PC warez group founded in Moscow, Russia in april 1993 by Deviator, who also did a number of BBS mods/tools. A few locals were recruited, among them Baphomet. During the summer, Deviator changed his handle to Jimmy Jamez. The first official release was the release in May of the 93rd crack for the popular BBS PCBoard package, and they also produced a number of PPE tools for bbs'es in these first months. Originally a pure Russian team, by the end of the year they went international with their first two international distribution sites; Silverado BBS in The Netherlands and the Darkness BBS in Germany.
In mid-1994, Jimmy Jamez and his friend Abbot Dervish first discovered the Internet. It was obvious that it was the future, and the future of DOD should be inextricably linked to the Internet. In may 1994, members were Jimmy Jamez, Baphomet, Trasher, Demon, Abbot Dervish (senior), Patson, Al Bundy, Night Browser, Doc Ansi, Lars Ulrich, Qlex, Lord Jecksom, [Fenix](Lord Jecksom, Moon Shadow (staff), Incubus, Blue Sky, Maniac and Dodger (spreaders).1
In march 1995 they announced Polymer, Quackers, Scrooge, Tomas and The Unforgiven were no longer members, and that the entire group PHOENIX had merged into DOD - meaning Cyber Angel, Joker, Ivy League, Kidcapri, Junkman, Jumbo, Dark Soul, Great White, Caligula and Kaptain Kaos were now new members. Additionally, Physco Stik and Orc had joined, Millenium Matrix was now the WHQ, Silo was the new USHQ, and Biohazard was the new Canadian HQ. RiP and 2112 were no longer DOD boards, and Raw Meggage was their new courier partners. It finally listed Abbot Dervish, Cyber Angel, Jimmy Jamez (seniors), Alexis Machine, Curve, Danier, Dark Rebellion, Great White, Joker, Junkman, Jumbo, Ivy League, Kidcapri, Lars Ulrich, Lord Jecksom, Physco Stik, Siciliano, Wayward (members), Antihero, Caligula, Corrado, Dark Soul, Disney, Frozen Spirit, Justifier, Kaptain Kaos, Mr. Blazer&Yum Yum, Orc, Paganlord, Prowler, Rude Boy, Shock Wave and Stingray (couriers) as members.2
1995 became a turning point for the composition of the group. They left several long-standing members to found their own group called Prophecy. At the same time, another Russian guy with the nickname Phoenix, the leader of the cracking group Tyranny, suggested to Jimmy Jamez to unite their groups for more fruitful work. The result of this merger was a series of program craters from IBM, Microsoft and Novell. These releases quickly spread around the world, and Drink or Die became number one on the milling scene.
Their most famous release was Windows 95, cracked and released two weeks before retail date. More than 380 releases and 3 GB of software in just one year 1995 - no other team could compare with DOD activity. But, starting in 1996., for Drink or Die, as for the rest of the scene, not the best days have begun.
When the Internet became open to all, the underground began to change rapidly. The first changes became noticeable in IRC, the channels of which were flooded with crowds of lamers who had no idea about the scene. At the same time, a large number of new crack groups appeared that regularly produce paints, serial numbers, trailers and other similar things. It has become difficult to maintain a reputation as the best of its kind - releases from DOD simply drowned in the total mass. The leaders of Drink or Die Jimmy Jamez and Cyber Angel left the stage to professionally engage in web design, a new leader, Lester, came to their place. It took several months to reform the team and keep what was left. Many began to talk about the end of the DOD era, but thanks to the enthusiasm of Lester’s, the group continued to work, although not as actively as before.
1996 was the time of the first arrests of crackers and cardholders. AOL, which suffered the most from computer fraud (the first American Internet users did not care about creating normal passwords and their accounts easily picked up, as well as credit card numbers), contacted the police and raids began in the United States. As a result, several particularly presumed cardholders were detained, although many of them easily got off.
In mid-1996, the main suppliers and talented crackers returned to Drink or Die: The Pep, Tawni, Evil Tea, The Punisher. After this unification, DOD began to quickly gain its former strength and by winter again took a leading place in the mittens. In February 1997. in one month, the group released 54 major releases totaling 890 Mb. And in 1999. The most famous release of DOD was DVD Speed Ripper, a DVD copy protection code cracker. It appeared shortly before DeCSS, a similar program from the Norwegian cracker Jon Johansen, but very famous.
In 2001. DOD was coordinated by two leaders, one in the United States and the other in Australia, and its world's best crackers, including Dezzy, ForceKill and Hackrat, were its membranes. The supplier network consisted of hundreds of softwood employees who sent copies of the programs long before they went on sale. The mechanism was debugged, and nothing foreshadowed trouble. Meanwhile, the FBI, together with law enforcement agencies in six countries, was preparing for a large-scale raid, which later became known as Operation Buccaneer.
Core members of the group were busted in "Operation Buccaneer" in 2001.
December 11, 2001. federal agents visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, the University of Origona, as well as the offices of several soft companies - the most active producers of Drink or Die studied or worked in these places. In addition to America, raids took place in the UK, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. On one single day, preparation for which lasted 14 months, the police managed to arrest almost the entire “elite” of the scene milling cutter, key DOD, Razor 911, DEViANCE, RogueWarriorz, TFL, WLW, RiSC and other famous marez / crack groups. More than 70 people, of which about 20 were related to DOD, were accused of copyright infringement. Cracker trials have begun around the world.
As a result, the most severe sentence was passed on to 28-year-old John Sankus, at that time one of the leaders of Drink or Die. He received 4 years in prison. “John Sankus, with his technobanda, turned dark things on the Internet, believing that they would never be caught. But he was wrong. The deserved punishment will serve as a lesson for him, and an example for other similar techno-villainers confident in their elusiveness, ”the prosecutor delivered a instructive speech.
DOD membranes from the UK got a lot of effort to capture which local governments spent a lot of effort. The trials of Alex Bell aka Mr 2940 and Stephen Doud aka Tim, the key suppliers of the group, were covered in many British newspapers and online. As a result, they were found guilty of distributing pirated products and sentenced to terms from 1.5 to 2.5 years in prison.
Most of the arrested Drink or Die membranes had highly paid jobs in IT and were not involved in the paint for money. They were all guided by the good old principle of Just for Fun. The hacking of program protection was an intellectual competition, checking your own skills, and not a way to make money.
You are probably wondering what happened to DOD later when the raids were thundered? For some time the group was still working, but already much quieter and more careful. Since the whole backbone of the team departed for places not so distant, there was no one to coordinate the mechanism and the remaining membranes simply broke themselves slowly, releasing releases under the DOD label. The latest references to the group date back to January 2003.when the hacked version of 3D Studio Max v3.1 appeared on the network, and in the info-louse to which there were three letters familiar to all the mittens. This is where the story of the legendary team ended. Someone from the membranes moved to other teams, someone left the scene forever. But both of them with nostalgia recall the times when Drink or Die steered the bolt from the scene.
Bio based on group history in Russian from 2005, that can be found here.
- EHQ
- Distsite
