There are a lot of other groups of pirates around France. Aldo Reset, and Laurent Rueil. They seemed to like Karateka games. These groups deprotect the software. Once deprotected, it can be copied very easily using a normal copy program.
Most copying goes-on in large computer centres, where machines can be used free of charge.
There is no supervision there, and no control on what goes-on. Since 1987, though, the shops are more careful since they could be held responsible for what happens on their machines. Often crackers would converse between themselves in this way. Software is copied through a string of intermediaries, and the messages can therefore be passed this way. So in fact, considering the level of expertise that these crackers have, it would be very easy for them to hide a virus within a floppy disk, which would be triggered by the actual program.