warez

Etymology

The leetspeak form of wares, as a contraction of software.

noun

1. (Internet slang, leetspeak, dated) Software that is illegally obtained or distributed.
   By the end of the day Mad Hatter, a ringleader of the software piracy group called the Inner Circle, will have poured 300 Mbytes of illegal “warez” onto the Internet. 1997-04-01, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired, →ISSN
   Too many gamers see nothing wrong with downloading “warez” (usually pronounced “wares,” but also “wah-rez”), retail software products that have been “ripped” to make them smaller and remove copy protection. 1999 April, T. Liam McDonald, “WaReZ the Logic?”, in Maximum PC, →ISSN, page 41
   Warez appeared in the 1980s with the advent of Bulletin Board Systems. 2012, Eric Diehl, Securing Digital Video[…], Springer Science & Business Media, page 16

verb

1. (Internet slang, leetspeak, dated) To obtain a copy of (software or other works of authorship) illegally.
   Many of these keys are, obviously, being used by people who've warezed XP, but there's also a reasonably large number of software professionals and refuseniks who have used them even though they have a legitimately bought version of XP. 2002-06-07, John Lettice, “MS turns up heat on warezed WinXP copies”, in The Register
   Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player [title] 2004-11-12, Timothy Lord, “Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player”, in Slashdot