# Do Warez Sites Make Money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789 "2003-02-27T02:15:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![syntax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@syntax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syntax)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/1 "2003-02-27T02:15:22Z")
Just a little curious about this, there’s so many warez sites, so therefore they must be making money somehow, surely no body would have an illegal site if there’s nothing to gain from it. I know they get porn companies to advertise on their sites, but surely they can only be making (if) a tiny amount? Don’t understand why there’s so many sites if there seems to be very little point in making them in the first place… ---
**Author:** ![Indefatigable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9d8465/32.png) [@Indefatigable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indefatigable)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/2 "2003-02-27T02:56:16Z")
I think it’s hard to catch people who set up sites like that… so it may be illegal, but it’s unlikely that you’d get punished. If that’s the case, the little bit of money from ads is probably worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/3 "2003-02-27T02:59:47Z")
A lot of the reasoning behind those sites is also likely to be the “because I can” sort. Crackers like to show off their work, so they put up warez sites to show the world, as it were. I guess you caould call it a point of pride. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/4 "2003-02-27T03:12:31Z")
Slight Hijack - What’s with the “voting” on warez sites? Is it a game of oneupmanship or ego wanking? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/5 "2003-02-27T03:18:38Z")
Isn’t oneupmanship the same thing as ego-wanking? ---
**Author:** ![Meros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Meros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meros)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/6 "2003-02-27T03:19:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duckster \* > \*\*Slight Hijack - What’s with the “voting” on warez sites? > > Is it a game of oneupmanship or ego wanking? \*\* It’s pretty easy. When you vote for a site you raisde it in the rankings of the “Top Sites” sites that list the “best” warez, pron, etc. sites for use by the masses. More votes means higher up in the list, which equals more traffic, which equals more money from ad-views. ---
**Author:** ![Kalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Kalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalt)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/7 "2003-02-27T03:36:27Z")
No respectable warez site would think of charging for anything (or even having click-through advertisements for that matter). It’s not about making money. It’s about being a purveyor of fine warez. If you run a good site you are superhuman and get infinite amounts of respect from those in the “warez scene.” You also get leech access (can download as much as you want) from other sites. I should also note that the creme de la creme of warez sites are not on any “top sites” list. I should point out that the download limits are not a “money” thing. There is simply an enforced download to upload ratio. Of course I’m talking about real warez sites - FTP sites on extremely high bandwidth networks with at least half a terabyte of storage space and encrypted connections. Anything you can find through google is not a true “warez site.” ---
**Author:** ![Gozu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gozu/32/6615_2.png) [@Gozu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-warez-sites-make-money/157789/8 "2003-02-27T03:42:52Z")
Ok, first off, you must not confuse warez websites with scene SITES. Scene sites are where all warez originates. They are not websites but FTP servers with huge amounts of Hard drive (we’re talking 500 Gb to several Tb) and very fast lines (from 10Mbps to 1Gbps). Those are the sites that the FBI tries (and succeds) to bust. People with access to those sites are considered members of the Warez “scene”. There is no profit in those. Only prestige. Those are the “because I can people”. It is an extremely exclusive and paranoid scene. After the warez originates in those, it slowly finds it’s way down to the “fxp scene” which operates similarly to the “real scene” with the difference that they usually hijack poorly protected public ftp servers to spread the warez and do not create it. They don’t contribute to the scene. You also have newsgroups, xdcc and fserve channels on various IRC networks and finally peer to peer (directconnect, kazaa and others). Then you have the Websites. They have nothing to do whatsoever with SITES and are considered (justly) the lamest of the lamest. Countless Pop ups, ads, top50, broken links, false advertisement. Getting warez from there is as hard as making money with one of those pyramidal schemes. They’re in it for the dough.