159 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
159 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
Offworld BBS Busted
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Tuesday, January 19, 1993
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Pages 1A, 10A
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COMPUTER OPERATOR DENIES PORN MENU
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By Christine Bertelson
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Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
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The owner of a St. Louis computer bulletin board that was shut down
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by the FBI last week denied Monday that he is responsible for the
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pornographic images seen by some users.
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On Friday night, the FBI confiscated more than $40,000 worth of
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computer equipment at Offworld, a computer company owned and operated
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by Joey Jay. Jay, 28, ran the business from his residence in the
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basement of his father's house on Tecumseh Drive in Chesterfield.
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Jay was not arrested, and no charges have been filed against him.
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Jay said his father threw him out of the house after the raid.
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"Everyone assumes we are some kiddie porn ring," Jay said. "We are
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not. We are a nonprofit community service."
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A spokesman for the FBI said that someone had reported that Offworld
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had images available showing bestiality, as well as child pornography.
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It is a federal offense to have child pornography, and any property
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used to promote it is subject to being seized and forfeited to law
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enforcement authorities, an FBI spokesman said.
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"We get all kinds of files across the system, and one or two at most
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showed up in terms of a private conversation," Jay said. "When I
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found them, I deleted them immediately."
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Offworld began operating in St. Louis last June, and is free to its
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4,300 users. Jay said it cost him $1,800 a month to operate the
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system, using money from family inheritance.
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About 100 people showed up Monday morning in Chesterfield at a rally
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in support of Offworld, Jay said. He said he was soliciting
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contributions of computer hardware, or cash, to get his system up and
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running again.
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Computer bulletin board systems, or BBSs, as they are known, allow
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users to chat electronically, and share information on a variety of
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subjects. Offworld has bulletin boards that feature job listings,
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book and movie reviews, restaurants and clubs, and discussion groups
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for people with "diverse lifestyles."
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Jay said that any time illegal material appears on a bulletin board
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--whether it is child pornography, offers of sex for sale, or drugs
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--it is purged and the people who posted such messages are kicked off
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the system.
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"Unfortunately, that doesn't prevent them from coming back and using
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another fictitious name," Jay said.
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FBI seizures of electronic bulletin board systems are "quite common,"
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said Mike Godwin, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The
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foundation is a civil liberties group based in Washington for those in
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computer communications.
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Godwin said that pornography is widely available on the thousands of
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electronic bulletin boards in use across the country. New computer
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users often use their scanners to recreate sexy pictures, much the
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same as children who delight in using a newly acquired dirty word.
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"Usually the novelty wears off," Godwin said.
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Child pornography is relatively rare, Godwin said. When it shows up,
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the operator of the system is faced with a choice: delete it
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immediately, or keep it on the system and report it to the police.
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The FBI finds raids effective because they are punitive in and of
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themselves, whether or not a computer systems operator is ever charged
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with a crime.
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But even the most conscientious systems operator cannot keep all
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pornography off a bulletin board, Godwin agreed.
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Jay had previous conversations with the St. Louis County Police about
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his system, he said.
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"I told them I would simply try to use responsibility and common
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sense and ... keep the system legal," Jay said. "I extend the First
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Amendment right to all aspects of the system, unless it violates the
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law."
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Jay said he was seeking legal advice to help him get his computer
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equipment back.
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+++++++++++++++
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Tuesday, January 19, 1993
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Page 10A
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GIF GETS BULLETIN BOARD IN A JIFF
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'We Celebrate Human As Art Forum,' One Manager Says of Nude Issue
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By Daniel R. Browning (Of the Post-Dispatch Staff)
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Dirty pictures transmitted over the telephone to your home computer?
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It had to happen.
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Computer bulletin board systems, called BBSs, proliferate not only
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locally, but nationally and internationally. The biggest ones call
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themselves "information services," and the granddaddy is CompuServe.
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It has nearly 1.2 million members from China to Chile.
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St. Louis Computing, a free monthly computing newspaper, publishes a
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list of local bulletin boards and their phone numbers.
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Within these bulletin boards people interested in particular topics
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go to chat, share information, and yes, show their favorite slides.
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The pictures are transmitted in a special computer code called GIF
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(pronounced jif), which is short for Graphics Interchange Format. To
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see them, you need the special "viewers" included in some
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communications software.
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To capture an image, you have your computer's modem dial the bulletin
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board, then search for whatever you find interesting.
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In the giant databases, that means logging on to a special-interest
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section within the information service or bulletin board. CompuServe
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calls these "forums."
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A forum exists for just about any professional interest or hobby.
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Journalists, lawyers, doctors, aerospace workers, artists,
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photographers, beer and wine enthusiasts, automobile buffs -- you'll
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find them all in the forums.
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Within these, you can find thousands of pictures ranging from NASA
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space shots, to great works of art, to travel photos, to The Girl (or
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Boy) Next Door in a birthday suit.
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A wary technician overseeing the forum warns members that they had to
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be older than 18 to get nude images.
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But practically speaking, there's no way to prevent a minor from
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capturing a nude photo on CompuServe, said Dave Kishler, a company
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spokesman. The Federal Communications Commission does not regulate
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BBSs, he said. So the BBSs have worked up their own sets of rules and
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regulations.
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Dave Shaver, operations manager of CompuServe's Fine Arts Forum, said
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all the images are screened for content before they are made available
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to the members. That's why you'll find hundreds of nudes under a
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category called "Plain Brown Wrapper," but no XXX-rated pictures, he
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said. "We celebrate the human as an art form."
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Some bulletin boards are free. The big ones charge a flat monthly
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fee of $5 to $8. Certain activities within the databases may also
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include hourly surcharges, which vary in price to about $15 an hour.
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Joining a special interest forum and capturing pictures would fit in
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that category on most information services.
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That cost -- and the requirement that members have a credit card or a
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checking account -- helps limit memberships to adults, Shaver said.
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