The way the Scene handles WEB-releases is by using specialized tools coded by The Scene, for The Scene. “The most common, and hard to crack DRM is called Widevine. Attempting to view such video will usually result in a blank screen and nothing else – streams from these sites are protected by DRM. “Once files are downloaded from the streaming platform, however, they are encrypted in the. It takes just a few minutes to download a video file since they’re served by CDNs with gigabits of bandwidth. When accessing the content, legitimate premium accounts are used, often paid for using prepaid credit cards supported by bogus identities.

Sceners simply save that content and attempt to decrypt it for non-DRM playback later,” he says. Whenever you stream a video online, you are downloading chunks of a video file to your computer. “Content for WEB releases are obtained by downloading the source content. For security reasons he wasn’t prepared to identify which groups he’s affiliated with but he did provide an overview of the process. “Source” describes himself as a programmer with involvement with WEB releases. Not to be confused with WEBRip content, which is obtained using technology such as hardware capture cards or software-based ‘capping’ tools, WEB releases involve downloading the raw video files to a computer or server. So-called WEB releases are videos obtained from streaming services, particularly Netflix and Amazon. However, he also touched on something that’s rarely discussed in public. Our contact – “Source” – runs his own release group, something we were able to verify by having a unique marker placed in a Scene release. Our introduction dealt with a selection of the basics, from how The Scene is structured to who takes on various roles. If the tip of this polyhedron represents the exclusive few, the progressively larger and lower portions constitute the increasing masses, all enjoying the pirated content flooding down, albeit without the consent of those at the very top.

In recent weeks, TF was able to speak to a member of The Scene, the shadowy network of individuals and groups sitting right at the apex of the so-called ‘piracy pyramid’.

Scene release website