As soon as software became available for a price, it's been copied and distributed for free. The debate rages on about this facet of the computer world, but there's no denying it exists.
There exists the phenomenon of the Piracy Culture, where badly spelled messages offer the newest and best software for free or for trade. People brag about what they have and what they want, and young-sounding scofflaws promise the world. Examples of these files are below.
Note that there are a lot of similar files in the Apple II and BBS sections; if you don't see something you'd expect to see below, look there as well.
| Filename | Size | Description of the Textfile| ANSI | DIRECTORY | ANSI BBS and Group Tag Files | APPLICATIONS | DIRECTORY | Applications to Join Piracy Groups | COURIERS | DIRECTORY | Membership Lists of Couriering Teams | CRACKING | DIRECTORY | Files About the Art of Cracking | DREAMTEAM | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from The Dream Team Pirating Group | FAIRLIGHT | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from the Fairlight Pirating Group | HUMBLE | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from The Humble Guys Pirating Group | HYBRID | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from the Hybrid Pirating Group | INC | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from the International Network of Crackers | NFO | DIRECTORY | A Very Large Selection of .NFO Files From Many Groups, 1990-Present | PRESTIGE | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from the Prestige Pirating Group | RAZOR | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from the Razor 1911 Pirating Group | SOFTDOCS | DIRECTORY | On-Line Documentation, usually for pirated programs | TDUJAM | DIRECTORY | .NFO and Information Files from the TDU-Jam Pirating Group | UNPROTECTS | DIRECTORY | IBM-Based Software Unprotection Schemes | about.top | 2366 | The History of Tired of Protection (TOP)
| arrest.fun | 3874 | Getting into and out of trouble, and back into it again
| bustnews | 5216 | Newspaper Article on the Grim Reaper and NotSoHumble Babe's Bust (February 3, 1992)
| busts.txt | 1162 | The Unlucky Ones (A List of Piracy BBSes Busted)
| compuser | 9572 | The Gospel According to Compuserve! Presented by Richard August (December 3rd, 1987)
| coolhand | 3301 | Cool Hand Tells You how the Bust of The Not so Humble Babe and The Grim Reaper Went Down (February 3, 1992)
| courier.txt | 6025 | You Hack 'Em, We Hump 'Em, or Why YOU should be a Software Courier, by Dixie Flatline
| cyberinf.txt | 4730 | All you want to know about "CYBERGAMES" by Knatter/XAKK (June 8th, 1994)
| def.txt | 3170 | The Group/Acronym Lister, by Coruption of Slaves of Pain
| dirty | 40215 | THE DIRTY DOZEN -- An Uploaded Program Alert List Issue #6: September 5th, 1986 by Eric Newhouse
| disaster.!!! | 6975 | Information on the Checkout System for Pirated Programs
| eel-bye.hac | 7246 | The Eel Quits Pirating and Says Goodbye
| eel_bye.txt | 7680 | Is it Worth The Trouble? (The Eel's Farewell Address) (Piracy)
| elite.txt | 2353 | Are the "Elite" Real Pirates? By Zardoz
| flame02.txt | 8296 | Beowulf Says a Few Words on the CD Ripping Scene
| flame03.txt | 14512 | Razor 1911 Writes About the Lack of Quality in others' Releases (October 2, 1992)
| flame05.txt | 7453 | Tyranny Releases a File and Complains About the (u)ncopyright Notice being stolen (1996)
| flame06.txt | 8053 | The Renegade Chemist Resigns from Razor 1911 and Says Goodbye to Everyone (1992)
| flame07.txt | 3926 | The Punisher Quits from Razor 1911 (1998)
| flame08.txt | 3211 | Cool hand Complans About the Scene and What People Are Doing Wrong in the Scene (1991)
| flame09.txt | 8356 | Cool Hand Discusses the Legalities of Pirating Software
| humble.txt | 1120 | Note from The Humble Guys To All Their Fans
| i_retire.txt | 2773 | The Retirement of the Slavelord of OFG (1992)
| iaad.txt | 71551 | How Pirate BBSs Impact on the Entire Atari Community
| inc2-nfo.txt | 2666 | Zodact Explains Why The Ghost and The Surge have Left Razor
| insan4.txt | 9285 | 'Lamer Pirate Magazines, Etc... by the Grim Reaper
| introduction | 16397 | Toast's Introduction to his .NFO File Archive, April 1, 1998 | Toast introduces you to his .nfo collection. Now, in the interim time, I've done a LOT of describing, editing, and restructuring of the thousands of files he had, but without his incredible work, I'd have nothing to show for this section. Thank you! krack.txt | 20352 | Piracy By Teachers?
| legalgwn.hac | 15420 | Bob MacKenzie talks about legal archiving of your own software
| manifest.-6 | 12652 | The Pirate's Manifesto Version VII (July 7, 1994)
| manifest.-7 | 15793 | Pirate's Manifesto VIII, Released 20 July 1994
| narcwtch.01 | 5882 | NARCs of the Week: Mister Muff and Dark prophet of CIA (June 26, 1995)
| nopirate.txt | 3970 | Thou Shall Not Dupe: A Flier Presented by ADAPSO, Typed in by Eight Ball
| notes.txt | 2028 | ManHunter's Notes for Contacting Him About His Trainers
| os2crack.txt | 2929 | How to Crack OS/@ Warp Test CD-ROM With Its Own Files by The Positive Force
| overkil2.txt | 20836 | Newsletter for the Group OVERKILL
| overkill.txt | 11968 | Information File for the Group OVERKILL
| pir1.txt | 2583 | Software Piracy Rampant, Survey Shows (Computer World June 1990)
| piracy | 8450 | Software Piracy: An Alternative View, by Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (March 5, 199)
| piracy.asc | 18560 | What is Piracy? By Ron J. Goodman
| piracy.txt | 5564 | The Software Piracy Bluff, by John C. Dvorak (May 12, 1992)
| pirate.ana | 3444 | A List of Ripped-Off "Freeware" (1985)
| protect.fun | 7090 | Point/Counterpoint for Copy Protection
| psyche.pirate | 4224 | Psychology of the Software Pirate, by The Beast
| qmaster.top | 1518 | Tired of Protection (TOP)'s Crack for Quest Master
| realbust.hac | 4049 | NotSoHumble Babe got busted, and he says goodbye.
| ren-94.nfo | 4438 | Tag File with the Staff of Renaissance (August 20, 1993)
| ren-true.txt | 5641 | The Official Truth About Renaissance by Charles S
| rotsite.txt | 1936 | The Reign of Terror Site Summary (April 3rd, 1993)
| rtahacker.tag | 369 | Tag File for the Anti Lamers Foundation
| safter.txt | 19046 | The Scene as I See It, and a Warning to All My Modem Acquaintances by Sought After (February 3, 1992)
| smgone.txt | 3003 | The Shadow Master Calls It Quits (1995) (With Goodbye List)
| snelle.txt | 3285 | A Letter to Snelle Regarding Mr. Muff and The Dark Prophet, from Valgamon (June 21, 1995)
| starcon2.top | 2074 | The Mad Doctor Bitches about a Particularly Tough Crack
| tdt-bust.nfo | 6536 | The Dream Team Goes Down in Flames, by Pepsi Man
| tdtlame.txt | 9561 | RAZOR 1911 Explains why TDT are Lame
| thescene.txt | 17388 | The History of the PC Piracy Scene, by Ipggi (April, 1999)
| thetruth.txt | 3222 | The Truth about Rapier and Some of Their People (Claims that the "code" of the Piracy World Has been Broken)
| toastcol.tag | 654 | Tag File for Toast's Compilation of .NFO Files (January 23, 1998)
| tr0-001.txt | 8091 | SPAvin Bastardz, From The Ruthless Organization by Gangsta (November 23, 1995)
| truth.txt | 2378 | A Brief Explanation of What's Been Happening with INC (Piracy Group)
| usabust.txt | 77469 | The Full Stories of the USA Busts of the Grim Reaper and the Not So Humble Babe
| vote.txt | 3123 | Voting Sheet for the Best Pirating Groups, 1996
| warez-faq1 | 13218 | The Lamahs-Guide to Pirating Software on the Internet 1994
| warezbst.txt | 1893 | AP Newswrite Story on the Bust of David LaMacchia on Piracy Charges
| warezwars.txt | 50776 | WAREZ Wars: For the Inner Circle, Cracking Software is a Challenge, by David McCandless
| wheel.txt | 3244 | Creating a Codewheel for a Computer Game out of Paper Plates
| |
| There are 67 files for a total of 666,141 bytes. |
| There are 15 directories. |
Important Credit: A majority portion of these files came from a site called the Defacto2 Scene Archive, and were acquired and saved by the folks of that group. They've done a wonderful job on the site, and it is highly reccommended that you check it out.