of the tool identifies as Double Sine or DoubleLabyrinth, hailing from Tianjin University in China.

Keygen by DFoX was a fork.

[steven36]

On 12/7/2019 at 6:45 PM, Mach1 said:

“In the field of private users we have always been the ‘good guys’ by not starting legal actions against every private user using it beyond the trial period, thus we also don’t understand the need of pirated license keys for WinRAR,” the company concludes.

I never known any  Dev to use legal actions against every private user only scare tactics, but in the end only they go after companies that activate it many times so that point is moot. Most Devs just update there software protection were a crack don't  work. If they wanted too they could add server checks and things  but they would be a lot more people using 7Zip , PeaZip ,etc if this happen .

 

  Just like mIRC when they added there server check people just use cracks because they can. I don't  I have a activated key .   mIRC  is not needed you can use Hex Chat and do the same thing  I don't  boot in Windows to use mIRC i just use Hex chat instead . Only reason anyone really would need Winrar is if they belonged  to the real scene and had to pack per scene rules and even a old version can do this. Winrar  will always be cracked because the scene uses it for everything.  

[funkyy]

7 hours ago, casa said:

@funkyy can you share/send me that reg file?

Casa...I just read your post now. Meanwhile I see okru has kindly answered your request and has posted a link for you to download the reg key. Sorry I wasn't here earlier.

[steven36]

On 12/8/2019 at 8:15 PM, funkyy said:

Yep, a while ago one of the original creators of WinRAR put out a link to a reg file for anyone to download and use, and this reg file allows you to keep WinRAR activated for life.

@Sentry  was the one who told us about it and   the site is  still up

https://free-rar.free.bg/

 

But  if you look in the version for Linux  it looks like it may be a fake website .Why would the developer need RAR_Patcher_3_93_Linux_by_Pesymista  and Keygen and patch for Windows  that in the archives ?

http://free-rar.free.bg/freefiles/rar32linux/

 

 

You can install rar  on Linux  and use xarchiverto compress rars and ra5  or do via the terminal but i follow instructions on how to register  it  with rarreg.key and none of the keys  seem to work on Linux.

[funkyy]

23 minutes ago, steven36 said:

@Sentry  was the one who told us about it and   the site is  still up

https://free-rar.free.bg/

 

But  if you look in the version for Linux  it looks like it may be a fake website .Why would the developer need RAR_Patcher_3_93_Linux_by_Pesymista  and Keygen and patch for Windows  that in the archives ?

http://free-rar.free.bg/freefiles/rar32linux/

 

 

@steven36.....I have Win 7 (x64) so those were the only links I downloaded...4 x rar files which when unpacked contained WinRAR 3.93 from which you extract or copy/paste the reg file.  I scanned the downloaded contents with ESET and Malwarebytes and both said "no detections". There was no Patcher and no keygen in these RAR's.

I can't comment on the Linux download as I didn't need to download those RAR's. If someone was going to do something sneaky you would imagine that they would interfere with both sets of download files.

The links I used are not the ones mentioned in the OP.

[steven36]

11 minutes ago, funkyy said:

@steven36.....I have Win 7 (x64) so those were the only links I downloaded...4 x rar files which when unpacked contained WinRAR 3.93 from which you extract or copy/paste the reg file.  I scanned the downloaded contents with ESET and Malwarebytes and both said "no detections". There was no Patcher and no keygen in these RAR's.

I can't comment on the Linux download as I didn't need to download those RAR's. If someone was going to do something sneaky you would imagine that they would interfere with both sets of download files.

Well the archive for Linux is in  the same ftp and has all that crap and that makes me wonder  is it a leaked rarreg.key ?

[funkyy]

I believe you steven36...I didn't use the links in the OP...I had a copy of links that were posted a while ago on Nsane and I used them and shared them with a person who PM'd me...(but who forgot to say "thanks"!!).

[frankl1n]

original remarks deleted...

its Christmas time!!!

 

[Kalju]

14 minutes ago, steven36 said:

Well the archive for Linux in in the same ftp and has all that crap and that makes me wonder  is it a leaked rarreg.key ?

Yes, I can confirm that this is probably a scam because the Linux package does indeed contain one very old rarreg keygen (18-10-2008) and this thing was made on 02 March 2011 and uploaded on 04 March 2011.

[funkyy]

Guys...here's the Nsane thread...last post (by SFB) on page 2....this will take you to the creator who released the free reg key:_

 

https://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/316463-winrar-560-released-with-new-look-and-features/page/2/

 

[steven36]

35 minutes ago, frankl1n said:

i am glad I have helped prove your intellectual superiority! Seriously dude, you need to check yourself, you may not be as superior as you think, and then maybe you are, either way sounds like you own many mirrors!!!!...mabey even the kind that magnify, for your little friend!

I never claimed to be superior I use to upload warez  and post   i got burn out  people  are not grateful and many of my reverse engineer friends retired too because of people ripping there cracks .  I never done it for profit  and i helped 1000s of people activate software 2007-2011.  The only reason I ever used warez is because im not rich  if i had  the money i would never got involved  with it. You don't even know me , my other user name even appears some in SND nfos . I know many of the old legends from SND , FFF  , Team tRUTH , etc and am friends and tested for  some of them . There is no future in it  unless  you plain to buy it  after your crack stops  working  because i seen stuff get cracked then not get cracked no more for years. reverse engineers do it for fun and to prove there better than the developer and people like me made sure there fix was not missing any checks.  

 

I uploaded  pages and pages  of cracks and the FFF Winrar keygen  was one of the only ones still worked from back then i still have a few others  and some private stuff  but as far as public stuff  very little of it still work for new releases. 

 

35 minutes ago, frankl1n said:

using it for free instead of pirating...whats the difference...really. sounds pretty liberal to me!

No it dont there is free as in freemium as were you need to activate to get the full version ,  then is free as in freeware were they harvest your data or something  to make a profit  and there is a 100% free as in Open Source were you own your software.  Winrar is shareware  if you use after 40 day trial  it's no longer legal . If they was liberal they would change it too free everywhere not just China. Like 7zip and Peazip is!

 

 

[steven36]

1 hour ago, frankl1n said:

🤣

What do you find so funny ? When Free and Open Source software works for you then use it. When it doesn't then either work on making it better, or use something proprietary. But Winrar ? They is plenty of alternatives with no nag . Only some pirates still use Winrar  they just as many use 7zip . You have software pirates like i use to be there most likely would still use Winrar because there addicted to installing stuff.  Then you  have pirates  who do games then you have pirates who download like videos and music  we dont care  as long as it extracts it.  Winrar had  a code-execution bug for 14 years  that was old as it licensing  system was .

 

Nasty code-execution bug in WinRAR threatened millions of users for 14 years

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/nasty-code-execution-bug-in-winrar-threatened-millions-of-users-for-14-years/

 

500 millions fools  out of over 4 billion internet users is not many  and they finally fixed  it  after 14 years so it not hardly changed any and the only reason it did was  someone found the bug , there was no reason to invent  RAR5  and that was the last major change they had and that was years ago . They expect  people to pay for security issues  when people go nuts  when  they find them in free software ? that just another reason for me to use free software i'm not paying for bugs Most all shareware  is as is and it dont have a warranty  if something happens so its not worth anything unless it  some kind of service you need   that you pay by the months, 6 mths or year . Games.  VPN , Music  ,Videos and IPTV  these are what sell. Every article i read about winrar they lots of users who use to use it using alternatives now, but  if you go too a site were people push and chase crack they act like it's the still. You dont hardly ever see me in a software release topic in years i ignore it because i'm happy with the software I have,

 

Windows is the only OS  that still charge  money for and OS  for upgrades  and the only way they  get away with it is enterprise but once they  get tired of paying for bugs there gravy train going to end too .