From: Suddi
Message:
Anyone who's seen an evaluation copy of audiowarez will be familiar with
this guy.. Oxygen. from SOS. Chk the bit out about developers.
When was Oxygen created and why?
I believe we started around November 1999, although I'm not sure of
exact date.
At that time radium had not released anything for a while. We thought it
would be a shame if the audiowarez community, which we were all into,
would fall apart. So UniSOn founded oxygen with the idea to learn a lot,
have lots of fun, and be the best we could be for the scene.
After radium, there was a void... and we decided to fill it.
What was the hardest thing about starting?
The hardest part was getting people to take us seriously. For years the
audiowarez community had been spoiled rotten by radium.
Radium were elite and Oxygen just starting but people expected so much.
It was hard sometimes.
Those were big shoes to fill, and we also knew we couldn't do that right
away. We got a lot of critique, and still do, by people who like to
compare us. We kept trying our best. Although at times it seemed that no
matter what we did noone thought it was good enough. That was rough.
Do you see Oxygen as the new Radium?
Well, the only similarity I see is that they are both warez crews
dedicated to audio. All comparison should stop there.
It is a different scene now and we are different people with different
skills and attitudes.
What keeps you going on / what is your motivation?
I guess each member has his or her own reasons. We believe that audio
software is priced very high and that many applications aren't worth the
price. Many people can't afford to buy something that may prove not to
be what they wanted. So our purpose is to allow proper evaluation in the
hope that people who like the soft and perhaps make money from it, will
buy it. We rely on people's nature to support the companies if they
truly think their products rock.
A thing I stress to people who apply to join is that we are a group of
friends. No big egos are allowed in oxygen. It's this brotherhood that
has driven me personally.
What measures of security do you take? (against government / CCS)
Well, first thing is that we don't hang out in public. Sometimes we
would like to, but unfortunately it's impossible if we wish to avoid
ending like Radium did. We have buried ourselves in our own IRC server,
away from the public. We don't serve our cracks anywhere either. We also
only rely on help from people that we know we can trust. Sorry, but this
is a closed club.
As it is now, Oxygen consists of about 30 fairly well connected old
timers in the audio scene. We usually smell a rat before it gets too
close. Also CCS seems to have gone quiet... but who knows when CCS II
pops up.
Does Oxygen and other groups work together, or are any of you rivals?
There is some level of communication with other groups. We have always
had good relations with zone, for example.
Some of our members are in other groups. We can also trade supplies if
we get anything that is not audio related. However, we disapprove of
groups who invade the audio scene to release something only because of
the fact that it is protected by a dongle. Its happening right now and
for those groups it is not the love for audiowarez that drives them.
Have you ever spoken to any audio software developers?
Yes, to a few. I'm not gonna say any names, but they realised that their
stuff was gonna be cracked and released - if not by us then by some
other warez crew. These developers asked us nicely to delay the release
of their software by a few weeks so they could sell something before the
warez version got out. And we have stuck to that actually. We even
helped one developer to protect his software better by giving him some
advice. Only the small companies talk to us though
Yup, large companies pretend we don't exist. Its a balance, because a
small company needs to sell but cant get publicity: sometimes warez is a
good way to improve a software companies reputation and make people
aware of their products.
Once some company gave us a retail version of their app to release
because they wanted more publicity. So I don't think this is a myth as
much as some of the big companies claim. Do you think the industry loses
a lot of money because of Oxygen?
If they do it's their own fault. If that is the case, it is because they
have a worthless product at a high price. Companies have to calculate
that software piracy is out there and can't be stopped. They should do
their strategic planning based on that fact instead of suing left and right.
Take Sound Forge for example: Great application, I use it a lot, but
it's way too expensive. I would never buy it at that price. If it was
25% of that price, I probably would buy it. Apart from that, most people
who download these appz would never buy them anyway. People who NEED to
buy them WILL buy them. I don't think warez adversely affects profits of
any given application. I think the number of units shipped would be
similar, with or without warez.
I really hope that people who make serious commercial use of these apps
go and buy them. Everything else would make me very sad.
Where do u see Oxygen going? How long do you think Oxygen is going to
exist?
We are getting bigger all the time. At some point the growing has to end.
We want the WORLD!
Well seriously I think there isn't any goal besides trying our best and
steadily improving constantly. I hope Oxygen will go on for years still,
but it's hard to say. As long as there are people driving Oxygen
forward, we will continue. I think Oxygen can continue for a long time.
If there's one thing you want to tell the users of Oxygen cracked
software, what would it be?
If u like it, buy it. But in the meantime, use it to the best of your abilities.
We do this to give you an opportunity to try before you buy. Keep that
in mind every time you download and install one of our releases.
Anything you want to add?
Thanks for this interview. It's nice to be able to answer some of the
questions that occasionally end up in our mailbox.
Just greetz to all ppl who like what we do, and greetz to many groups.
Especially cls + myth. Thanks for all the games, and FLT for all the
ISOs.
Thank you for the interview )
