339 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
339 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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STARK NAKED
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The Journal of Stark County Telecom
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Support BBS: The Dragon's Lair BBS
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Running Renegade Beta 216-966-8970
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August 1, 1992 Volume #1, Issue #2
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***********************************************
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[ Akron Bulletin Board Closed by Authorities ]
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The Akron bulletin board, Akron Anamoly (run by Mark
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Lehrer) is no more. After a police sting operation, the BBS
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was closed because of "obscene" files online. The Anamoly,
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which was known for its vast Fidonet message bases and OS/2
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support, was closed after a parent complained to police
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because of the "dirty" GIFs that were available for download.
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The following pieces include capture buffers from Akron boards
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discussing the incident as well as the actual news story
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concerning it.
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This article is reprinted from the Cleveland [Ohio, USA] Plain Dealer,
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Tuesday, July 21, 1992, Page B3 (?).
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***********************************************************************
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POLICE PULL PLUG ON COMPUTER IN MORALS STING
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Munroe Falls Police Chief Steve Stahl knows computers are big with kids
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these days, byt he never thought he'd see the day when a healthy
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15-year-old boy would choose a floppy disk over a playboy centerfold.
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But now that Stahl's seen some of the floppy disks popular with
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local youths, he understands the facscination.
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"Give me any kid, I know what he's going to donwload," Stahl said.
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In May, Munroe Falls police received a complaint fromn a resident
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who feared that a local computerized community byulletin board containing
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sexually explicit material might be accessible to children.
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Stahl said the resident showed him files called "Alison" and
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"Amber," both of which featured naked women. Stahl told the concerned
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resident, "Oh well, geez, I can see how that would be upsetting."
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For the past two months, police conducted an investigation and
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sting using a local 15 year old boy. After the youth was able to hook into
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the bulletin board, police arrested Mark Lehrer, 22, owner and operator of
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Akron Anomaly, a 1000-member bulletin board. Police also seized all of
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Lehrer's computer equipment.
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Lehrer is accused of distributing graphic sexual material via a
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computer modem from his parent's home in Munore Falls. Lehrer, whose
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father is chairman of the village's charter review commission, has been
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charged in Cuyahoga Falls municipal court with one count each of
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disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possession of computer [probably
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was originally "criminal" -mst] tools
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-- in this case, his computer.
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A preliminary hearing is scheduled for today. The case will
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probably be turned over to a Summit County grand jury.
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Lehrer did not return a phone call yesterday.
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Stahl said this will be the first case in Northeast Ohio and one
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of the first in the state in which an adult is accused of distributing
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graphic sexual materials to juveniles via a computer.
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"There's not a whole lot of case law on this kind of thing," he
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said, adding most material comes from books, magazines, or movies.
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According to Stahl, members of Akron Anomaly paid $15 to $30 a year
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to link into Lehrer's bulletin board. For that fee, they had access to
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games like chess, basketball, and euchre, compouter programming
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instructions, and a series of "gif" -- "graphic interface files" [should be
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"'graphic information files'" -mst] -- that
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feature pictures from James Bond to Captain Kirk to Scooby Doo.
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Some are labeled specifically for adults and are not supposed to be
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accessible to those under age 18, while many others are contained in a
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general file. However, when police seized Lehrer's records they found that
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even the "clean" files contained images not entirely wholesome.
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"One was Bugs Bunny eating a carrot, one was Bart Simpson riding a
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skate board and one was called (a slang term for oral sex) [probably "blow
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job" -- drc], and that was in the clean file," Stahl said.
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Stahl said many files not listed in the adult category contained
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pictures of naked women and of naked women engaged in sexual acts. One
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file allegedly shows a nude image of Christina Applegate, who plays Peg on
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the television show "Married With Children."
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"Parents are happy their kids are upstairs using their computers.
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One parent we talked to was thrilled they weren't finding Playboy magazine.
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Well, I've got news for them, this is a rude awakening," Stahl said.
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In addition to the graphic interface images, juveniles were able to
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access adult movies, which are transmitted on color monitors.
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************************************************************************
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A brief editorial comment: this sucks.
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Any comments, please send e-mail, as I don't monitor this group.
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David
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--
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= THIS MESSAGE IS FROM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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| David R. Cohen or Tracey L. Ridgeway |
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| bx953@cleveland.freenet.edu |
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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***
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Msg # 171 of 184 Date: Fri 7-24-92, 8:43
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From: TERMINATOR Read: 11 times [1 Reply]
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To: THE ASSASSIN
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Subject: Re: Anomaly
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The Munroe Falls police cooperating with FTC federal trade commision.Sent
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the 15 year old on to the system to find such files.
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I agree with Mark's lawyer its just a small town police station trying to
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gain publicity,and may cause problems for other bbs systems.
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Through the grape vine I have heard bulliten board system may be requiring a
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license by the city here in the near future,giving them a chance to do
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periodical checks of the system at any given time,I think this is unfair and
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maybe some of the bulliten boards should go underground to avoid the attack
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by the city,this would be for private members only.
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Terminator
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***
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Msg # 177 of 184 Date: Sat 7-25-92, 15:44
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From: METAL STORM
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To: All
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Subject: Akron Anomoly
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We as BBS user's and some as Sysops should ban together to support this
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kind of invasion. I DO NOT agree with such setups as to using a 15 year old
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child to find a little bit of incriminating evidence to shut down a BBS that
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was not causing any harm to begin with. The Sysop by Federal Regulation is
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NOT RESPONSIBLE for the content of his BBS from which users upload this kind
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of material. Also the actual theme of The Akron Anomoly BBS was not that of
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an X-Rated board. I myself do not download this kind of material because I
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feel that it is a little off colored, but I do not aggree with this type of
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action. BBS systems all over Akron are in serious threat because of the raid
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on AA BBS, and we should all send letters.
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ACT NOW. or you may not be chatting like this in the future. I will post
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some address real soon on this message area and others soon.
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Metal Storm...
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Msg # 178 of 184 Date: Sat 7-25-92, 23:17
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From: ALATNA Read: 9 times [1 Reply]
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To: METAL STORM
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Subject: Re: Akron Anomoly
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I'm all for it. I run a Cleveland BBS and have been in that community for a
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while, they've also much threat. Also, if they were hit, there are many
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things that could be found there, ranging from satanism (yes, Cleveland DOES
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have at least ONE board like that) to Drug Dealing. Maybe some of those
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boards should be shut down, but, I believe people have a right to chose and
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if they chose to communicate about this stuff online, they shouldn't be
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afraid to do so.
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***
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Msg # 180 of 184 Date: Sun 7-26-92, 4:42
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From: METAL STORM Read: 9 times
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To: ALATNA
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Subject: Re: Akron Anomoly
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Well, I feel that using your phone for voice or for data is virtually the
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same. Having someone put restrictions on a BBS is like putting restrictions
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on your voice conversation with your friend. If the contents of your BBS
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were being broadcast so all could see and here then I could see some concern
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in that, but online BBS systems do not fall into that category. I do agree
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that some of those BBS systems you mentioned should be down because I do not
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support anything that is ilegal or immoral but I do have to mention that it
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is still basically a phone conversation and should be dealt with as one.
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Metal Storm...
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***
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Msg # 182 of 184 Date: Sun 7-26-92, 18:31
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From: THE ASSASSIN Read: 3 times
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To: METAL STORM
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Subject: Re: Akron Anomoly
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I was chatting with a sysop that knows Mark (the Sysop of Anomaly) and he
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said that Mark had been warned several times. He also said that distribution
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of pornographic materials to minors is wrong. No ifs, ands, or buts about
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it. It is unfortunate that Mark got in trouble, but he should have been more
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careful. And you are sadly mistaken. A sysops responsibility is too the
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BOARD, and the ARE responsible for what is uploaded and downloaded, since
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they can be put in jail for it. You can now go to prison and be fined
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severely for having commercial software on a bbs. If the sysop does not
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regulate their files, then they should not have a files section in the first
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place.
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The Assassin
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[ ... ]
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Information concerning a sysop effort to put pressure on law
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enforcement officials will be featured in further issues of
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Stark Naked. Also featured will be specific FCC regulations
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concerning adult access for minors, how to protect yourself,
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etc. Stay tuned to Stark Naked for further developments on
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this story.
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[ Stark Modem Meeting a "Success" ]
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The Modem Meeting that Swells was held on Sunday, July 26th,
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at the Country Manor on West Tusc at 7:30pm. Attendance was
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much better than expected with a few surprises. Among the
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various users that showed up early included Varicose Brain,
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the Sorcerer, Spew Queen, Anarchy, Semidri, Beef Jerky,
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Sentinel, the Magister, Sidewinder, Ceasaro, Strider and
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Iron Eagle. Later on, the JEW Krew came down from Akron to
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visit, bringing Ziltron, The Human Computer and Rattlehead.
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A surprise visit by Elminster and Nightstalker added to the
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"enjoyment" of the evening. Of course, where Elminster goes
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... the Lion's Pride goes. Rampant Lion, the Joker, Silicon
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Mage and Gunslinger showed up with surprisingly few words
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for Elminster. Their focus appeared to be on Sentinel, who
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was also known for a short while as the Lion Tamer.
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The course of events eventually led to a verbal argument
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between Sentinel and TLP, which ended rather peacefully.
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Rampant Lion, who was toting a cam-corder (apparently for
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a future demo) was heard saying to Sentinel, "Hey, man, I
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was just joking around with you," as he was going to his
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car.
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The evening came to a startling close around 10:30pm when
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the Sorcerer received a phone call from Country Manor, who
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wanted the money for his bill! Supposedly, the bills were
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switched and the Sorcerer ended up paying for someone else's
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meal.
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For the most part, a good time was had by all and hopefully,
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future modem meetings will be as much of a success.
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[ Canton Connection Censors Newsletter ]
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An Editorial by the Sorcerer
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I hope that what you read in this newsletter is useful
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and informative to you. I know that in the research I've
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done both for this issue and future issues, I have
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learned quite a lot about what is going on around me.
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Unfortunately, certain sysops in the Stark area do not
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share the same enthusiasm that I do.
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When Stark Naked Issue #1 first came out, I posted it on
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the Canton Connection. I received a note (which I thought)
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was nasty from Larry, the sysop at Canton Connection. He
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said that he didn't want my "modem wars" on his bulletin
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board and that I am just making myself look "small." So I
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posted a message telling people that the newsletter was in
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existence and was available on other bulletin boards. That
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message, too, was deleted. Finally, I just posted a
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message asking people to send me private e-mail concerning
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something that I was not allowed to post publicly about. I
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was under the misconception that private e-mail on Canton
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Connection was just that -- private.
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Sunday morning when I logged onto Canton Connection, I
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was answering numerous e-mail that I had received
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concerning the newsletter. In the middle of one of my
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replies I was knocked off the bulletin board. Dismissing
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it as line trouble or something akin to that, I called
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back to find that my ID no longer worked. I was puzzled,
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because I didn't think that private e-mail was something
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interfered with on Canton Connection. After repeated
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attempts of logging on as new, I asked Larry to call me
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voice. He did and told me that I was no longer welcome on
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Canton Connection. He also said that he wished to talk
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to my parents about harrassment charges. However, I told
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him that my parents were not home and that I could handle
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these situations by myself. He insisted that because I was
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a minor I couldn't ... but I did.
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So now I'm stuck off Canton Connection. I can't say it is
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that much of a loss to me, though. However, it certainly
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does say something for the direction of telecommunications
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in this area. It used to be that the free exchange of
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information was the key to bulletin boarding. Now it seems
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like the only free exchange is that which is approved by
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sysops who feel they should decide what their users can
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read and can't read. Larry did say one thing: he pays the
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bills for Canton Connection. And he's right. He does pay
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the bills and it is his board. But the day that sysops
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start ignoring user suggestions and start censoring is the
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day that I'm happy not to be part of that system.
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I'd like to thank the users that came to my defense on
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that system. I've talked to a few of you. The rest of
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you ... if you are concerned about the course of events
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that is taking place here ... perhaps you should speak to
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the sysops of Canton Connection and get their side of the
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story as well.
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As for me, I am very disappointed. But, oh well. I'm just
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a minor.
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[ In future issues of Stark Naked ... ]
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In upcoming issues of Stark Naked, we'll be taking a more
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in-depth look at the Akron Anamoly incident and how it
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affects bulletin boards everywhere, we'll explore Unix and
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Internet, we'll be looking at Renegade BBS and its features,
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and we'll be talking more about the first anniversary of
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the Dragon's Lair BBS. Until then ... speak freely among
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yourselves!
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