302 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
302 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
/* All comments by Digital Derelict. */
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Hackers of the World, Unite!
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============================
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From Newsweek, July 2, 1990
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By John Schwartz
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Typed by Mortimer
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A production of Hanford BBS.
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/* Comments by Digital Derelict */
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It is not your average keynote speech. It's more like a call to
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arms. A couple of hundred software developers sit entralled by Mitch
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Kapor, who dropped by their recent Ann Arbor in his private jet - one of
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the nifty things you can buy for yourself if you happen to be the guy who
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wrote Lotus 1-2-3. The once portly computer star has shed 25 pounds
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lately through a determined combination of exercise and diet. He's
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doffed his jacket and slipped on a convention T shirt over his shirt and
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tie. While this fashion statement might be confused, his message is not:
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There's a threat out there. Not computer viruses. Not nasty hackers.
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It's the Feds.
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/* This is something that publications like PHRACK INC. (rest in peace),
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LOD/H (also shut down), and any BBSers that have bothered to pull their
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head(s) out have been saying for a decade. Amazing how fast news travels,
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huh? */
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Kapor first asks which members of the audience use electronic
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"bulletin boards" and conference systems. Almost all the hands go up.
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Kapor then puts the scare into them with tales from the "hacker dragnet".
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Law-enforcement agencies have stepped up efforts against computer crime
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[fun timeline at the end]. Kapor believes that they have gone too far.
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He cites police raids on teenagers' homes, with guns drawn and family
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members forcibly restrained. He tells of widespread equipment seizures,
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and the raid that nearly shut down Steve Jackson Games, a small Austin,
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Texas, producer of fantasy role-playing games - even though it was not a
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target of the investigation.
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/* Actually, what happened was that an employee of SJ Games was formerly
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affiliated with The Phoenix Project, a perfectly legal BBS that was shut
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down by the Pigs -* er, the Feds the instant that the sysop (it is not
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clear which, but The Mentor was one) announced that they were going to start
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using an E-Mail encryption routine. The Mentor had invited a few Feds to
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come and join them in discussions on the board to prove that it wasn't
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anything to be afraid of, thus the immediate response. As far as this
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author knows, the equipment was never returned, no charges were pressed, and
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it had nothing to do with an investigation. It was allegedly affiliated
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with LoD (publishers of LoD/H Technical Journal), which is the current
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target of this new McCarthyism. LoD was allegedly connected with the E911
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case, where The Prophet leaked the contents of the E911 document to Knight
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Lightning, publisher of PHRACK. If this is a valid excuse for nearly
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shutting down the publishers of the 'GURPS' RPG series, the Feds as
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far gone as I suspected. The year '1984' comes to mind. */
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And he talks about a student indicted on charges stemming from
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publishing a private telephone-company statement in his electronic
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newsletter; Kapor says that the prosecution may violate freedom of press.
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"The first thing that happens is the government goes around busting a
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bunch of teenagers," Kapor complains," and calls them criminals." The
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threat, he warns, extends to virtually anyone who links his computer
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to others.
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Law-enforcement officials accuse Kapor of romanticizing crooks who
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are violating the rights of their victims, and most people still think
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that hackers are a bigger threat than the cops.
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/* The same 'law-enforcement' (read: police-brutality) officials also hold
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that a student fired first at the Kent State Massacre. */
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But the crackdown has spurred Kapor and such industry legends as
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Apple Computer cofounder Steve Wozniak to band together behind the new
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generation. Their goal: to protect the flow of information and innovation
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that helped bring about the personal-computer revolution.
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/* Unfortunately, Apple Computers' current top executives are working in the
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opposite direction. More to come on this. */
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Within the next few weeks they will officially announce a new
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foundation, yet unnamed, intended to combat computer phobia and provide
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legal aid for some of those snared in the dragnet. The computer-rights
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movement has gained support on Capitol Hill, where Sen. Patrick Leahy,
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Democrat of Vermont, has planned upcoming hearings on how far law
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enforcement should go. While advocating some punishment for lawbreakers,
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Leahy adds, "We cannot unduly inhibit the inquisitive 13-year-old who, if
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left to experiment today, may tomorrow develop the telecommunications or
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computer technology to lead the United States into the 21st century.
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He represents our future and our best hope to remain a technologically
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competitive nation."
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/* Interestingly enough, Dr. Timothy Leary (correct me on the spelling) of
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'turn on, tune in, drop out' fame holds the same position. */
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It's not that Kapor thinks he's defending choirboys. Although
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some hackers insist they should be able to traipse digitally wherever
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they please, Kapor says that trespassers should be prosecuted - "I don't
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want people breaking in where they don't belong." But he says the
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zealousness of the investigations is out for proportion to the threat.
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/* Somebody should tell this reporter what 'McCarthyism' and 'witch-hunts'
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are. There always must be an enemy. Now that the commies aren't the
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'evil empire,' the government is being forced to invent new threats. */
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To Kapor, there is more at stake than keeping a bunch of teenagers
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out of jail. He cites the case of Craig Neidorf, the University of Missuori
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student indicted after his electronic newsletter, Phrack, featured the
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private telephone-company document. If the government is right in
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Neidorf's case, says Kapor attorney Terry Gross, The New York Times could
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have had its printing presses confiscated for publishing the Pentagon
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Papers.
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/* Read that sentence again. Carefully. */
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"Its very, very clear First Amendment implications should threaten
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all traditional media," says Gross - whose firm, Rabinowitz, Boudin,
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Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman, represented Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel
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Ellsberg.
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Not everyone is singing along with Mitch. Software companies, long
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angry over "piracy" (passing around bootleg copies of programs), are glad
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to see the authorities cracking down. Ken Wasch, executive director of
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the Software Publishers Association, calls Kapor a friend, but says, "For
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Mitch to believe that there is a government-sponsored witch hunt going on
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is completely without foundation."
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/* I had to have three people pin me while one beat me senseless in order to
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stop laughing after reading this! This is the same person who (with help
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from [Cr]Apple Computers) is advocating laws in Europe (and soon the USA)
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to OUTLAW all hardware, software, and publications that could in ANY WAY
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aid or instruct a person in breaking copy protection (which is a ridiculous
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concept in the first place) or altering commercial software. This means no
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Central Points Option Boards. This means that a PC-Magazine article telling
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you how to twiddle a bit would land you in jail. This means that a copy of
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'Gamemaster,' Copy-II [insert computer type here, e.g. Copy-II-PC], Option
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Board control software, or character editors would be outlawed. */
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Gail Thackeray, an Arizona assistant attorney general who deals with
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high-tech crime, insists the authorities are being mindful of civil rights.
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She predicts that when the facts come out at the various trials, the cops
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will be vindicated: "Some of these people who are loudest on the bandwagon
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may just slink back into the background."
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/* After Men In Black show up with pistols pulled and threaten them. It's
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happened. */
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Thackeray dismisses claims that prosecution will shut down legitamite
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computer networks;...
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/* It already has. Large, public, dial-up UNIX boxes have been seized as
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'evidence' and never returned without being used in trials because 6K of
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their 15-megs-a-night of Internet mail happened to be that rewritten E911
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leak. Interestingly enough, the document, supposedly valued at ~$79K,
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contains mostly public information and certainly NOTHING that would enable
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a so-called 'hacker' to gain access to the system. */
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...she speaks approvingly of one former hacker who told agents that he had
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quit as word spread of the raids. "That's not, to me, a constitutionally
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suspect chilling effect," she says. "That's what we in law enforcement
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call a 'deterrent'."
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/* I suppose Kent State was a 'deterrent' against free thought. I suppose
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McCarthyism was a 'deterrent' against proposing reform in our corrupt
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government. How stupid does she take us to be? */
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If Kapor's stance seems surprising, he's used to surprising
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people. His 1-2-3 bundle of business tools was an overnight hit, making
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him a multimillionaire. Once his Lotus Development Corp. became a giant,
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he shocked the industry again by walking away; Lotus, he says, had
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outgrown its innovative beginnings. "Most of what you do in business is
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business," he explains. "I'm interested in business as a medium for
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creating products." He is now creating products again at his new firm,
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Cambridge Mass.-based On Technology.
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Kapor developed the idea for the computer foundation with John
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Perry Barlow, a writer and self-described "professional techno-crank."
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Barlow says hackers typically try to sound more dangerous than they
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really are, a kind of digital vogueing. He says most live by a "hacker
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ethic" described by a Phrack essay. The piece tells prospective hackers
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to do no harm, because "The thrill of the hack is not in breaking the
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law, it is in the pursuit of knowledge." Barlow says if this weren't the
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case, there would be even more damage to computers.
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/* This is very true. If the people out there would use their knowledge for
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'bad,' the Internet would go to pot. Corporate systems would crash daily
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and NOT because of a root spilling his coffee on a circuitboard. */
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With the outlines of the organization sketched out, Kapor began
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calling on friends in the industry. While some have been reluctant,
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there was one instant convert: Apple cofounder Wozniak. Like Kapor,
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Wozniak walked away from his company when it grew too far past its funky
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beginnings. He has since put on rock concerts, gone back for his college
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degree and taken stabs at high-tech ventures. Wozniak says a little
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mischief is important to the quest for knowledge. He credits his college
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experience building "blue boxes" (devices for making free phone calls)
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with honing his hardware-design skills. He compares electronic trespass
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to driving a few miles over the speed limit. There are people who never
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break any such rules, he says, but adds "do you think I'd want my son to
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turn out like that, or marry one? I'd still support him... but I kinda
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hope he has a a more fun life." "Woz" pledged to match Kapor's
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contribution, which helped put the initial funding over $150,000.
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Kapor, captain of his high school math team, has thrown in his lot
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with the nerds. He and his allies are attempting nothing less than to
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keep the ideals of the computer revolution alive. They hope to turn
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around a public increasingly resentful of computers and the people who
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are adept at using them. "You've got a lot of people who don't understand
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the present," Barlow says, "and in the absence of understanding, /* and in
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the face of intense government propaganda */ default to fear...The real
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disease here is future shock." Somebody has to stick up for the pencil-
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necked and the pimply. Luckily for them, the men who have chosen to do so
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are filthy rich.
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Great Moments in Mischief
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=========================
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[The fun timeline, as promised!]
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The word "hacker" once meant any dedicated programmer; lately it's
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taken on a criminal tone. Some events that got us from there to here:
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September 1970: John Draper makes free calls with a cereal-box whistle
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that matches AT&T's tones. Hence his nom de hack: Captain
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Crunch. [Wasn't it Cap'n Crunch?]
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1986: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act passes, toughening police powers
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against hackers.
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February 1990: Four indictments in an alleged scheme authorities say
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endangered 911 service. They cite a group calling itself "Legion
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of Doom." /* The Feds are trying to slap a ~$130000 fine and several
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years in jail on each of them */
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/*
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February 1990: Federal investigators confiscate Knight Lightning's (pub-
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lisher of PHRACK) laser printer as evidence in the E911 trial.
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Somehow I have a feeling that it's sitting on the desk of the local
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sherriff, churning out smut textfiles. Another item that was seized as
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'evidence' was a story-in-progress that was due in less than a month.
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They marked a Cyberpunk novel for confiscation as well, but overlooked
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it.
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*/
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May 1990: Robert T. Morris Jr. is found guilty of setting loose a "worm"
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program that stilled thousands of linked computers in November
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1988. His sentence includes no jail time.
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/* ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ */
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May 1990: Operation Sundevil, one of several antihacker investigations,
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seizes 42 computers and 23,000 floppy disks in 14 cities with four
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arrests.
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/*
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June 1990: Government investigators have still refused to give back the systems
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that they seized as [totally irrelevant] 'evidence' in cases that
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never have and never will go to trial. The few systems that _are_
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returned are very seldom in working order.
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June 1990: Steve Jackson Games is on the verge of going out of business. When
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the 'public slavedrivers-*, er, SERVANTS' seized their systems they
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also seized work-in-progress (GURPS Cyberpunk RPG modules) and the
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food from the fridge. Definitely solid evidence there.
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*/
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THIS HAS BEEN A PRODUCTION OF HANFORD BBS
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CONSTANTLY STRIVING FOR PUBLIC AWARENESS AND ABOLITION OF
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AMERICAN APATHY
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Call Hanford Biohazard Processing and Removal Facility - (503) 629-0209
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Sysop: Digital Derelict
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Running: WWIV v4.11
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Over 500 text files online!
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--------------
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 V.42bis, 14.4K
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&TOTSE Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 9600 HST
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The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 2400
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 2400
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 2400
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My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 2400
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New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 2400
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Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives,
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arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality,
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insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS.
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No harassment of callers. We don't want to know who you are,
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where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother.
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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