75 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
75 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Southern California Sysops
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Pull the Plug on Tcimpidis
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by
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David Brown
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10/19/84
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The tide of public opinion seems to be turning against Southern
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California Bulletin Board operator Tom Tcimpidis, following revelation
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that the pilfered credit card number found on his system was that of
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Tcimpidis' former employer.
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Even though most regard John Dvorak a "Smug Twit," his discovery has
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prompted many Southern California Bulletin Board System operators --
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some of whom shut down or altered their own systems in support of
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Tcimpidis' defense -- to change their minds about this matter.
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They find highly suspicious the coincidence that the number belonged
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to Tcimpidis' former employer. More incriminating, they say, is the
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fact that Tcimpidis never mentioned it to anyone in the local BBS
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community.
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Tcimpidis claims the number was placed on his board by a caller using
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an assumed name. He also claims he did not know the number in
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question belonged to a former employer. ...And we all thought Tom was
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a pretty smart guy.
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Dvorak, who says he employed the cunning investigative reporter's
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technique of ACTUALLY CALLING THE TELEPHONE NUMBER, revealed in a
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copyrighted article in the Sunday, Oct. 7, San Francisco Examiner that
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the credit card was owned by a television producer who once employed
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Tcimpidis.
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Now we all know that Dvorak was tipped to this by an attorney from the
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phone company. But I guess we've all got to try to preserve a little
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credibility, John.
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Although local Sysops had stuck up for Tcimpidis from the beginning,
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their dedication was at least in part based on a feeling that "any of
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us could be next." As one Sysop told me: "All some turkey has to do
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is stick a bogus credit card number on your system and you're up shit
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creek!" But operators now feel this latest revelation indicates that
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Pacific Bell's intentions in pressing the case against Tcimpidis are
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not an effort to intimidate local bulletin board operators. "This
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shows they're not going after Sysops," one operator said, "they're
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going after crooks!"
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But even before the recent discovery, local Sysops had confided to
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this writer that Tcimpidis was, at least, "very careless."
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One operator described Tcimpidis' system as the "Pimple Butt BBS."
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"There wasn't one worthwhile P.D. (Public Domain) program on that
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system," he said, "just a bunch of adolescents passing dirty notes...."
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In all fairness, I HAVE downloaded some worthwhile programs from his
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massive Heath system. But I also have seen plenty of inane ramblings
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from local Pimple-Poppers who have nothing better to do with their
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computers.
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By the way, Smug John, all agree with you that the ultimate solution
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to this problem is "a sincere effort at self-policing these boards by
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the people who run them." But you are DEAD WRONG when you say
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"Unfortunately, there has been NO real movement in that direction."
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Local Sysops would like to know why the hell YOU haven't talked with
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them?
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To sum up, Southern California Sysops are ready to pull the plug on
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their support of Tcimpidis and let the telephone company have its way
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with him. Hope he doesn't lose his mouse!
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-End-
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