Fairlight logo by JED of ACiD.

Fairlight (FLT) is a warez and demos group initially involved in the Commodore demoscene, and in cracking to illegally release games for free, since 1987. In addition to the C64, Fairlight has also migrated towards the Amiga and later the PC. Fairlight was founded during the Easter holiday in 1987 by Strider and Black Shadow, both ex-members of West Coast Crackers (WCC). This "West Coast" was the west coast of Sweden, so Fairlight was initially a Swedish group, which later became internationalized. The name was taken from the Fairlight CMI synthesizer which Strider saw Jean-Michel Jarre use on some of his records. Strider is nowadays a naturalized USA citizen. Image File history File links Description: Fairlight logo created by JED of ACiD. Captured from MS-DOS. Note: Although this image originally contained no color information (other than a bright white (<esc>0;1m) attribute), this was saved as in ANSI to prevent screen wrapping at the 80th column. ... Image File history File links Description: Fairlight logo created by JED of ACiD. Captured from MS-DOS. Note: Although this image originally contained no color information (other than a bright white (<esc>0;1m) attribute), this was saved as in ANSI to prevent screen wrapping at the 80th column. ... A screenshot of TheDraw editing an ANSI art picture of a shuttle; the purple text blinks ANSI art is a computer artform that was widely used at one time on BBSes. ... An acid (from Arabic Azait meaning oil, often represented by the generic formula AH) is typically a water-soluble, sour-tasting chemical compound. ... A street vendor packing up his display of counterfeit CDs after being photographed. ... In political science, the demos (Greek: people) is the common populace of a state. ... The Commodore 64 demos for the Commodore 64 (C64) were, as far as is known, the first real demos produced on any home computer. ... The demoscene is a computer subculture that came to prominence during the rise of the 16/32-bit micros (the Atari ST and the Amiga), but demos first appeared during the 8-bit era on computers such as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. ... Software cracking is the modification of software to remove encoded copy prevention. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Commodore 64 (1982) The Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64/CBM64, C= 64) is a home computer with 64 kilobytes of RAM that was popular in the 1980s. ... The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced game console. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... Easter is the most important religious holiday of the Christian liturgical year, observed in March, April, or May to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred after his death by crucifixion in AD 30-33 (see Good Friday). ... The Fairlight CMI (computer musical instrument) was the first digital sampling synthesiser. ... Jean-Michel André Jarre (born August 24, 1948 in Lyon, France) is a French composer and producer. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup. ...

Operation Fastlink

Several high ranking members of the group were busted on April 21, 2004, 8 months after the group returned from their temporary "retirement" that began on June 9, 2003 and ended on August 30, in an FBI operation called Operation Fastlink. April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... Official FBI Seal The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force and intelligence agency which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Operation Fastlink was a coordination of four separate, simultaneous undercover investigations by the FBI, the FBI Cyber Division, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) of the Criminal Division and Interpol. ...

Police forces from eleven countries were involved, arresting about 120 people and seizing more than 200 computers (including 30 servers). One server from the U.S. raid contained 65,000 pirated titles which were alleged to be in the archive repository of the group. The Chicago Police Department arrests a man A protester is arrested during a demonstration. ... A computer is a machine capable of undergoing complex calculations. ... In telecommunication, the term file server has the following meanings: A high-capacity disk storage device or a computer that hosts files so that they may be accessed or retrieved by other computers on the same network. ...

The operation was coordinated by the FBI, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and the Business Software Alliance, and took place in 27 U.S. states. In the UK, seven computers were seized and three arrests made in Belfast, Manchester and Sheffield. In Singapore, three people (22, 30 & 34 years old) were arrested. In the Netherlands two university servers were investigated by police officers. Other arrests and seizures were made in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, and Sweden for a total of 11 countries. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit is a section of the National Crime Squad, a British Police organisation which deals with major crime. ... The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group representing a number of the worlds largest software makers. ...

According to rumor, the raid occurred just before the warez group would have released the game Hitman: Contracts. The game was released by other groups (iNSOMNiA, for Xbox and PS2, and Razor 1911, for PCs) a few days later. 47 disguised. ... The Microsoft Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console first released on November 15, 2001 in North America, then released on February 22, 2002 in Japan, and later on March 14, 2002 in Europe. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) (Japanese: プレイステーション2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... Razor 1911 ASCII NFO header by JED of ACiD. Razor 1911 is a warez and demo group, with a history similar to that of Fairlight. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ...

The last massive warez-related raid prior to Fastlink was Operation Buccaneer which targeted DrinkOrDie (amongst others) in December 2001. On December 11, 2001, in an international operation known as Operation Buccaneer, law enforcement agents in six countries targeted 62 people suspected of software piracy, with leads in twenty other countries. ... DrinkOrDie ASCII NFO header. ... 2001 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December Events: December 2 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days after Dynegy canceled a US$8. ...

Awards

The demo division of Fairlight has received numerous awards during their career, most recently:

• 4th place in the combined demo competition (out of 18 entries) at Assembly 2004 with their entry "Come Clean" [1].
• 1st place in the "oldskool" demo competition (out of 4 entries) at Assembly 2005 with their entry "Boogie Factor" [2].
• 1st place in the 64k intro competition (out of 15 entries) at Assembly 2005 with their entry "Che Guevara" [3].
• 1st place in the 64k intro competition at BCN Party 2004 with their entry "Fresh!" [4]. The entry was later nominated for a Scene.org Award for Best 64k Intro.
• 2nd place in the 64k intro competition at Breakpoint 2005 for their entry "Death and Taxes" [5].
• 1st place with Reed at Assembly 2005 with their song "Dirty '64".
• 1st place with Reed at Assembly 2003 with their song "Cyberdragon" [6].

Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ... Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ... Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ... scene. ... Categories: Demo parties | Stub ... Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ... Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ...

Records

Fairlight held a short-lived romance with TRSI with their cooperative endeavor, TRSi and Fairlight Recordz, formed by member Zinkfloid (a.k.a. Uyanik). Together they released several albums, including "Muffler" (2000) [7] [8] and "CNCD" (1995). [9] This once co-op label is now known only as TRSi Recordz and is no longer affiliated with Fairlight. TRSI is an acronym for Tristar and Red Sector, Incorporated. ...

See also

• United Software Association — IBM PC-warez organization which released cooperatively with Fairlight during the early 1990s.
• List of warez groups

A screenshot from the USA and Fairlight cracktro for Wordtris. ... This is a list of warez groups. ...

External links

• The World of Fairlight (official website)
• Fairlight demos and cracktros, including Come Clean, indexed by Pouet
• "Operation Fastlink" press release published by the United States Department of Justice