The Man Who Leaked Windows 95 & Went to Prison

[@cybernews]

Do you think his punishment fit the crime?

[@gamereditor59ner22]

🤔..... Depends. If he sells it to someone or company, yes. However, in his defense, DCMA was created on October 12, 1998, and went full effect 2 years later. Edit: Keep in mind Windows 95 was manufactured on July 14, 1995, and released on August 24th of that year. I am not taking sides. I just want to place my thoughts in the comment section.

[@Exigentable]

@@gamereditor59ner22 I'm taking sides. his conviction was an affront to justice. this dude should have WALKED

[@univera1111]

Wonderful interview.

[@CallousCoder]

Hell no!

[@ZaneDaMagicPufferDragon]

NO! The 7 years should have negated any sentence period! The choice of prisons was also horrendous!!!

[@normbograham3]

People have no idea how open the world was in the early 1980's. I walked into Bell Labs, told them I wanted to program, and they gave me a modem, and access to their server. And books. Free lunch, a tour, they even played bocce ball during lunch. And as a developer, early in my career, all companies were doing things immoral, including Microsoft. Microsoft took innovations they liked, and the owners would have to take them to court, take Double Stack as the classic example. I also worked with LIM (Lotus, Intel, Microsoft), and we were developing the flash drive, and software, xip (execute in place). Microsoft liked it, offered to let us sell their product for $1 a copy. $1. On the condition we stopped out flash development. That was mean. They were trying to shut us down. We were out of business soon after.

[@kneel1]

I rememeber. And the 90s. We pretty involved in "scene" stuff

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Back when Bill Gates used to walk around the car park at work and note down who was leaving early. No doubt he'd have used "connections" to encourage a overly strong sentense.

[@mimimmimmimim]

Wonder what kind of salutations he used back then 😮

[@TheStevenWhiting]

@@mimimmimmimim Was actually Bill Gates who admitted this in an interview recently and said he realised its something he shouldn't of been doing.

[@NossyDrelich]

what did he do?

[@poindextertunes]

@@TheStevenWhiting Would love to hear his thoughts on why he went to Little St. James

[@Ziggy405]

So this is the dude that made it possible for me to have home alone before it was in theaters

[@NossyDrelich]

Now we have win11 forced on us for free with tons of spyware.

[@Canleaf08]

Linux without spyware is free and a choice.

[@rusi6219]

​@@Canleaf08why are Linux fanboys so naïve?

[@NossyDrelich]

@ sure but it can't run everything windows can.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

@@NossyDrelich It absolutely can. If you have programs that haven't been ported yet, just use an emulator. Also, 11 isn't really forced, since I'm still using 10. I'll continue with 10 until I can't, and then I'll go all Linux. I already have it as dual boot with XP on a very old laptop.

[@sqeekykleen49]

​@@bite-sizedshorts9635got my widows 7 laptop for $7.... a goodwill bargain my better half spotted while shopping. 😮 Just got an ssd off ebay for $20... lol fhck Microsoft, copywrite and the whole concept of corporate america... I would like to see some of the shareholders defunded for a little pfas mishap in West Virginia. No jail time, human life isn't worth that much. Just take the profit away from people that profit over what Bucky Bailey and others have.

[@MermaidDreamsAstrology]

Oh man, this was a fun one. Live how you used old windows effects and screens. Great job.

[@jfbeam]

Complete with annoying pop-ups!

[@petroidau]

"A year and a couple months before it was supposed to be public"... Windows 95 build 950 was compiled 11th July 1995, RTM 14th July and retail release was 24th August 1995... "A year and a couple months before" would still be a Chicago release and pre beta 1 at best

[@noth606]

with how many pre releases were floating around all over the place this all sounds like it's meant to come across as cool to those who were NOT there. I had several pre-releases of win95 on official MS CDROM's, I don't recall where exactly they came from but at least a couple were from a local Institute of technology type school, others were from software companies I think, or like IT companies that did custom software also. They used that to prepare their software for win95 being rolled out, well, by prepare I mean rewrite parts I think, I didn't have much to do with what they used it for exactly.

[@zoomosis]

Exactly. And no software company is going to sit on the final version of something for an entire year before releasing it. There's obviously more to the story than what's been said in this video but at the same time having to serve jail time back then over it is pretty ridiculous.

[@jfbeam]

@@noth606 I had 'em in our MSDN pile.

[@looneyburgmusic]

A lot of what this guy says doesn't match Reality at all For example, my ex-wife used to work as a nurse at FMC Devens, it is NOTHING like how he tried to make it out to be. There's the hospital prison, and then there is the minimum security "camp". And most of the prisoners are there because they are being treated for, (or dying), of conditions such as cancer, heart disease, ect.. It's not a place full of "hardened criminals", running around like a bunch of lunatics killing each other left and right nonstop

[@gregmark1688]

Everything this guy says sounds like BS. He also claims to be THE original member of Anonymous. And I, ofc, am Gengis Khan.

[@hylacinerea970]

imagining token white boy surrounded by Chinese gangsters is sending the hell out of me😭

[@CallousCoder]

You get a prison sentence for a terrible OS?! That’s harsh! But a great interview! ❤

[@coolinmac]

It’s was brilliant. Clearly, you havent a clue what you’re talking about.

[@CallousCoder]

@ it sucked! It was unstable slow and you couldn’t do a lot of things on the cli anymore. So I stayed on BSD/Linux Oh and for the record I do know what I’m talking about, I developed kernels and kernel drivers.

[@ssokolow]

@@CallousCoder Everything in context. Just as it failed to meet your criterion for stability and CLI power, Unixy OSes failed to meet the criterion Windows 95 hit of "I want something which is still compatible with my Windows 3.1 software and my existing hardware drivers". Windows 95's instability stems from being designed for two things: Running applications and hardware drivers that weren't compatible with Windows NT's memory protection model and fitting in an amount of RAM affordable for your average Windows 3.1 user. Windows 95's runaway popularity stemmed from bringing a mac-like desktop to that combination of requirements, just as Windows 3.1's popularity stemmed from how compatible a PC with Windows 3.1 was with your existing MS-DOS apps and peripherals. ...and I've been using PCs since before Windows 3.1, daily-driving Linux for over 20 years and migrated family over to Linux, and built routers around OpenBSD and FreeBSD, so I do have some experience, even if it's not as low-level as yours.

[@CallousCoder]

@ I agree and most PC users were misled and shortchanged by my former employer IBM. CP/M was superior to DOS. And after IBM and Microsoft struck a deal and Digital Research appealed that DOS shouldn’t be the only option. IBM put a price of 199 on CP/M over the 49 bucks for DOS. If CP/M was on there it would’ve been very different - and better as DR was already working on multitasking and UI. Microsoft had no experience in OS development and that was painfully obvious in Windows 3.xx and DOS. Windows95 kernel was a weird call Windows NT (although not great and nowhere near VMS quality (still not 30 years later) despite Dave Cutler being the lead) would’ve been a better starting point. Windows 95/98/ME was the weird hybrid thing with a hodgepodge kernel.

[@ssokolow]

@@CallousCoder From what I remember, Digital Research were *so* much better that Microsoft unsuccessfully tried to buy DR-DOS tech at one point... not to mention Apple's cancelled Star Trek project. As for Windows NT, the memory requirements were just too high for a consumer OS of the time period.

[@andrewdunbar828]

I'm gonna make a wild guess that the golden era of '90s piracy was ... the '90s? Those double-ended floppies are even better than the real '90s!

[@bennetfox]

Andy Dufrane said it the best in Shawshank Redemption, " I had to come to prison to learn how to be a criminal".

[@poindextertunes]

“Why do they call you Red?” “Maybe its bcuz I’m Irish” Absolute banger of a film and the best adaptation of a Stephen King short story

[@Tigeristiger]

Damn, what a wild ride of a story. It's always crazy to think of how the first hacking or piracy things started.

[@CallousCoder]

“Piracy” or as we called it cracking was in its heyday back in the 80s when we cracked video games enmasse. And it was actually pretty much legal because laws in the Netherlands didn’t cover cracking of software. And I adored cracking software on the C64 and DOS and I especially liked adding the cheats into the games more interesting than defeating the copy protection. But we relied on people uploading their originals on BBSes where my friend and I would download it from crack it and re-upload it. I actually have a videos on hacking in cheats on my channel. The crack videos were tagged and removed, eventhough that knowledge on the C64 and Atari ST is now obsolete. I also have a video how I’d made a keyboard sniffer in assembly and installed it on all PCs in the computer labs. Hoping the supervisor would log in. And eventually I found a host where he had logged on with supervisor account and got the password. So I could get to the CAD software we used. As students you could never afford those. So I downloaded them cracked out the dongle lockouts and merely sold them for cost price to me peers. So we could CAD and CAM at home too. Now you have student licenses which is imo a great affordable way to obtain it legally. And for the software manufacturer it’s great because students know their software and so it will urge employers to have the same software where these students eventually will end up working.

[@JJ-Streaming]

This wasn’t the first lol Amiga games were pirated long before

[@CallousCoder]

@ C64 and Speccy games before that. I used to be a C64 cracker. Were cool times.

[@ZanyCat]

fitting that this video about stolen software would also contain stolen art in the form of AI generated slop

[@NossyDrelich]

I'm impressed he put it together without google,

[@swenic]

If "..illegal theft of copyrighted material.." is such a threat the solution might be to legalize sharing.

[@MrWadeBarrett]

Probably the dumbest argument I ever heard.

[@robotube7361]

There is no solution. Piracy will always be a thing and those who want to sell media and other type of content will always try to protect it.

[@GrungeNY]

Love this. As someone who had a similar experience, just different crime, I can totally relate and say his telling is quite accurate of the system inside. I also like that he admits, "Yeah, I knew what I was doing was wrong but..." I also know a lot about the software and hardware scene in the 90's, and it was really the Wild West then. Kinda miss those days when you actually had to be intelligent to be online...

[@typerightseesight]

That cartoon of the guy with the backwards hat in all sweats is so 90s. lol

[@UCs6ktlulE5BEeb3vBBOu6DQ]

I'd love to have a documentary on FOSI. He was the best releaser of those days.

[@mimimmimmimim]

It seems history kind of got corrupted after 2000 😢

[@UCs6ktlulE5BEeb3vBBOu6DQ]

@@mimimmimmimim Yes, Metacrawler got replaced by editorialized Google

[@justme5089]

there's a name I haven't heard in a hot minute. blast from the past.

[@AlexandreD30]

This guy is a true hero

[@jinxterx]

Irony is now nobody gives a damn about any of the copyrighted software and it's freely available to download.

[@heyitsnemo]

Good interview you let the interviewee talk most & I feel he shared what needed to be said. And also good presentation. Thanx Great video!

[@derPUPE]

Sounds like PWA ;) "Pirates with Attitude" for life

[@rdnowlin1206]

I remember the first time booting up Win 95. It was amazing coming from DOS 5.1. Now I'm in the process of migrating from Windows to Linux

[@GrungeNY]

Why 5.1? 6.22 was out in '94. - unless lol

[@nexovec]

Very interesting. Wouldn't expect this to be in for maximum security prison.

[@sqeekykleen49]

Lol look up devens... it isn't pelican bay.. 😂

[@sagesagesagesagesagesage]

not the ai slop😭

[@JamesTenniswood]

Stumbled on this. Great interview 🎉

[@NossyDrelich]

This documentary is very well done! I want to know how Gregg found people to give him stuff and curious if that would be able to be dome today or has the landscape changed so much.

[@pedrogorilla483]

Fascinating! He’s such a great storyteller, and your editing and visuals are amazing too.

[@culturedivined]

Great documentary😁

[@flumpsi-m9p]

did you use ai for the illustration????

[@salihefee]

yeah its pretty obvious

[@frkieran]

I was interested in watching this until the shoddy ai pixel art showed up

[@jetlaw_1]

"I went to prison and all I got was this lousy Operating System."

[@ajax700]

Chicago (win 95 beta codename) betas were pretty easy to obtain, as ms wanted everyone to beta test it for free, classical ms. And no way the gold master was ready one year in advance. Win 95 was one of the most important releases an this is very documented everywhere, in magazines, etc. This is video is probably very incorrect or a lie. Like italians say, "maybe it's not true, but it's well told!" Best wishes.

[@Deliriousintentionsprojects]

I miss the Chicago splash screen. I was running a BBS of 6 network pc's running Chicago in '93.

[@susbaconhairman]

Really wish you didn't use AI slop pixel art

[@mycosys]

I used to know Hew Griffiths, formerly of DrinkOrDie - this story is REALLY familiar Would be worth looking him up, the story is amazingly parallel, he would probably be down to talk.

[@doa379]

Windows 95 was far from a finished product 14 months before its launch. During this time there were Beta copies commonly released to testers/reviewers/media. So not quite accurate. The story is more about counterfeiting than anything else. A hot topic of the time. Much like today's hot topics are very much topics of the moment.

[@mimimmimmimim]

It was far from finished when Windows 98 was released.

[@looneyburgmusic]

A whole lot of his "story" is just that - a STORY You can safely skip the entire section on FMC Devens, he never would have ended up there unless he was injured somehow or was suffering a serious medical condition that required long-term care. The BoP wouldn't just send someone there because they "didn't like him", that's total BS

[@NossyDrelich]

@ you sure? They have connections

[@Deliriousintentionsprojects]

Beta Chicago 93 was very much a finished and stable usable product. I was running a multi line BBS on it from august of 93 till 97 when switched to NT.

[@racerboyeddie]

why does the mic audio sound bad... and the use of AI... horrendous.

[@landroveraddict2457]

I went on holiday to Thailand, whilst browsing though all the fake clothes, watches etc. I noticed a black and white copy of Windows 95. I said to my girlfriend that can't be real it's months away from release. The shop owner interjected asserting it was real, He convinced me to buy it for not much more that the price of the DVD. It was real and I must have made 50 copies of it. For a short time I was "That Dude, who can"; felt kinda cool.

[@lovelydumpling]

damn I thought AI art looked trashy but AI pixel art is even worse 💀

[@Shocker99]

I really liked this. I'd watch more of them. It certainly beats your 'what's the best vpn' nonsense videos.

[@4bSix86f61]

POV: Michaelsoft Binbows

[@poindextertunes]

Microshaft Winblows 98

[@Deliriousintentionsprojects]

Thank you for your sacrifice, Greg. I miss the Chicago splash screen. 28 hd 1.44mb formatted to 1.8mb floppy disks to install. I was running a 6 pc networked BBS on windows 95 Chicago by August of 93.

[@ejon]

Those Windows 95 graphics 🎉🎉

[@Elytrii]

cyber crime stories are always way too interesting

[@UCs6ktlulE5BEeb3vBBOu6DQ]

I was selling copies of the Gladiator in Real movie and RealPlayer Plus with the keygen on the cd back in those days. And I did get Win95 before release on floppies lol.

[@jinxterx]

Thanks for the confession. Expect a visit soon.

[@shermanzuki]

4:11 me mentioned

[@looneyburgmusic]

Ah the 90's - 00's, what a time to be alive, everyone stealing everything online non-stop 24/7 edit: His description of FMC Devens is not quite accurate. There's the "medical prison" and the "Camp", which, last I was aware, was minimum security. There really isn't a "genpop" at Devens the way people would think about from other prisons...

[@theloststarbounder]

What an L. I leaked that windows 11 will be shit and I only got a warning for talking bad about big tech.

[@boomboxwagon]

i wonder how much money they spent trying to catch him for a year in prison

[@mikethespike7579]

We used to organise software parties. Everyone brought stacks of 3,5" discs full of software. We'd look through these and copy what we thought we liked for our own collection. I remember an Indian guy who had a hacked copy of Win95 on a CD ROM. He didn't believe me when I told him that that is software piracy, that you have to buy a Win95 licence to use the OS. He said nobody in India has ever paid for any software. I was told it was the same in China. Even Bill Gates once grumbled that China and India are one-licence countries. Meaning that someone in the country would buy a software license and then copy that until everyone had a pirated copy.

[@mrtelevision8079]

I'd go as far as saying most countries are like that except for very select few who actually enforce copyright. The US is definitely the most extreme copyright culture, there are a couple of other countries where it's a no-no, and anywhere else nobody cares.

[@sqeekykleen49]

​@@mrtelevision8079it is only if the person who wants it enforced is a somebody... let me put a fing laptop on the roof of my car and park it at wally.... oh no is that a dude in possession of a windows iso without a coa? Stolen laptop? Bet the pd would ask me, " Do you know who took it? Do you have video? Do you really want to report this? 😂. Dude did 7 years? Maybe his people skills? Bad lawyer? Or is there a public outcry for windows justice?

[@RandomDeforge]

"Who run Bartertown?" Greggster Houshster

[@ZaneDaMagicPufferDragon]

I remember buying this exact copy of Windows 95!!!!! I was part of a Palm Pilot hacking/cracking group in my early teen years through my early 20's. But I was VP & IRC Bot Master too so I know exactly what Greg is talking about in knowing the risks. I haven't been on IRC ever since 2004 after that group folded, so I missed all of the Anonymous movement other than the news coverage. I also think how Greg was treated for 7 years was ridiculous and he should just have been let go vs the insane prison treatment that he received! I was constantly worried about my fellow group members getting caught globally and turning against the rest of us for a lesser sentence if we got busted. I still own a domain that we used in the process and have been debating whether or not I'm going to renew it. It was a thrill in my teens & 20's and I too received the same things from it that Greg described and it helped me in getting several jobs later on.

[@poindextertunes]

Bro this guys origin story is fxcking badass ngl

[@benjaminclement8437]

That's what I learnt to my friend, a lot of people in there don't deserve to be!

[@PeterRichardsandYoureNot]

Actually real,piracy started in the 80s and the truly talented “pirates” never get caught. They don’t look for recognition beyond scene intros for their work.

[@regularguy519]

Windows users have no idea the Commodore 64 started it all - Fast Hack 'em, Isepic cartridge, and my 1670 modem. Nuff said!

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

I don't think so. I was doing great with my Radio Shack Color Computer. It could do a lot more. Some of my best software copies came from a priest of all people.

[@jacksona2]

How did you do all those bitmap animations?

[@casultaser]

The things from 1:27? Those are AI generated

[@st33zyf0rilla2]

if you ever played a kendo nagasaki pirated game in the UK you knew my dad , he loved pirate splash loaders

[@MSrl5xe]

Cyber Joe should do all the introductions.

[@Rob_III]

This guy looks like Derek Muller from AliExpress 🤣

[@gamereditor59ner22]

Dang! Plus, I do remember Windows 95.

[@Pay-No-Mind]

A year and a couple months before Win 95 dropped? That doesn't sound/sit right because no software company is going to sit on software (let alone an OS, even MORE so Microsoft) for THAT long before going to full release, ESPECIALLY the 90's when everything was moving so fast if you didn't release something in a fast snappy manner you could miss out big.

[@Curtv42]

Maybe that's when he met his windows contact?

[@Deliriousintentionsprojects]

Beta Chicago 95 was released in early 1993. It was distributed widely for testing. It's also well documented in magazine articles at the time.

[@christopherduncan803]

One true crime was committed in this video. "Way back in the 90s"

[@sylvstuffs]

could you have not commissioned an artist instead of using ai?

[@benny7811]

I think he did a really good job of using AI as an artistic tool instead of being lazy and making it do ALL the work, like so many do now. Not everybody can afford to commission an artist or to wait for an artist to complete the job to an acceptable standard.

[@philosoaper]

I was running numerous beta versions of W95 (Chicago) for at least a year before it's release... they were everywhere and loads of magazines had articles about them too

[@bluewinterwolf]

And yet windows gives out windows 10 and 11 now for free... an os that is 100x "better" than what this poor guy went to prison for having.

[@ffwast]

Because nobody wanted them! And now the product is your data.

[@danieldani-c6c]

bravo greg and im so sorry about ur punisment...

[@poindextertunes]

This guy doesn’t look like anybody in the movie Hackers at all

[@adonaros]

Very honorable father. Really.

[@tuniSinn]

I had win95 6 months before it was released. Those were great times. All the bbs

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

Rusty 'n' Edie's was the biggest one I knew of. They had a ton of software for download.

[@BOBLAF88]

Never open email on a c drive 🙄💻

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

Why not? I always practiced safe computing. In the early days, I used text only email software. When that went away, I turned off the preview, which is where code runs just from looking at the email. I would delete all the email that wasn't expected. If someone I knew sent me an attachment, I would save the attachment, open the proper software, and they try to open the attachment in the software. If it didn't work, I deleted the attachment. When the internet started, I refused to go to porn sites, which are known for transmitting viruses the same as whorehouses. So since my first PC compatible in 1989, I have never once had a virus or lost a computer file.

[@GameInterest]

Great video but the AI images put throughout the video are off-putting.

[@stoic521]

lol even his dad is awesome. The branch does not fall far from the tree.

[@antonysnook4932]

I went to college in the 90's And i had a friend whose brother programed AMIGA 500. I had one of my own and i got pirated software on a 3/5' floppy disk. It was no big deal i would get magazine's with disks of shareware (Small programs or demos with little value) People would use blank tapes to record music ans shows of the radio. We have free music online that you could put on iTunes. You can even watch movies online.

[@JanoschNr1]

Its not the crime you've done thar determines your verdict ... but who you do it with ... lets not forget geline maxwell got "prison" time for doing sex trafficink of kid to ... nobody.

[@churblefurbles]

Freed only to become a redditor, tragic.

[@ffwast]

He lived long enough to become a villain.

[@NossyDrelich]

What programming language and IDE did Gregg use?

[@jonpopelka]

Solid content!

[@ocircles738]

Lots of ppl calling BS on parts of this, is the guy embellishing?

[@casultaser]

1:27 is that pixel art АΙ genеratеd?

[@lovelydumpling]

It sure is :(

[@JJ-Streaming]

I got XP a year early and it felt good!

[@JJ-Streaming]

What about the guy who stole software from Warner Bro’s

[@AhmetMurati]

I had bought the CD of Windows 95 50 USD in 1998

[@nahventure3873]

if this guy was a rivals character, he'd be jeff the shark, don't ask me why, i don't know

[@spastischelastisch8482]

Thanks!

[@crypto_que]

Veritasium’s older brother is… Anonymous!?

[@chestertonic]

That's some stack of floppies.

[@jmontoya5485]

That's what you fet for charging money for warez! Lol, I also did time for selling cracked shit when I was a teenager in the 90's.

[@mimimmimmimim]

It's good he was convicted of spreading the most widely used excuse of an operating system.

[@gregmark1688]

Guy sure sounds like he's making most of this up, to me. I mean, we ALL had Chicago, aka Win95, over a year before it was released. This guy's such a big deal and yet nobody's bothered to create a wikipedia page for him. My bullshit sensors are certainly going off.

[@diablo.the.cheater]

Nah, he is genuine

[@sunilnathani3924]

Forget the past it's dead & gone. I am using windows 11.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

Too bad. I'll never use 11. When 10 refuses to do what I want, I will go to Linux.

[@withlifedave]

Well, I think rat's are just disgusting

[@TehMasonSpartan]

4:12 SHERMAN MENTIONED 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️‼️

[@og_jakey]

I genuinely thought this was Veratasium in disguise 🤣 just me?

[@JohnDoe-oh5dk]

Prison is a microcosm of life I think his lying been their done that

[@theloststarbounder]

15:20 I'd never listen to tutorials on doing crimes from the ones who were caught, sure they sucked

[@IamLIK]

Is this MikeySoft?

[@RedSntDK]

It would be fun to hear Dave Plummer's (Dave's Garage channel here on YT) input on this, what he feels about pirates having access to Microsoft's servers like that, and whether there were ever meetings about leaks internally in Microsoft. I could imagine there being almost a division set up to perform "witch hunts".

[@ChrisIsEditing]

Great video! But some light criticism; the use of AI makes it really seem cheap and unprofessional. Especially for a channel with over 400k subs. Rather use stock images or hire actual artists please :(

[@8bithavok]

the use of AI illustrations is very distracting and really cheapens this video.