158 lines
7.2 KiB
Plaintext
158 lines
7.2 KiB
Plaintext
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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Article Written For Crisnews By:
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Sara Gordon
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Dear Michael;
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I'm really concerned about the recent 'outbreak' of legislation in the wild.
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I'm seeing variants popping up all over, and it's disturbing. So, for this
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reason I am sending you this article. This article should not be seen as an
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endorsement of CRIS in any way.
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This article has nothing to do with CRIS, but it has a lot to do with
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the things that are happening on the nets; things that people have to
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realize are really happening. A year ago when discussions about laws
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were happening on fido, people insisted this kind of thing could never
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happen. Well, it can, and it does, and it's not going to stop. People
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have to be aware of what is going on.
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There are a lot of complex sociological issues, regarding the various
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aspects of underground cultures and subcultures, that play into all of
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this. And, there are a lot of other factors as well. However, at this
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point, I'd just like your readers to read this file and judge for
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themselves whether or not we should be concerned about "freedoms". Along
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with freedoms come responsibilities. We can save that for later :)
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Sara
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- -----
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And Liberty, Injustice for All.....
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Terrorist Explosives Handbook; Improvised Explosives; CIA Explosives for
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Sabotage. These are all publications available through Delta Press, Ltd.
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Legally.
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In August, this year, Mike Elansky, sysop of a BBS, was arrested and charged
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with violation of a section of criminal code stating "A person is guilty
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of inciting injury to persons or property when.....he advocates,
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encourages, justifies, praises, incites or solicits....any assault
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upon...the police force of this or any other state..."
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Why? Elansky had an anarchy file on his BBS. His bail was set at $500,000.
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Average bail for a murderer in Connecticut is $100,000.
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What was in this file?
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! Note to
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Law-enforcement type people: ! ! This file is
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intended to promote ! ! general havoc and
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*ANARCHY*, and ! ! since your going to be the
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first ! ! assholes up against the wall.. there
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! ! isnt a damn thing you can do about ! ! it,
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pigs! !
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I asked Veggie (author of this file) for his impressions of this
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incident. Here is what he had to say:
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(quotes used with his permission)
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"Let me start out with a description of the events so far, as explained to me
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by Mike Elansky, in phone calls from Jail. On August 2nd Mike was scheduled
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to go to court in Hartford to have some charges against him dropped. He knew
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that he was being investigated for some reason, and as far as I can make out
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he knew that there was a warrant out on him. This warrant specified a $25,000
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bond. Mike and his parents had arranged for a Real Estate Bond for the $25,000,
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and Mike had encrypted his computers and given them to a friend, to protect
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them from confiscation, and he sort of knew that there was the possibility of
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his arrest after his court appearance on the 2nd. And, in fact, he was arrested by
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the Hartford Police at the courthouse. His Lawyer was present at his arrest.
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BUT, he was turned over to the West Hartford Police, who held the warrant on
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him, supposedly to just be "booked". His lawyer was told this, and went back to
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do whatever it is lawyers do when they're not doing cases, but meanwhile Mike
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discovered that he was being "rushed through" the 'booking' procedure. He
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didn't think anything strange of it at the time, but as he says "it all makes
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sense to me now". He was rushed over to the courthouse and Arraigned less than
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three hours after his arrest. He was not allowed to contact his lawyer to
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notify him of the change in arraignment dates, and so his lawyer was not
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present at his arraignment. The prosecutor requested that the bail be raised to
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$500,000 and the judge agreed.
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Mike has been in jail since August 2nd. He suffers from severe athsma, and has
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had to be taken to the hospital several times since then. (*note* He has
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also been assaulted twice and has witnessed a hanging).
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But I digress. Let's see. According to Mike, the local police have "had it in
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for him" for a long time. No, he's not a saint, but he's not the devil they
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have been trying to portray him as either. As Mike read the Hartford Courant
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article to me over the phone, he addressed each of the charges against him
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that it lists... the only one that he admits to is the Credit-Card Fraud one,
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but as he put it, he was "Young and stupid." The Handgun charge was actually
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a BB Gun. The previous Explosives charge were FIREWORKS. (illegal and somewhat
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dangerous, Yes, but hardly a pipebomb). Also, all those previous charges
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against him were dropped (except the Credit Card one).
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Mike Elansky was arrested and imprisoned for nothing more then possessing
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information that is publicly and legally available in many libraries and most
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bookstores. This case is just one more example of the law enforcement
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community's refusal to recognize that Electronic Publication has the same first
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amendment rights as hardcopy works.
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The only thing that might be considered harmful to police
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officers at all were the two facetious "disclaimers" I put at
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the beginning. But those disclaimers are quite obviously a parody and a spoof,
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and I find it hard to believe anyone could actually take them seriously.
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The prosecutor is trying to hold Elansky responsible for knowing every
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bit of every file on his board. They are unwilling to recognize that is
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a next to impossible task. Mike ran a 1.8 GIGABYTE board. That is about
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1,800,000,000 characters. To expect him to know every file on his board is
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comparable to expecting a librarian to know every word out of every book
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in their Library. Impossible.
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Indeed, Mike had never read the file before, and was not even aware of it's
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presence on his board until the Police told him about it. He was never asked to
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remove the file, he was simply arrested. The Police are attempting to make an
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example of Mike Elansky. Trying to set a precedent for restriction of our
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first amendment rights. That this is happening is truly tragic, and it is sad
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to see a chunk of Mike's life go by stuck in jail for an imaginary
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crime."
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I don't know Mike. I know Veggie. This whole thing is -INSANE- and is
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just another example of how afraid people are of technology. There is no
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big difference between the files on a BBS and books in a library that
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say the same things. Books you can buy.
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There have been new developments. Elansky has admitted to two violations of
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probation as part of a plea agreement that includes up to three years in
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prison. He will now not be prosecuted for distribution of the anarchy files.
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Could he have been? Well, probably. I mean, he was charged, so he could
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be prosecuted. His lawyer probably made what he thought was the best
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decision for his own personal situation. Does this mean that if he had
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been prosecuted, he would have been convicted? And what does this mean
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to all of us?
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