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"Warez" is essentially a leet speak derivative short for the word "software" in the plural form. Initially this term was used by members of various computer underground circles but has since become commonplace amongst more mainstream Internet users. "Warez" is most common as a noun ("He downloaded 10 gigs of warez yesterday"), but can also be used as a verb ("The new Photoshop was warezed as soon as it was released"). People engaging in warez production and distribution are often called pirates, figuratively referring to the pirates of ocean commerce, though the use of this term is controversial: see Copyright infringement of software for details. They are also sometimes pejoratively called warez d00dz (this is leet speak). The collection of warez groups is referred to globally as the warez scene, or more ambiguously, the scene.

Warez is a large-scale and international phenomenon. Well-organized pirate groups, often based in China and Russia, illegally produce millions of copies of copyrighted software, which if sold at retail would be worth several billions of dollars annually. Pirates exploit the international nature of the Internet to avoid law enforcement from specific countries. For example, in Russia, the copying of software was once explicitly permitted by law when such software was not in the Russian language; this is no longer true, but prosecutions for copyright infringement are still very rare. While most copies of pirated software are manufactured in Asian factories, their distribution more often than not begin in Western nations such as the US and the European countries, where the largest international software companies are located.

Software cracking groups (not to be confused with the mostly Asian-based illegal CD manufacturers and the street vendors that sell warez), who are often highly efficient and highly tech savvy, delegate tasks among their members. These members are mostly located in first-world countries where high-speed Internet connections and powerful computers are readily available. For example, suppose a popular new piece of commercial software is released in the United States. A cracking group might first use one of its contacts in America to obtain a pre-release copy, then send it to a skilled programmer in Australia to remove copy prevention (see software cracking), who will then send it to a distributor in the Netherlands for release as warez. As a result, distribution of illegally copied programs on the same day as the commercial release ('0-day warez'), or even before ('negative-day warez'), is common. Beginning in the late 1990s, feature films have been frequently released by warez groups prior to their official release, a notable example of which was The Matrix.

Distribution of warez is usually handled between groups using topsites. The groups also have private sites for internal purposes, such as archiving their own releases and transferring the unmodified material between their members. Through the users of these sites the warez is delivered to people outside groups where it starts spreading through peer-to-peerGenerally, a peer-to-peer (or P2P computer network is any network that does not rely on dedicated servers for communication but instead mostly uses direct connections between clients (peers). A pure peer-to-peer network does not have the notion of clients networks, like KaZaA or eMuleIn computing, eMule is a peer to peer file sharing application that works with the eDonkey network and offers more features than the standard eDonkey client. eMule is open source software released under the GNU General Public License. It runs on the Micro and becomes available to the public.

Unlike the pirated CD manufacturers and street vendors, cracking groups obtain no monetary profit from their actions. The motivation of these groups varies. Warez groups are competitive amongst each other, and a fast warez release is viewed as a social accomplishment. The morality of copyright infringementCopyright infringement is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it. is also much more disputed than that of conventional property theft, and members of warez groups often view their actions as socially positive. Justifications include the alleged impossibility of copyright enforcement and the perceived injustice of not sharing information with those who could not afford to obtain it otherwise. They also claim that warez may actually increase the value of software through the network effectThe network effect (or network externality causes a good or service to have a value to a potential customer dependent on the number of customers already owning that good or using that service. Ergo, it means that the total value of a good or service that.

The production and/or distribution of warez is illegal in many jurisdictions. See Copyright infringement of software for legal details.

Sometimes, in addition to actual illegally copied data, warez dealers distribute Free softwareThis article refers to free software as defined by the Free Software Foundation. For software available free of charge, see Freeware. The term free software refers to software which, once obtained, can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed. and documentation, copyrighted works whose copyright license specifies that the work may be legally redistributed. The free software community generally doesn't have any relation to the warez scene.