Since it’s getting hard to find these days, here’s the theme song for the epic war between H20 (an audio cracking group) and Steinberg/Synchrosoft (the makers of the popular Cubase sequencing software) during their 6-month attempt, eventually successful, to crack Cubase 3.
The rivalry between these entities, which took place over a period of years, was quite amazing for those involved in the audiosoft cracking scene. Steinberg was forced into a spiralling “arms race” of encryption, hardware checks, and obfuscation, which by the time this song was made had reached a ludicrous height – almost a third of the code in Cubase 3 was dedicated to copy protection, leading to serious performance penalties. Nonetheless H20 eventually suceeded in removing the protection and released a fully working (and much faster running!) cracked version, proving to many in the industry the futility of trying to oppose the crackers.
The war destroyed H20, however, and they have not been heard from since, instead spawning a new group – AiR – who have nonetheless shied away from Steinberg applications. Rumor has it that Steinberg, who lost many millions of dollars in the fight, simply offered H20 a financial incentive – surely in the seven digits – to leave their software alone in future. Tellingly, Cubase 4, the latest major Steinberg release, remains uncracked.
So this song, for me, symbolises a bygone era of warez – when Titans clashed and the mortals gazed awestruck at the lightning raining down from Olympus. So why not give it a listen – possible, by “The Imp” (an H20 member), from their celebratory CD STGL01 – a triumphalist compilation of gloating tracks aimed squarely at the corporate morale of Steinberg. A historic, and very listenable, milestone in internet and warez culture.
We tried .. over and over .. to make it really secure.
But somehow .. they always .. crack it!
January 9th, 2007 at 6:34 am
If H20/Delirium were made up of fragments from Radium and Steinberg did pay them out – I dont think we’ll see fireworks like that for a while.
February 1st, 2007 at 6:22 pm
SMOKE LESS DRUGS!
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:55 am
Steinberg are daft for attempting to stop the crackers. I bet Cubase 4 will sell less than they expect.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 am
Do you still have the STGL01 in archive? I’m trying desperately to get hold of this peice of history myself but my attemps so far have been fruitless.
August 3rd, 2008 at 7:09 am
Yes – I do, but not on this computer. In fact, in deep storage in another country!
If you can’t find it anywhere, let me know and I’ll post it here in a month or two : )
Shouldn’t be THAT hard to find, though, surely…
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Thanks for getting back to me, I’ve requested it on usenet but average joe p2p netoworks show up nothing. The video is on youtube but I’d love the h20 mp3 player that goes with it also! I’ll keep you posted.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:57 am
…So, Its Just A Game. Money Dont Rules Now… Its Like Chaos (=
September 7th, 2009 at 10:27 am
AiR are the successors of H2O… H2O are long gone… after their triumphant release of Cubase SX 3, i think it’s time they retired… the point was that they beat the system… RIP, and thank you so much for the wonderful software you released, without which i would have never been able to do what i do… thank you team H2O…
September 7th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Amen to that!
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:19 am
Hey – on the off chance that somebody from Air or H20 reads this I am really hopeing somebody will crack m audios “Strike” for Pro tools. I would buy it legit if they wouldnt try selling it for 300 + dollars ! Thanks for all the try before you buy software guys
October 14th, 2009 at 7:23 am
h3o still crackin
October 19th, 2009 at 6:32 am
TOM PARR IS A FAG
December 14th, 2009 at 12:46 am
And now AiR did it
Cubase 5 up and running 