Cracks were often small programs that you would run separately and they would work on the main software files to either trick it into thinking a registration code had been entered already in the past, or, patch the part of the software that dealt with the registration code stuff and make the software bypass this when you ran the software, thus removing the requirement for any code to be entered ever, or, the coolest method and most prestigious by the crackers was the keygenerator! A keygenerator, as it sounds, was a program that, when you ran it, it generated registration codes for the software in question! As if you worked for the company that created the expensive software, you were now in possession of the machine they might use to create registration codes that were adhering to the correct mathematical formulas that the software was expecting the code to fit into and therefore the code would be accepted as a proper code that the software accepted as only being possible to possess if you had purchased the software and so you could use it once and be registered for life just like the real registration codes.

The code would make everything works, kind of unlock the software and it tended to be a once only affair and then everything worked fine. Underground, virtual side streets, perhaps we can call them cyber alleys(!), where no one ever paid a single cent for anything, you amassed resources where people posted expensive software for free, you searched out all that free software because it had all been 'cracked' and so was fully functional without paying a penny(which is essentially what cracked software is - software that requires payment and usually will not function until the user has entered a registration code into it which they were generally given when they paid for the software. There was the above board, legit, pay for what you get, use adware and click in the ads to pay for the free software, use freeware totally for free and don't bother with trying to use expensive software suites if you can't afford them. The internet was almost split in two halves.

I recall, not too long ago.a world where piracy was frowned upon by almost everyone.

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