"Cracking" Kerika

Someone found a reference to an older version of Kerika (0.9.6) on a mysterious Web site that claims to offer "Free Download crack, serial, keygen, patch, nocd patch for Kerika 0.9.6", and wanted to know who these people were, and what it meant to "crack" Kerika.

I won't link to this site because I don't want to encourage such people, but this is basically a scam, although not a particular heinous one. Here's the background: one way for software vendors to distribute their software, particularly if it is free or has a free trial period, is through the use of PAD files.

If you want your software to get distributed by third-parties, the easiest way is to create a PAD file and upload it to the Association of Shareware Professionals (which, despite its name, actually handles more than just shareware). PAD files are a legitimate way to widely distribute software, but they can be abused by unscrupulous people because they are an open standard.

There are a large number of third-party Web sites that distribute Kerika using the PAD files; so many, in fact, that we can't even keep track of all of them. The vast majority are of these sites are legitimate, e.g. Download.com. A small handful, like the ones that claim to offer "free cracks" of Kerika 0.9.6, are obviously unethical.

The "warez" sites seem to attract users who are not just unethical (why were they searching for "free cracks" in the first place?), but also dumb: if something is already being offered free, why would you need to crack it?