1808 lines
86 KiB
Plaintext
1808 lines
86 KiB
Plaintext
F I D O N E W S -- Vol.11 No. 2 (09-Jan-1994)
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| A newsletter of the | |
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| FidoNet BBS community | Published by: |
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| _ | |
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| / \ | "FidoNews" BBS |
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| /|oo \ | +1-519-570-4176 1:1/23 |
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| (_| /_) | |
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| _`@/_ \ _ | Editors: |
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| | | \ \\ | Sylvia Maxwell 1:221/194 |
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| | (*) | \ )) | Donald Tees 1:221/192 |
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| |__U__| / \// | Tim Pozar 1:125/555 |
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| _//|| _\ / | |
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| (_/(_|(____/ | |
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| (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. |
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| | -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
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+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
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| Submission address: editors 1:1/23 |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| Internet addresses: |
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| |
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| Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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| Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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| Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com |
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| Both Don & Sylvia (submission address) |
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| editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| For information, copyrights, article submissions, |
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| obtaining copies and other boring but important details, |
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| please refer to the end of this file. |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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========================================================================
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Table of Contents
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========================================================================
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1. Editorial..................................................... 2
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2. Articles...................................................... 2
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Fido - the international connection......................... 2
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BUILDING THE BETTER BEAST................................... 4
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NOW IS NOT THE TIME......................................... 8
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Who owns that message, anyway?.............................. 9
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THE LAW..................................................... 11
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New Network in Town......................................... 12
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The Nodelist - Quality is *NOT* job one..................... 14
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"An Open Letter to Steven Winter"........................... 19
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Steve Winter is misguided................................... 21
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THE HACKER CRACKDOWN........................................ 23
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3. Fidonews Information.......................................... 31
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 2 09 Jan 1994
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========================================================================
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Editorial
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========================================================================
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It is a large issue this week, so we are going to play down
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the editorial and just give you the articles. There are hardly
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any quotes at all <S>.
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Civility is the ability to halucinate with synchronicity, ie.,
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a bunch of people all have the same dream. If you have any other
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dreams, then you're deviant, or merely crazy.
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========================================================================
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Articles
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========================================================================
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Fido - the international connection
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===================================
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By Daniel Finger
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2:242/1007.7
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My dear friends,
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as I am looking forward to becoming a german Fido-node soon,
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I would very much like to express some thoughts about Fido
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as a very special net, which's existence can not be praised
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enough.
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I wonder how many of us really have an idea how wonderful
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a network Fido is to have access to. In the latest issue
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of Fido-news somebody elaborated on the adventages of
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usenet. It may well be that usenet is a network that is
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much less complicated to deal with for individual users. I
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strongly doubt that the interaction in the conferences are
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of a generally more social attitude though. But there is
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one advantage to Fidonet that no other net I know of gives
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you:
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FIDO IS A LARGE INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC NETWORK RUN BY
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INDIVIDUALS AS A NON-PROFIT PROJECT.
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Now, what does this actually mean? First of all it means a
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lot of work and quite some equipment for the nodes and
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especially the hubs, but (fortunately) moderate or no costs
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for Fido's users and points. How can a lot of time and
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money spent by the nodes and hubs possibly be an advantage? As
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I understand it, usenet and internet are largely kept up by
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organisations as universities, companies and governments.
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Now those organisations have not interfered much with what
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is routed through the nets and sub-nets YET. But I can
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imagine that this will not go on indefinitely.
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When financial issues arise and there will be people in
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positions who decide what will be paid for and what won't
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who are accustomed to structures and contents of the nets
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they will simply cut down on the costs. I know of course
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 3 09 Jan 1994
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that most of the data is send through fixed lines anyhow,
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but the argument might be that these are not financed to
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be used for conversations on sex, drugs and rock'n roll
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anyway. This might well happen over here in germany since
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we constantly have to deal with enormous budget cuts for
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our universities (almost all of them are exclussively
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financed by our government).
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Furthermore there may come a time when political reasons
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could suggest having a stronger influence on what is routed
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and to whom. Although times seem rough regarding the latest
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Fidonews issues, people in the net have always had a strong
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committence to freadom of speach, freadom of information and
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freadom of expression. This attitude is by no means popular
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with all influential individuals or organisations, national
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or international.
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So if there will be official net-trouble it will be quite
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easy to greatly damage the structures of nets like the
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internet. Sites can be disconnected, access can easily be
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regulated or controlled, things like that. Repressing acts
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like these do not have to be feared in FIDO. Since indivi-
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duals run Fidonet and since they pay for it and keep up it's
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infrastructure by themselves, even hubs could be raided
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without leaving heavy wounds in the net-organism. But it
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would leave a very angry and determined Fidonet behind. And
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since every node is listed and every sysop of a node knows
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of his points personally (at least this should be the case
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with the majority), the net's organisation could be shifted
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a little to once again establish unhindered mail-transfer.
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If the global village is in site within the next millenium
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and it sure seems to me it is, I want it to be populated by
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free individuals and I want it to be open to almost anyone
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and controllable only by the people who participate in it
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and spend their time and concern for it. Fido is the only
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network I have ever heard of to supply this potential even
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NOW.
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Let us consider a different aspect of the net now, it's
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international componant. Fortunately, Fido has nodes on
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almost every continent in many countries and cities.
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Fortunately, international routing works quite fine and
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last but not least, fortunately, the costs for all this
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international routing are acceptable.
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Unfortunately, international echos are scarce. I don't know
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why this is the case, but it has been bothering me since I
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became a Fido-point almost two years ago. Most Fido-users
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are able of writing a fair english no matter where they live
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and even in national echomail-conferences most of the mode-
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rators allow english as a conference language. Why is it,
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that there are so little international areas?
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I know of areas like USA_EURLINK and ASIAN_LINK, but these
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are multi-national areas at best and they are not related
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 4 09 Jan 1994
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to topics, but simply cover all topics for the sake of any
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intercontinental mail-transfer at all. I believe that it is
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time for a change. There should at least be echomail-
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conferences tending to topics like
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international Fido-organisation
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international politics
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international culture
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international ecology
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international contacts (for people to coordinate vistis
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in foreign countries and the like)
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Now, maybe I am all wrong and these echos exist, all or at
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least some of them. I stand corrected. Drop me a net-mail and
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I will try to get connected. But if this lack of internatio-
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nal echomail-traffic is indeed a fact, then I would love
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to here from all of you who feel the same about it and
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would like to spend some time working out the possibilities.
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I am sorry that this article has gotten a bit long, but at
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least it didn't mention any *Cs, bible verses, archiver-
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comparisons or strange stories ;-)
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With my best wishes for a happy, healthy and productive 1994
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Daniel
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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brought to you courtesy of TIM MADISON and
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the PIGDOG MAILING LIST DIGEST #2:
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The Ballad of Johhny 5090
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(This is more drivel I wrote about copy machines during a stretch where I
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worked 11 out of 12 days. I don't know why I bothered. I mean...copy
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machines? Another REJECT from Pigdog #3)
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BUILDING THE BETTER BEAST
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(Our Expert Rates the New Crop of High Volume Duplicating Machines)
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Deep in the belly of every Xerox 5090 Photocopier hides a tiny, powerful
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mini-brain known as an ElectroMobe. This small, but utterly efficient,
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microchip is the nerve center of the machine that many call the greatest
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copier ever made. A vast network of recessed sensors deployed inside the
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copier relay the slightest aberration to the 'Mobe, which then, aping the
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human mind that conceived of it, sends a termination signal to the main
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processing unit. A piece of paper gone even 2 degrees askance will shut
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the machine down instantly, thanks to the ever-vigilant work of the
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ElectroMobe Brain. There is, quite simply, nothing else like it at work
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anywhere in the world.
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Which brings us to the state of copying technology at the present time.
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After a long stasis, which saw companies like Canon and Kodak bringing
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belching monsters to the fore time and time again to forge a lead in the
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 5 09 Jan 1994
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stagnant marketplace, Xerox introduced in 1991 the 5090, and has not
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looked back since. Quite literally, its competitors have been left far
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behind. The 5090 is the Anvil on which the plain paper revolution of the
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1990's is being forged.
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The 5090's specs are truly terrifying. 170 copies per minute. A reliable
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duplex tray which can hold up to 200 sheets at a time. A dual
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finisher/stacker, which can contain up to four "sets" in progress while
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collating and finishing to send to an automatic stacker tray. An
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ingenious hot glue binding system that does in one versatile package,
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almost as an afterthought, what messy, inconvenient machines costing many
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thousands of dollars once were required for. An ultra-sensitive Automatic
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Document Handler (ADH) that can hold nearly 300 sheets at once, and can
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run both extremely heavy (cardstock) and light (thermal) weights of
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paper. Add to that impressive array a complex-though-simple terminal
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touch screen, a 3.5 floppy disk drive, and three colossal paper trays
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with a combined sheet storage capacity of just under 5000, and you have
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what can only be called the Lamborghini of copiers, the Best of the Best.
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Many have tried, but few have succeeded, in duplicating Xerox's success
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with this machine. Late 1992 and so far this year have seen an influx of
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supposedly "high-volume" competitors from companies such as Konica and
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Minolta, with impressive national ad campaigns to boost sales. The astute
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reader will note that Xerox has yet to air an ad for the 5090; it does
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not need one.
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So, in the spirit of fairness, this space has been provided to review
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what the other's have to offer. It is not as a shuck for Xerox that we
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attempt to portray ourselves, yet the fact remains that Xerox has created
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something bigger, possibly then themselves; a machine so blindingly
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perfect that all others are become without value.
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KODAK
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Kodak's Ektaprint line was a reliable, workhorse copier, for both
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high-volume "full-service" work and also for the most menial of small
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jobs. In it's time which lasted most of the previous decade the
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Ektaprint 235 stood up to all comers, including Xerox's own 5010 and
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5060. Then came the 90's, and the 5090 (and, to a lesser extent, the
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5100) have put this fine beast out to a well-deserved pasture.
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In truth, the Ektaprint line produced only barely passable solids,
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possessed an ADH constructed like a Polish tank, and had only a paltry
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array of "special features" for jobs which required extra handling. The
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method to switch trays was clunky, and few key operators to this date
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have been able to decipher the secret method to get the 235 to switch
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from letter to legal stapling. Also, the duplex tray was notoriously
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unreliable. The "Suicide Run" was a staple of 235 activity.
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On the other hand, the machine rarely required servicing. In fact, it
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would run until it ran out of ink, and sometimes not then (the only
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method to tell if ink was required was a small red switch inside the
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door, which turned on a tiny light behind the toner container. If you
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could see the light behind the container, then it was time to replace it.)
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Still, some thrifty shops still insist on using this machine even today.
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This is roughly equivalent to choosing an Apple IIe over a Macintosh
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Quadra solely on the basis of cost.
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 6 09 Jan 1994
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Early last year Kodak introduced a "competitor" to the 5090 in the form
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of the 535. While still comparitively slow (90 cpm), the 535 does rival
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the 5090 in terms of sheer size. Kodak seems to have adopted a "bigger is
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better" philosophy here. With the full finisher installed, the machine is
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a mammoth 19 feet long, and weighs approximately 17 tons. The controls
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are still basic, and the copies produced retain the Kodak "grainy" feel,
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though the solids are a bit more dependable.
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While it's tempting to call the 535 an enormous failure from start to
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finish (in that it exceeds the 5090 in no areas at all), there remains a
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niche for Kodak and it's "pay-for-play" leasing policy. The 635 might be
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worth watching for, if they can learn their lessons well. (Though a quick
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scan through the history of Eastman belies this possibility from
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Ektaprint 90 through 535, they have simply taken a mediocre machine and
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made it bigger and louder, without actually improving it.)
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CANON
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I have never trusted Canon or their machines, color copiers excepted.
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They are the antithesis of Kodak. Where Eastman machines are solid and
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armor-plated, Canon's entries have always seemed fragile...high-impact
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plastic in a world which demands flexibility.
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Their latest entries are more of the same, and they don't even really try
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to compete with the 5090, despite their ads' claims. These cheap machines
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average around 75-90 impressions per minute, and their imaging technology
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is below even Kodak's par. They are unpopular with service bureaus and
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offices requiring high-volume work (except in Japan, where even this is
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changing rapidly; in fact, the 5090 may do there what Ford and GM could
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not in turning the trade balance around). They seem best suited to a
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medium office market requiring a few thousand impressions per day.
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Any idea of Canon challenging Xerox for the high-volume throne is
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laughable at this time.
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MINOLTA, KONICA, RICOH
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See Canon entry, above.
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XEROX
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There is no substitute. After a long, woeful string of popular failures
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(the 5010 was so hated by key operators it became common practice to
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attach pictures of lemons to their frames), Xerox wised up and unleashed
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the aforementioned Better Machine upon an unsuspecting public. Actually,
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the public had some clues to its arrival, namely an extremely heavy and
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expensive internal publicity blitz. Within three days of its release, all
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5090s in existence were booked up for sale or leasing, with a nine-month
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waiting list). Simply put, here was a machine that did what it promised.
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But not without problems. The early release models were full of bugs.
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Software problems were so prevalent in the early days that Xerox
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retrofitted all 5090s with an extra internal RAM card to prevent this
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touchy maintenance issue from reoccurring. Even now, shops with 5090s can
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expect to see their area tech an average of once every 1.7 days. This is
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not to fault the machine. Most, of not all, of the service problems stem
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from the amazing productivity of the machine itself. In the store I work
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 7 09 Jan 1994
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in, our two 5090s can expect to see an average of 600,000 impressions
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each, every month. This exceeds the average count on our Kodak machine by
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a 10:1 ratio. That works our to something near 7.2 million copies a year,
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quite impressive indeed. And since Xerox offers total technical support
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during business hours at no charge, the service issue is a small one when
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compared to the benefits of the machine.
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Not long after the introduction of the 5090 came the 5100, smaller, more
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compact machine not intended as a direct antecedent of the 5090. It can
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supply apprx. 90cpm, and it's main claim to fame lies in its ability to
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do internal 11x17 duplexing, through the ADH. It is not an entirely
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wonderful machine, however, and many shops have abandoned it in favor of
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the far superior 5090.
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Then there is the Docutech. This machine carries the 5090 chassis and
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engine, features four paper trays, and contains a full-powered 486
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microprocessor in its brain stem. The most notable feature is its ability
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to scan in documents and store them to a 230Mb hard drive for later
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retrieval. The keyop merely punches in the filename and the machine calls
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up the document and begins printing from the specified tray(s), without
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the need for lens flash. This can be useful for large corporations which
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need to print 100,000 copies of the same document each week, or each day,
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but is almost entirely unnecessary for most shops. In fact, the basic
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Docutech does not come with an ADH. Collating a 97-page document would
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require individually hand placing and scanning each page, then setting
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the page order through the terminal.
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More evil by far are the goons Xerox has hired to promote this machine.
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They know little or nothing about the working of the 5090 gut, yet can
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expound mightily on the hard drive.
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There are several options currently available to refine the 5090. An
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11x17 document handler, for instance, and a booklet maker are among
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these. With all options installed, the 5090 would stretch some 26 feet long.
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CONCLUSION
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You already have discerned it. When in doubt, go with the 5090. It's got
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a hefty price ($5000/month or so on a fixed 24- or 36-month lease), but
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it's productivity is unrivaled by anything on the planet.
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If Spock wanted a copier, he would pick the 5090.
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COPY MANIA
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Tim Madison <tjames@netcom.com>
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 8 09 Jan 1994
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NOW IS NOT THE TIME
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by Ray Kaliss
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SDN Project Manager
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Now is NOT the time to lose your connection to SDN!
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SDN has changed all it's TIC AreaTags. It has divided into two
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Distribution Tiers.
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The First Tier consists of the familiar SDN areas of
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Author-Direct Shareware distribution you have been used to.
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Mainly DOS based areas.
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The Second Tier is new. It is comprised of, Author-Direct
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Shareware that SDN has been refusing to distribute for a few
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years. With the advent of the satellite feed now central to
|
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FidoNet's flow of files and echo.. duplication does not cost
|
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satellite sites. This allows FDN's to expand and offer it's
|
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users based off satellite feeds - many more areas. Real
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duplication will probable be rare.
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What's does this mean for Fido BBS systems? That now.. if you
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are near a satellite site.. you can pick and choose what FDN
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services you and your users want.
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What does SDN have to offer? It's usual.. that is, authorized
|
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distributions. Distribution of shareware files that the author
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himself has submitted. In the condition hat the author
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desires. Twice security sealed for your and the authors
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protection.
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How are author's verified? SDN International(sm) goes through
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steps to make sure that the software it distributes is
|
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verifiably from the author himself. The SDN Project (where
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authors submit) must be certain that the authors submission
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meets a criteria of quality and share-ability.
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Fidonet sites which may have found themselves orphaned from SDN
|
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by thier feed site not keeping up with changes (changes were of
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course announced in SDN_SYSOP echo weeks in advance) should ask
|
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thier past feeds to reconnect with SDN by being aware of the
|
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SDN AreaTag changes.
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SDN has also gone down to only one echo, SDN_CONF. Gone are
|
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SDN_SYSOP and SDN_PUBLIC. Be sure to link into this echo..
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all SDN information comes down it addressed TO: Sysop.
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|
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SDN is open. Anyone, anywhere can link in and know that the
|
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software you get for posting is legal to post according to the
|
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shareware copyright, and legal for anyone to get according to
|
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copyright and Governmental restrictions. _That_ is SDN
|
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criteria.. legal to post and make available. No pornography,
|
||
no restricted encryption, no shareware that is retail in other
|
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countries.. only quality share-able software.
|
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FidoNews 11-02 Page: 9 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
It's all in the new SDN-KIT9.EXE for authors, sysops and users.
|
||
It includes a document for posting called SDN-USER.DOC that
|
||
answers new users questions on .SDN files. A document named
|
||
SYSOP.DOC answers sysop's questions on how to make the most out
|
||
of SDN.. what are the areas, the new format of the SDA, how to
|
||
make announcement posts of new arrivals.
|
||
|
||
SDN-KIT9.EXE is available for File Requesting from 1:141/840
|
||
|
||
Authorized - Author Direct - Secured - Postable - Quality
|
||
|
||
Be sure you have room on your hard drive, SDN is bigger than
|
||
ever.
|
||
|
||
Now .. is _not_ the time to be disconnected from SDN.
|
||
|
||
Ray
|
||
SDN Project Manager
|
||
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Who owns that message, anyway?
|
||
|
||
by
|
||
Glen Harness
|
||
Strawberry Fields, 1:116/5.0
|
||
Copyright 1994, All Rights Reserved
|
||
|
||
The question posed by the title of this article should be obvious to
|
||
anyone who has read _Syslaw_ by Lance Rose & Jonathan Wallace. For
|
||
those of you don't know, or haven't read the book, the answer is: the
|
||
person who composed the message.
|
||
|
||
When the United States signed the Berne Convention and enacted the
|
||
Berne Convention Implementation Act in 1988, the requirement that a
|
||
copyright notice (eg, Copyright 1994) be placed on a work was removed.
|
||
Also under the law, a person has a copyright on a work as soon as the
|
||
work has been created. From 17 U.S.C. 102(a):
|
||
|
||
Copyright protection subsists . . . in original works of authorship
|
||
fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later
|
||
developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or
|
||
otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a
|
||
machine or device.
|
||
|
||
Well, then, does a message on a BBS meet that criteria? From 17
|
||
U.S.C. 101:
|
||
|
||
A work is "fixed" in a tangible medium of expression when its
|
||
embodiment in a copy or phonorecord, by or under the authority of
|
||
the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be
|
||
perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of
|
||
more than transitory duration.
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 10 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
Well, when I write a message on a BBS, I and others can certainly
|
||
perceive it, reproduce it, and it's communicated to others. And, I
|
||
certainly need "the aid of a machine or other device" to enable me to
|
||
express the ideas. So, yes, as soon as you hit the Save command on
|
||
that message editor, you've got a copyrighted piece of work. And
|
||
here's the important part: it doesn't matter whether or not you put a
|
||
copyright notice in it or not. The ONLY way you can NOT copyright a
|
||
message you write is to specifically state that the message is
|
||
released to the public domain.
|
||
|
||
So, what's this mean to the average Joe Sysop in FidoNetLand? Well,
|
||
probably not much, with the following exception: crossposting echomail
|
||
messages from one echo to another. If I, as Joe User, enter a message
|
||
in an echomail area, I'm aware (or should be aware) that the message
|
||
will be reproduced on any number of other BBS's around the world.
|
||
(There's an "implied" license involved that permits the BBS's carrying
|
||
the conference to display and distribute the message). Say Joe Sysop
|
||
sees that message and crossposts it to another area. Since Joe User
|
||
didn't put it there to begin with, he didn't give the implied license
|
||
to anyone to copy it to any other area. So, if the sysop wants to
|
||
crosspost the message, it'd be a good idea (and the polite thing to
|
||
do) to ask the author for his permission. Take this article as an
|
||
example... I'm submitting it to FidoNews for publication. I certainly
|
||
don't expect to see it posted in a message or as a bulletin or in a
|
||
book someone publishes. If I wanted to distribute it that way, I'd do
|
||
it myself.
|
||
|
||
Recently here in Net 116, some moderators of local echoes have
|
||
"banned" copyrighted messages. This raises some interesting
|
||
questions.
|
||
|
||
o Are they banning messages containing the words "Copyright
|
||
1994 by Joe Message Author?"
|
||
|
||
The copyright notice is really not needed to begin with, since every
|
||
message is owned by the author as soon as he creates it. So what's the
|
||
purpose banning that particular sequence of letters?
|
||
|
||
o Are they banning any copyrighted messages?
|
||
|
||
If this is the case, they're banning EVERY message in an echo, since,
|
||
again, each message is automatically copyrighted.
|
||
|
||
o Are they saying that any messages you enter into that echo
|
||
are automatically considered public domain? Or considered the
|
||
property of the moderator?
|
||
|
||
This has more serious effects to ponder. Consider the person who's
|
||
concocted a great new recipe and posts it in the RECIPES echo. If the
|
||
moderator of the RECIPES echo has made a rule that all messages are
|
||
the property of the moderator, then the author would lose all rights
|
||
to that recipe, and could not include it in a cookbook later. This is
|
||
especially disturbing if the author of the recipe was not aware of the
|
||
"rule."
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 11 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
In addition to some of the local moderators overreacting, the "sysop"
|
||
of at least one board that I'm aware of has made the statement that
|
||
"this system owns the messages that are posted from here." I wonder
|
||
if that's true for files? How many shareware authors would send a
|
||
file to a system when one of the conditions was that they gave up all
|
||
rights to the software by uploading it? Probably not too many. The
|
||
question is, are the callers to this system made aware of that before
|
||
they are granted access? And if not, what does that say for the
|
||
scruples of the "sysop" who made the statement? Isn't that tantamount
|
||
to intellectual property theft (ie, piracy)?
|
||
|
||
I guess the whole point of this article is that we, as sysops, and
|
||
even more so, the callers who call our boards, are generally ignorant
|
||
of our legal rights and responsibilities. And what's even sadder is
|
||
that we have quite a few people who ARE aware of their rights and
|
||
responsibilities, at least as far as carrying copyrighted _programs_
|
||
is concerned, who continue to give the rest of us a bad name by
|
||
allowing pirated software to be stored and downloaded from their
|
||
boards.
|
||
|
||
Find out what your rights as a sysop are. Find out what your
|
||
responsibilities are. Yes, there's still a lot of grey area out there,
|
||
but get as much information as you can and make an honest effort.
|
||
|
||
Glen Harness
|
||
|
||
Note: I'm not an attorney. This is not legal advice. If you want to
|
||
make sure of what the law says, see a lawyer (I'd recommend finding
|
||
one who knows the difference between a BBS and a briefcase).
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
THE LAW
|
||
by Jeremy Browne (Shaking Hands BBS 2:252/160)
|
||
|
||
Quoting from...
|
||
> F I D O N E W S -- Vol.10 No.52 (26-Dec-1993)
|
||
|
||
Quoting...
|
||
> Shawn McMahon
|
||
> Fidonews is predominantly by and for adults; and you cannot
|
||
> restrict the freedom of speech of adults just because an
|
||
> occasional child might read words to which *YOU* object.
|
||
>
|
||
> This isn't just my opinion; it's the LAW.
|
||
|
||
Well, you may be right in that, but just a moment, Shawn.
|
||
Excuse me if I take you up on a point, on behalf of all not in
|
||
Zone 1 of FidoNet. You made the typical (?) American assumption
|
||
that FidoNet (& hence Fidonews) is an All-American toy.
|
||
|
||
No sir, it is NOT! Yes, it was devised in USA, by people to
|
||
whom I offer my heartfelt thanks. But it has become an
|
||
INTERNATIONAL medium, and the fact that there are more
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 12 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
Americans using it than other nationalities does NOT mean
|
||
that you can totally ignore us minorities. We WILL be counted.
|
||
|
||
So, please, when you - or anyone else - quotes THE LAW, or THE
|
||
GOVERNMENT, or similar institutions, please qualify your facts,
|
||
because, unless you have researched them in ALL countries,
|
||
you may well find that what seems blindingly obvious in your
|
||
country is not so in others.
|
||
|
||
Quoting...
|
||
> From: Jeremy Bulmer (1:140/156)
|
||
>
|
||
> I DON'T KNOW ABOUT ANYWHERE ELSE, BUT HERE IN REGINA,
|
||
> SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA ...
|
||
> (for all you don't know, it's above the United States) :- )
|
||
> ... it's illegal to drink and drive!
|
||
|
||
Hooray for you, Jeremy, my very point above.
|
||
|
||
Have a good 1994, one & all.
|
||
|
||
Jeremy Browne
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
New Network in Town
|
||
|
||
by John Creamer
|
||
New Network in Town
|
||
|
||
Join One Of The Fastest Growing Networks Of The 90's METALNET!
|
||
|
||
MetalNet Zone 75 is now Based In Orlando, Florida and Is Currently
|
||
Looking For Region Coordinators, Hosts, Hub And Nodes Across The
|
||
Globe!!!! No Individual Will Be Refused! For More Information
|
||
Please FREQ METALNET From The Following Network Address:
|
||
|
||
Fido 1:363/198
|
||
|
||
NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED!
|
||
|
||
Here Is A Listing Of Conferences Currently Offered!
|
||
|
||
MetalNet Echomail Conference Listing Updated January 1, 1994
|
||
New Echos & Suggestions Are Always Welcome And Are Encouraged!!
|
||
|
||
Conference Name Description
|
||
|
||
MN_4SALE Online Yard-Sale for Computer Users
|
||
MN_ADULT Adult talk, must be 18+ for access
|
||
MN_ALTER Alternative Music
|
||
MN_AMIGA Amiga discussion area
|
||
MN_B&B Discuss Beavis & Butt-Head topics
|
||
MN_BBS Tech support for all BBS Software
|
||
MN_BBSADS BBS advertisement area
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 13 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
MN_BRE Barren Relms Elite dicusssion area
|
||
MN_CBOOKS Comic Books discussions
|
||
MN_CDROM CD ROM discussions
|
||
MN_CHAT General Chat area
|
||
MN_CLASSIC Discuss Classic Rock
|
||
MN_CLASSICL Discuss Classical Music
|
||
MN_CONCERTS Discuss upcoming concerts
|
||
MN_COUNTRY Discuss Country Music
|
||
MN_CPRO Discuss C & C++ Programing
|
||
MN_DEBATE Place for Heated Debates
|
||
MN_DOORS Discuss BBS Door Programs
|
||
MN_DRDOS Discussion on DR Dos
|
||
MN_ECHO Additions, deletions, changes to conference list
|
||
MN_ENETS Discuss other Echomail Networks
|
||
MN_FILESRCH File Search area for hard to find programs
|
||
MN_HMETAL Discussion on Heavy Metal
|
||
MN_HOSTS Discussion for Net Coordinators Only
|
||
MN_HSM Discussions on High Speed Modems
|
||
MN_HTECH Discussions on hardware problems
|
||
MN_MAILER Discussions on Mailers, tossers, scanners
|
||
MN_MOVIES New Movie Review area
|
||
MN_MTLNWS For posting of MetalNet Newsletter
|
||
MN_MUSICIAN Musicians discussion area
|
||
MN_NET407 Discussion in Net407 Only
|
||
MN_NEWBBS Discussion area for new BBS users
|
||
MN_NODELIST Additions, deletions, changes to Nodelist
|
||
MN_OS2 OS/2 Discussion area
|
||
MN_PASCAL Discussion on programing in Pascal
|
||
MN_POL Politics debating area
|
||
MN_RAP Discussions on RAP Music
|
||
MN_REGION400 Discussions in Region400 Only
|
||
MN_REGIONS Discussions for Region Coordinators Only
|
||
MN_RIP Discussions on RIP Graphics
|
||
MN_RPG Role Playing Discussion area
|
||
MN_SCARDS Sports Cards collectors discussion area
|
||
MN_STECH Software technical discussion area
|
||
MN_SYSOP Discussions by MetalNet Sysops Only
|
||
MN_TEEN Discussion area for Teens
|
||
MN_TOP40 Top 40 Music discussion area
|
||
MN_UNIX Discussions on Unix Systems
|
||
MN_VIRTUAL Virtual Realty Discussion area
|
||
MN_WEAPONS Weapons & Guns Discussion area
|
||
MN_WINDOWS MicroSoft Windows discussion area
|
||
MN_WRITERS Discussion area for writers
|
||
|
||
This Network Has Just Started As Of September 1993.
|
||
|
||
INTER-BBS BARREN REALMS ELITE,
|
||
|
||
Is Offered To Any Member Wishing Its Involvement. If You
|
||
Have Any Questions, Please Netmail Or Reply To This Advertisement...
|
||
Thank You!
|
||
|
||
John Creamer
|
||
Zone Coordinator
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 14 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
MetalNet Headquarters
|
||
Orlando, Florida
|
||
Fido # 1:363/198
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Randy DeVaux - 1:141/701 The Brookfield Community Internet BBS
|
||
|
||
=======================================
|
||
The Nodelist - Quality is *NOT* job one
|
||
=======================================
|
||
|
||
Well, we're in week five of the NFL (Nodelist Fidonet League?) and it
|
||
appears there are a lot of injured players on the monitored list here
|
||
in the Region 16 Conference! Only kidding, well maybe not
|
||
.....seriously though, have any of you though about something that is
|
||
affecting each of you? The nodelist? The maintainence of the nodelist
|
||
and the pursuit of it's accuracy is probably the most fundemental job
|
||
of any Coordinator in the fidonet structure. It is were the actions of
|
||
a single person has ramifications on almost 23,000 distinct users here
|
||
in Fidoland. Having been on board for almost nine years, I suddenly
|
||
noticed this fall, that the nodelist was beginning to rapidly fall into
|
||
a state of disrepair. No, I can't single handedly look at the entire
|
||
nodelist, but in my net, and upon further review, my region, had
|
||
somehow begun to fail to take seriously the "glue that binds us all
|
||
together", none other than, The Nodelist. Now while I am not the
|
||
coordinator for the region, I did feel it in my purview to create a
|
||
scorecard on which to monitor our progress here in increasing the
|
||
quality of the entires contained in the nodelist and complying with the
|
||
points of Policy 4 that spoke on downed and private nodes. I have even
|
||
pointed these out to the Regional Coordinator, who took time out of his
|
||
busy day to thank me and then tell me I had a bad attitude.
|
||
|
||
I was surprised in that it appears that in Region 16, a downed node is
|
||
considered an MIA, and as such would never be forgotten, but forever
|
||
etched in the nodelist in granite. Worse, to mention it brings up 1001
|
||
reasons, some of which are highly original, but not germain. I guess
|
||
it's believed that the Quantity of a Regional portion of a nodelist is
|
||
more important than the Quality (You know...the famous mine is bigger
|
||
than your senerio). I wanted to share these reasons with you, the
|
||
grunt sysops in fidonet, and have been questioning (so pointedly I'm
|
||
managed to get myself suspended from the Regional Coordinators echo for
|
||
30 days) our region in an effort to seek out what it is that causes
|
||
this. Let me share with you, the scorecard of nodelists as of
|
||
nodelist.007:
|
||
|
||
Region 16
|
||
Nodelist Getaway Scoreboard
|
||
Andre Normandin - Regional Coordinator 1:16/0
|
||
|
||
1993 1993 1993 1993 1994
|
||
N/L# N/L# N/L# N/L# N/L#
|
||
bytes .344 .351 .358 .365 .007
|
||
---- ---- ---- ---- ----
|
||
---------------------------------------------
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 15 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
Stephen McRae - Network Coordinator 1:101/0
|
||
---------------------------------------------
|
||
101/185 87 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
101/630 68 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
-------------------------------------------
|
||
Chuck Kirby - Network Coordinator 1:132/0
|
||
-------------------------------------------
|
||
132/177 75 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
132/253 89 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
132/230 83 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
132/288 89 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
132/227 81 Private Private
|
||
132/308 90 Private
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
Phil Palumbo - Network Coordinator 1:141/0
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
141/42 71 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
141/68 81 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
141/1280 92 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
141/396 Down Down Down Down
|
||
141/620 Down Down Down Down
|
||
141/1001 80 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
141/535 86 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
141/1156 83 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
141/1280 Dup!
|
||
----------------------------------------------
|
||
Jerry Schwartz - Network Coordinator 1:142/0
|
||
----------------------------------------------
|
||
142/470 92 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
142/515 89 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
142/650 95 Down
|
||
142/1778 Down Down Down Down
|
||
---------------------------------------------
|
||
Dave WIlliams - Network Coordinator 1:320/0
|
||
---------------------------------------------
|
||
320/22 67 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
320/888 90 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
320/266 86 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
320/131 81 Hold Hold Hold Hold Hold
|
||
320/20 92 Down Down
|
||
-----------------------------------------------
|
||
Morton Sterheim - Network Coordinator 1:321/0
|
||
-----------------------------------------------
|
||
321 0 - No Nodes Private or Down!
|
||
------------------------------------------
|
||
Don Eklund - Network Coordinator 1:322/0
|
||
------------------------------------------
|
||
322/583 93 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/729 84 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/592 78 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/594 93 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/546 83 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/601 77 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/514 85 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
------------------------------------------
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 16 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
Mike Bilow - Network Coordinator 1:323/0
|
||
------------------------------------------
|
||
323/2 77 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
323/3 Private Private Private
|
||
323/4 83 Private Private
|
||
323/116 77 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
323/145 Down Down Down Down
|
||
322/202 100 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
323/204 97 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
------------------------------------------
|
||
Dave Layte - Network Coordinator 1:101/0
|
||
------------------------------------------
|
||
324/133 81 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
324/137 84 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
-----------------------------------------
|
||
Bill Bond - Network Coordinator 1:325/0
|
||
-----------------------------------------
|
||
325/203 89 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
-------------------------------------------
|
||
Wayne Price - Network Coordinator 1:326/0
|
||
-------------------------------------------
|
||
326 0 - No Nodes Private or Down!
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
Larry Kolada - Network Coordinator 1:327/0
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
327/475 74 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
327/485 89 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
323/1000 75 Private Private Private Private Private
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
Mark Goodwin - Network Coordinator 1:328/0
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
328/865 77 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
-------------------------------------------
|
||
Mike Girard - Network Coordinator 1:329/0
|
||
-------------------------------------------
|
||
329 0 - No Nodes Private or Down!
|
||
-----------------------------------------
|
||
Jim Marrs - Network Coordinator 1:330/0
|
||
-----------------------------------------
|
||
330 0 - No Nodes Private or Down!
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
Andrew Wyatt - Network Coordinator 1:331/0
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
331/103 81 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
331/114 76 Down Down Down Down Down
|
||
331/115 87 Private Private
|
||
----------------------------------------------
|
||
William Lowell - Network Coordinator 1:332/0
|
||
----------------------------------------------
|
||
332 0 - No Nodes Private or Down!
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
Perry Lowell - Network Coordinator 1:333/0
|
||
--------------------------------------------
|
||
333 0 - No Nodes Private or Down!
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 17 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
The following Network Coordinators should receive plaudits from all the
|
||
grunt sysops of fidonet for their diligence in the conservation of our
|
||
disk space and our ability to connect when calling their Net. These
|
||
outstanding Network Coordinators have quietly worked to assure the
|
||
quality of our nodelists remains as high as possible. They deserve our
|
||
thanks. Send then a netmail message and let them know your
|
||
appreciation and thanks for a job well done and deserving of respect!
|
||
|
||
Mort Sternheim - 321/0
|
||
Wayne Price - 326/0
|
||
Mike Girard - 329/0
|
||
Jim Marrs - 330/0
|
||
Willam Lowell - 332/0
|
||
Perry Lowell - 333/0
|
||
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
|
||
The following network coordinators should be called to task for a
|
||
failure to fulfill their responsibilities under Policy 4. They affect
|
||
each and every one of us in fidonet with their lacksidasical attitude
|
||
towards the nodelist. They affect our ability to communicate with each
|
||
other, waste our disk space unnecessarily, and apparently don't care
|
||
about the one key thing that binds us all together in Fidonet......
|
||
The Nodelist. They should be counseled by the Regional Coordinator.
|
||
Unfortunately, the Regional Coordinator for Region 16 also has a
|
||
similar problem in that up until now, he has done nothing to help
|
||
correct this situation and is as wrong as the Network Coordinators.
|
||
Perhaps the Zone Coordinator could help us along on this issue as it is
|
||
one that affects each and every sysop in Zone 1. Heck, he's probably
|
||
waiting for the new International Coordinator.
|
||
|
||
Bob Satti - 1/0 Only he knows how many bytes.
|
||
Andre Normandin - 16/0 He has taken as much action as a dead rock.
|
||
|
||
Stephen McRae - 101/0 155 bytes
|
||
Chuck Kirby - 132/0 507 bytes
|
||
Phil Palumbo - 141/0 493 bytes
|
||
Jerry Schwartz - 142/0 276 bytes
|
||
Dave Williams - 320/0 416 bytes
|
||
Don Elkund - 322/0 593 bytes
|
||
Mike Bilow - 323/0 434 bytes
|
||
Dave Layte - 324/0 165 bytes
|
||
Bill Bond - 325/0 89 bytes
|
||
Larry Kolada - 327/0 238 bytes
|
||
Mark Goodwin - 328/0 77 bytes
|
||
Andrew Wyatt - 331/0 244 bytes
|
||
-----
|
||
3,687 bytes per sysop used for
|
||
----- no good reason
|
||
|
||
Perhaps you, as a *grunt sysop*, could send them a netmail message and
|
||
let them know that as long as they want to hold the position, you'd
|
||
appreciate it if they would do their jobs and give you the quality
|
||
nodelist you are entitled to in Policy 4! There's no need for each
|
||
sysop to carry almost 4K just because of the slovenly attitude of one
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 18 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
region out of 71. But wait, if the ZC is doing this, could there be
|
||
other regions out their in Zone 1 with similar statistics? Send us a
|
||
netmail message, we'd like to know. Maybe even you could make up a
|
||
scorecard to share with us here in Fidonews.
|
||
|
||
Policy 4 spells out:
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
4.4 Maintaining the Nodelist
|
||
|
||
You should implement name changes, phone number changes, and so forth
|
||
in your segment of the nodelist as soon as possible after the
|
||
information is received from the affected node. You should also on
|
||
occasion send a message to every node in your network to ensure that
|
||
they are operational. If a node turns out to be "off the air" with no
|
||
prior warning, you can either mark the node down or remove it from the
|
||
nodelist. (Nodes are to be marked DOWN for a maximum of two weeks,
|
||
after which the line should be removed from the nodelist.)
|
||
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
The following is a list of excuses that are commonly used in defense of
|
||
a Coordinators lack of fulfillment of his/her obligations. These can
|
||
be refered to by number (in Region 16 they're memorized!) and a survey
|
||
of these responses has been compiled. To remain impartial the results
|
||
will be revealed in a future fidonet news article so as not to taint
|
||
the results you will get when you ask them. These are actual quotes,
|
||
removed from context, but linked directed to the topic of nodelist
|
||
maintenance.
|
||
|
||
1) It's only a hobby.
|
||
2) It doesn't spell it out clearly enough in Policy 4.
|
||
3) It's negotiable.....isn't everything?
|
||
4) Rules were meant to be broken.
|
||
5) What's your problem?
|
||
6) Mind your own business.
|
||
7) Make me.
|
||
8) Get lost.
|
||
9) Why are you doing this?
|
||
10) Why do you care?
|
||
11) Don't rock the boat, you could drown.
|
||
12) Who cares.
|
||
13) It isn't a problem until it's a problem.
|
||
14) It's unreasonable.
|
||
15) Don't be a trouble maker.
|
||
16) What does that have to do with echomail?
|
||
17) Why don't you like me?
|
||
18) What did I ever do to you?
|
||
19) You're only doing this because you're mad about _____ (fill in blank).
|
||
(There are too many of these to list here)
|
||
20) Why can't you leave well enough alone.
|
||
21) The nodelist is excessively annoying.
|
||
22) I though we were friends.
|
||
23) I'm not a babysitter.
|
||
24) So file a policy complaint and see if it does anything.
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 19 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
25) So what?
|
||
|
||
There are more but let's cut it off at the Top 25. What's important to
|
||
see here is the attitude imparted into the responses. These are
|
||
attitudes condoned by the * Cordinator structure here in Region 16 and
|
||
by the Zone 1 Coordinator due to his selection of the Regional
|
||
Coordinator for Region 16. These people should be accountable under
|
||
Policy 4 to you, the grunt sysop in fidonet. Instead, they've chosen,
|
||
like politicans everywhere, to not do the job they were put into place
|
||
to do. So what else is new........
|
||
|
||
Help make a difference. Send then a netmail message letting them know
|
||
how you feel about how they're affecting you. And stay tuned for one
|
||
of the 25 listed most popular saying of a Coordinator in your reply if
|
||
you receive one.
|
||
|
||
Ask the coordinator for the reason why a node is marked private and
|
||
what benefit it is to fidonet. You have a right to know, and left
|
||
unquestioned, they'll continue to bloom (at least here in Region 16).
|
||
|
||
Until the next article, when we reveal a survey that shows 20% of
|
||
Region 16's nodes as *unanswering* during ZMH at 1200 baud using
|
||
FTSC-001 protocol....
|
||
|
||
TTFN
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
"An Open Letter to Steven Winter"
|
||
|
||
From: Chris Faubert, NEC Net 330
|
||
1:330/1 1:330/300 1:330/305 (formerly 1:330/206)
|
||
The Centre for Naturist Studies BBS, Salem, Mass. 508.745.1144
|
||
|
||
Dear Mr. Winter,
|
||
|
||
This is the ninth netmail letter I have created, and as the other
|
||
eight hit your system and you failed, or were unable, or chose not to
|
||
- take your pick - respond, I am sending you this letter via
|
||
FidoNews, which I _know_ you read religiously. I regret having to
|
||
take this step, however I am happier to do it this way than to
|
||
initiate a Policy 4 Complaint against your system, which is what I
|
||
should be doing. I am not, because I believe that every one, even
|
||
you, Mr. Winter, deserves the benefit of the doubt.
|
||
|
||
As you may have forgotten the details, please be patient while I
|
||
refresh your memory, Steve. A "new" system came up in Net 330, at
|
||
address 1:330/209, and the Sysop, Don Christian, began polling for
|
||
your echo. Mr. Christian posted a message in your echo which
|
||
mentioned some views that did not completely agree with your
|
||
INTERPRETATION of the Bible, and you flamed him. He replied to you
|
||
that your anger and posturing were "a bunch of crap" and suddenly,
|
||
Mr. Winter, I had three Netmail mesages originating from you telling
|
||
me to bring Mr. Christian in line, to order him not to post, and the
|
||
third telling me that as NEC I was "REQUIRDE (sic) to cut that false
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 20 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
christians (sic) feed or face a policy4 (sic) complaint..."
|
||
|
||
I was flabergasted, Sir, that you would send those threads to me. I
|
||
am the NEC. I am not the NC, nor am I the RC. I am not his father,
|
||
brother, or even his friend, and I sit in no position of authority
|
||
over him regarding his posting in an echo, carrying that echo, or for
|
||
that matter reading that echo! Yet you did, with little humility, and
|
||
great rudeness, tell me how to do my "job". Well, Sir, I politely
|
||
replied to all three messages and have heard nothing back from you.
|
||
Not one bit, nor byte. Why, you have not even _flammed_ me, and I am
|
||
beginning to feel left out.
|
||
|
||
As you approached me with familiarity that I do not believe you have
|
||
a right to use, I am assuming that you would like to know a little
|
||
about me. I am a 27 year-old Australian living in sin with a
|
||
beautiful, blonde American girl who picked me up on a train in
|
||
Colorado in July of 1992. She is very religious, and was raised a
|
||
Catholic, as was I. We both believe in the right to worship as you
|
||
see fit, and we both never condemn the belief of others because we
|
||
are honest enough with ourselves to admit that there is a distinct
|
||
possibility that we may not personally know everything that there is
|
||
to know about God. We both believe in the honesty of Natural Magic
|
||
and in the Creation of the World and of Man, how ever, we also
|
||
concede that it is very much a possibility that the stories we were
|
||
told were just that - stories - and that other religions just might
|
||
be correct. We are content to worship God in our own way, through a
|
||
loving and kind treatment of all around us, and with respect for
|
||
their choices in life. For surely you are familiar with "the most
|
||
important commandment" that being Love thy God with all thy heart,
|
||
and "second unto it," Love thy neighbor as you love yourself. It has
|
||
been my experience that people that go around and, in the name of
|
||
God, condemn the belief and actions of others, generally do not like
|
||
themselves, or have misunderstood what the Christian faith is all
|
||
about.
|
||
|
||
I enjoy my life, and I feel that if God didn't like it, he'd let me
|
||
know. I am a Naturist, which to you would sound like Nudist, and I
|
||
regularly meet my dozens of friends at the club we attend, where we
|
||
picnic, sun, swim, and play volleyball - nude - and where I have not
|
||
been corrupted nor had any relations of the "knowing" sort. I LIKE
|
||
myself. I even LOVE myself. And I love you, Steve. Very much. My
|
||
heart aches to council you in the ways of Christian Love. Could you
|
||
say the same to me?
|
||
|
||
Any way, after the disturbing experience of receiving your hate mail,
|
||
I had one of those "hmmmmm." thoughts so I called a few people to
|
||
make _certain_ you were incorrect in thinking that this "mess" as you
|
||
called it was my problem. I first called Ivan Schaefel, at
|
||
1:141/390. Ivan is an old Fido hand and one of the most honest men I
|
||
know. His response was "what the hell is he sending that to you
|
||
for?! You're the NEC!" Another "hmmm" as I found the same reaction
|
||
from five other NEC's and two NC's I called. It was their collective
|
||
opinion that this was not my probelm, so I forwarded the threads on
|
||
to my NC as per Policy and I expected it to end right there. I also
|
||
sent you netmail (twice) explaining my official actions to which you
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 21 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
did not answer.
|
||
|
||
A week later, I received a Netmail from you that in no way referenced
|
||
the previous five letters I had crashed to you. This new one warned
|
||
me that while you were "not now considering a Policy4 (sic) complaint
|
||
against that false christian, if [his posting] does not stop I will."
|
||
I was hoping you meant you would stop complaining but upon reviewing
|
||
that thread I realised that you meant you would file a Policy 4
|
||
complaint against Don Christian, so I sat down at the keyboard and
|
||
composed a letter to you that asked what you wanted me to do. I
|
||
asked if you wanted me to block importation of your echo to this net,
|
||
and whether you would like me to personally talk to your NC about
|
||
this. No reply. I re-sent that letter two times. No reply. Just
|
||
in case your mailer isn't working, and you didn't "get" my messages,
|
||
nudge, nudge, wink, wink, I decided to send this to you via the
|
||
Snooze.
|
||
|
||
Thank you for your time and all the consideration you have shown me
|
||
both personally and officially as NEC, and if I can ever be of any
|
||
further assistance to you in my capacity of NEC or as a concerned
|
||
person, please hesitate to write.
|
||
|
||
Sincerely,
|
||
|
||
Christopher M. Faubert
|
||
Net 330 NEC
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
From: Michael Johnson (1:106/3323)
|
||
To: Editors (1:1/23)
|
||
Subject: Steve Winter and his idiocy
|
||
|
||
Steve Winter is misguided
|
||
By Michael Johnson 1:106/3323
|
||
|
||
I have seen many messages and advertisments by the
|
||
well-known Mr. Steve Winter as of late in the PuppyPages(TM) as
|
||
well as some rather opinionated replies to Mr. Steve. I was
|
||
interested on his rather extreme stances in general, and his
|
||
rather unorthodox approach was the focus. The possibility that a
|
||
real live lip-flapping, hellfire-damning, bible-pounding,
|
||
goosestepping lunatic funamentalist fringe-runner even EXISTED
|
||
(c'mon...really, it is 1994) was enough for me to run up
|
||
excessive telephone bills calling to Mr. Steve's node.
|
||
|
||
Since I am pretty well-known as an "extremist" or
|
||
"troublemaker" or <insert derogatory comment here> whatever, I
|
||
felt a kindred spirit was floundering in the net and wished to
|
||
offer some tips to Steve (who apparantly is misguided) on how to
|
||
really get extreme. Frankly, I find Mr. Steve to be only mildly
|
||
irritating, with much room to improve....unfortunately, you have
|
||
to swear allegiance to the United Brotherhood of the Steve to
|
||
post from his BBS and as such was only able to read a small
|
||
portion of what must be a truly remarkable compilation of the
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 22 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
Writings and Holy Opinions of Steve(TM) during my complimentary
|
||
3.725 minutes given to new users on his BBS. I would say Steve
|
||
is about a 5.7 on a weird scale of 10. Bonus points to Steve.
|
||
|
||
Suggestions to Steve: Stop pussyfooting around and start
|
||
condemning entire geographical areas to hellfire and damnation,
|
||
instead of trying to do the job one person at a time. Life is
|
||
short and if you want to maximize your damning-n-hellfiring work
|
||
you will have to think V-O-L-U-M-E.
|
||
|
||
Give up trying to stomp out the homos. Trust me on this one,
|
||
everytime you stomp one to bits, each bit then grows a new and
|
||
more powerful homosexual. We've been trying it for years down
|
||
here in Houston and now we are almost hip-deep in em. The only
|
||
effective treatment is to offer free one-way tickets to San
|
||
Francisco for a great big fag convention where they all manage
|
||
to show up....and drop a nuke on em.......but then all of the
|
||
bits would grow and we would be in worse shape than when we
|
||
started. So forget it..... Maybe they would like it so much they
|
||
wouldn't come back though.
|
||
|
||
Lay off the poor catholics, fer cryin out loud! They have
|
||
enough problems with all the guilt trips their priests, nuns,
|
||
mothers, relatives and friends put on them. You wouldn't believe
|
||
the crap those folks have to put up with to keep goin back to
|
||
church each week. I married one, so I know. The less crap they
|
||
get the better off they are....especially if it is self-serving
|
||
dogmatic techno-doublespeak. For all practical purposes, they
|
||
are the lost jews.
|
||
|
||
While I agree that the jews are going to hell, we differ on
|
||
reasoning. I have first-hand info on a Texas Jewboy who has,
|
||
apparantly, a concession agreement for parking, hot dogs and
|
||
soft drinks. Face it, those guys never make a move if it doesn't
|
||
mean some money in their pocket. They wouldn't go to a place
|
||
like hell unless there was per diem and big$$$'s involved.
|
||
Knowing what this guy's mark-up is, you might be able to swing
|
||
some weight with the penny-pinching crowd as far as
|
||
non-hellbound (if any) non-Winterites.
|
||
|
||
To REALLY get the point across at that next big pup-tent
|
||
revival, try this: substitute the word "Oklahoma" for the word
|
||
"hell"...substitute the words "organized demonspawn from hell"
|
||
for any use of the words "liberal" or "democrat".
|
||
|
||
Other big hits could be a puppetshow showing how
|
||
homosexuality leads to impacted hemmoroids, and of course the
|
||
old US Army standard VD from hell movie (circa 1940's?) is a
|
||
great way to urge abstention from pubescent nubians.
|
||
|
||
Of course, there will always be that one or two heathens
|
||
that will resist such subtle measures. For those, I suggest the
|
||
usual hanging from the thumbs and pee-pee whacking....if they
|
||
continue, beat them until their attitude improves. Some of them
|
||
just need a stronger hand.
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 23 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
I honestly think that with practice, Mr. Steve could make a
|
||
fine addition to The Network Hall of Idiots(TM), if he could
|
||
just find a way to be more offensive, irritating and weird.
|
||
|
||
Mikey the Terrible's Idiot meter gives Steve Winter:
|
||
|
||
Offensiveness - 5.12
|
||
Rudeness - 7.00
|
||
Irritation Q- 4.30
|
||
Stupidity - 8.95 <----highest recorded!
|
||
One sidedness - 9.96 <----highest recorded!
|
||
High Weirdness - 5.70
|
||
Stealth ability -2.00 <----lowest recorded!
|
||
Weenieisms - 6.65
|
||
Unpopularity - 5.00
|
||
|
||
If he can get learn to be more irritating, and increase his
|
||
weirdness say 50%, he won't need to worry about not being able
|
||
to sneak around. Naturally, if he improves in the noted areas,
|
||
his unpopularity should soar as well. Maybe even enough to be
|
||
elected to a *C position.
|
||
|
||
Naturally, my opinions are my own as well as all
|
||
mispelling, lost nuance, irritating drivel and pointed opinions.
|
||
I am not a Baptist, nor do I condone, speak for, represent or
|
||
have an interest in the Baptist church. My thoughts are my own,
|
||
not yours and I can do anything I want to with them,including
|
||
send them to the FIDOnews. Flames, berations, arguments,
|
||
complaints, derogatory comments, sexual solicitations and other
|
||
notable social interchanges via netmail to 1:106/3323 will get a
|
||
similar reply in return.
|
||
|
||
Thank you for your ever decreasing time......
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Literary Freeware: Not for Commercial Use
|
||
THE HACKER CRACKDOWN
|
||
|
||
Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier
|
||
|
||
Afterword: The Hacker Crackdown Three Years Later
|
||
|
||
Three years in cyberspace is like thirty years anyplace
|
||
real. It feels as if a generation has passed since I wrote
|
||
this book. In terms of the generations of computing machinery
|
||
involved, that's pretty much the case.
|
||
|
||
The basic shape of cyberspace has changed drastically
|
||
since 1990. A new U.S. Administration is in power whose
|
||
personnel are, if anything, only too aware of the nature and
|
||
potential of electronic networks. It's now clear to all
|
||
players concerned that the status quo is dead-and-gone in American
|
||
media and telecommunications, and almost any territory on
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 24 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
the electronic frontier is up for grabs. Interactive
|
||
multimedia, cable-phone alliances, the Information Superhighway, fiber-
|
||
to-the-curb, laptops and palmtops, the explosive growth of
|
||
cellular and the Internet -- the earth trembles visibly.
|
||
|
||
The year 1990 was not a pleasant one for AT&T. By
|
||
1993, however, AT&T had successfully devoured the computer
|
||
company NCR in an unfriendly takeover, finally giving the
|
||
pole-climbers a major piece of the digital action. AT&T
|
||
managed to rid itself of ownership of the troublesome UNIX
|
||
operating system, selling it to Novell, a netware company,
|
||
which was itself preparing for a savage market dust-up with
|
||
operating-system titan Microsoft. Furthermore, AT&T
|
||
acquired McCaw Cellular in a gigantic merger, giving AT&T a
|
||
potential wireless whip-hand over its former progeny, the
|
||
RBOCs. The RBOCs themselves were now AT&T's clearest
|
||
potential rivals, as the Chinese firewalls between regulated
|
||
monopoly and frenzied digital entrepreneurism began to melt
|
||
and collapse headlong.
|
||
|
||
AT&T, mocked by industry analysts in 1990, was reaping
|
||
awestruck praise by commentators in 1993. AT&T had
|
||
managed to avoid any more major software crashes in its
|
||
switching stations. AT&T's newfound reputation as "the
|
||
nimble giant" was all the sweeter, since AT&T's traditional
|
||
rival giant in the world of multinational computing, IBM,
|
||
was almost prostrate by 1993. IBM's vision of the commercial
|
||
computer-network of the future, "Prodigy," had managed to
|
||
spend $900 million without a whole heck of a lot to show for
|
||
it, while AT&T, by contrast, was boldly speculating on the
|
||
possibilities of personal communicators and hedging its bets
|
||
with investments in handwritten interfaces. In 1990 AT&T
|
||
had looked bad; but in 1993 AT&T looked like the future.
|
||
|
||
At least, AT&T's *advertising* looked like the future.
|
||
Similar public attention was riveted on the massive $22
|
||
billion megamerger between RBOC Bell Atlantic and cable-TV giant
|
||
Tele-Communications Inc. Nynex was buying into cable
|
||
company Viacom International. BellSouth was buying stock in
|
||
Prime Management, Southwestern Bell acquiring a cable
|
||
company in Washington DC, and so forth. By stark contrast,
|
||
the Internet, a noncommercial entity which officially did
|
||
not even exist, had no advertising budget at all. And yet,
|
||
almost below the level of governmental and corporate awareness,
|
||
the Internet was stealthily devouring everything in its path,
|
||
growing at a rate that defied comprehension. Kids who might
|
||
have been eager computer-intruders a mere five years earlier
|
||
were now surfing the Internet, where their natural urge to
|
||
explore led them into cyberspace landscapes of such
|
||
mindboggling vastness that the very idea of hacking
|
||
passwords seemed rather a waste of time.
|
||
|
||
By 1993, there had not been a solid, knock 'em down,
|
||
panic-striking, teenage-hacker computer-intrusion scandal
|
||
in many long months. There had, of course, been some striking
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 25 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
and well-publicized acts of illicit computer access, but
|
||
they had been committed by adult white-collar industry insiders in
|
||
clear pursuit of personal or commercial advantage. The kids, by
|
||
contrast, all seemed to be on IRC, Internet Relay Chat.
|
||
|
||
Or, perhaps, frolicking out in the endless glass-roots
|
||
network of personal bulletin board systems. In 1993, there
|
||
were an estimated 60,000 boards in America; the population
|
||
of boards had fully doubled since Operation Sundevil in 1990.
|
||
The hobby was transmuting fitfully into a genuine industry. The
|
||
board community were no longer obscure hobbyists; many
|
||
were still hobbyists and proud of it, but board sysops and
|
||
advanced board users had become a far more cohesive and
|
||
politically aware community, no longer allowing themselves
|
||
to be obscure.
|
||
|
||
The specter of cyberspace in the late 1980s, of
|
||
outwitted authorities trembling in fear before teenage hacker whiz-
|
||
kids, seemed downright antiquated by 1993. Law enforcement
|
||
emphasis had changed, and the favorite electronic villain of
|
||
1993 was not the vandal child, but the victimizer of
|
||
children, the digital child pornographer. "Operation Longarm," a
|
||
child-pornography computer raid carried out by the previously
|
||
little-known cyberspace rangers of the U.S. Customs Service, was
|
||
almost the size of Operation Sundevil, but received very
|
||
little notice by comparison.
|
||
|
||
The huge and well-organized "Operation Disconnect,"
|
||
an FBI strike against telephone rip-off con-artists, was
|
||
actually larger than Sundevil. "Operation Disconnect" had
|
||
its brief moment in the sun of publicity, and then vanished
|
||
utterly. It was unfortunate that a law-enforcement affair as
|
||
apparently well-conducted as Operation Disconnect, which
|
||
pursued telecom adult career criminals a hundred times more
|
||
morally repugnant than teenage hackers, should have received
|
||
so little attention and fanfare, especially compared to the
|
||
abortive Sundevil and the basically disastrous efforts of
|
||
the Chicago Computer Fraud and Abuse Task Force. But the life
|
||
of an electronic policeman is seldom easy.
|
||
|
||
If any law enforcement event truly deserved full-scale
|
||
press coverage (while somehow managing to escape it), it was
|
||
the amazing saga of New York State Police Senior
|
||
Investigator Don Delaney Versus the Orchard Street Finger-
|
||
Hackers. This story probably represents the real future of
|
||
professional telecommunications crime in America. The
|
||
finger-hackers sold, and still sell, stolen long-distance phone
|
||
service to a captive clientele of illegal aliens in New York City.
|
||
This clientele is desperate to call home, yet as a group, illegal
|
||
aliens have few legal means of obtaining standard phone service,
|
||
since their very presence in the United States is against
|
||
the law. The finger-hackers of Orchard Street were very unusual
|
||
"hackers," with an astonishing lack of any kind of genuine
|
||
technological knowledge. And yet these New York call-sell
|
||
thieves showed a street-level ingenuity appalling in its
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 26 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
single-minded sense of larceny.
|
||
|
||
There was no dissident-hacker rhetoric about freedom-
|
||
of-information among the finger-hackers. Most of them came
|
||
out of the cocaine-dealing fraternity, and they retailed
|
||
stolen calls with the same street-crime techniques of lookouts and
|
||
bagholders that a crack gang would employ. This was down-
|
||
and-dirty, urban, ethnic, organized crime, carried out by
|
||
crime families every day, for cash on the barrelhead, in the harsh
|
||
world of the streets. The finger-hackers dominated certain
|
||
payphones in certain strikingly unsavory neighborhoods.
|
||
They provided a service no one else would give to a clientele
|
||
with little to lose.
|
||
|
||
With such a vast supply of electronic crime at hand,
|
||
Don Delaney rocketed from a background in homicide to teaching
|
||
telecom crime at FLETC in less than three years. Few can
|
||
rival Delaney's hands-on, street-level experience in phone fraud.
|
||
Anyone in 1993 who still believes telecommunications crime
|
||
to be something rare and arcane should have a few words with
|
||
Mr Delaney. Don Delaney has also written two fine essays,
|
||
on telecom fraud and computer crime, in Joseph Grau's *Criminal
|
||
and Civil Investigations Handbook* (McGraw Hill 1993).
|
||
|
||
*Phrack* was still publishing in 1993, now under the
|
||
able editorship of Erik Bloodaxe. Bloodaxe made a determined
|
||
attempt to get law enforcement and corporate security to pay
|
||
real money for their electronic copies of *Phrack,* but, as
|
||
usual, these stalwart defenders of intellectual property
|
||
preferred to pirate the magazine. Bloodaxe has still not
|
||
gotten back any of his property from the seizure raids of March 1,
|
||
1990. Neither has the Mentor, who is still the managing
|
||
editor of Steve Jackson Games.
|
||
|
||
Nor has Robert Izenberg, who has suspended his court
|
||
struggle to get his machinery back. Mr Izenberg has
|
||
calculated that his $20,000 of equipment seized in 1990 is, in 1993,
|
||
worth $4,000 at most. The missing software, also gone out his
|
||
door, was long ago replaced. He might, he says, sue for the sake
|
||
of principle, but he feels that the people who seized his
|
||
machinery have already been discredited, and won't be doing any more
|
||
seizures. And even if his machinery were returned -- and in
|
||
good repair, which is doubtful -- it will be essentially
|
||
worthless by 1995. Robert Izenberg no longer works for IBM, but has a
|
||
job programming for a major telecommunications company in
|
||
Austin.
|
||
|
||
Steve Jackson won his case against the Secret Service
|
||
on March 12, 1993, just over three years after the federal raid
|
||
on his enterprise. Thanks to the delaying tactics available
|
||
through the legal doctrine of "qualified immunity," Jackson
|
||
was tactically forced to drop his suit against the individuals
|
||
William Cook, Tim Foley, Barbara Golden and Henry Kluepfel. (Cook,
|
||
Foley, Golden and Kluepfel did, however, testify during the
|
||
trial.)
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 27 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
The Secret Service fought vigorously in the case,
|
||
battling Jackson's lawyers right down the line, on the (mostly
|
||
previously untried) legal turf of the Electronic
|
||
Communications Privacy Act and the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. The
|
||
Secret Service denied they were legally or morally responsible for
|
||
seizing the work of a publisher. They claimed that (1)
|
||
Jackson's gaming "books" weren't real books anyhow, and (2)
|
||
the Secret Service didn't realize SJG Inc was a "publisher"
|
||
when they raided his offices, and (3) the books only
|
||
vanished by accident because they merely happened to be inside the
|
||
computers the agents were appropriating.
|
||
|
||
The Secret Service also denied any wrongdoing in
|
||
reading and erasing all the supposedly "private" e-mail
|
||
inside Jackson's seized board, Illuminati. The USSS attorneys
|
||
claimed the seizure did not violate the Electronic
|
||
Communications Privacy Act, because they weren't actually
|
||
"intercepting" electronic mail that was moving on a wire,
|
||
but only electronic mail that was quietly sitting on a disk
|
||
inside Jackson's computer. They also claimed that USSS agents
|
||
hadn't read any of the private mail on Illuminati; and
|
||
anyway, even supposing that they had, they were allowed to do that
|
||
by the subpoena.
|
||
|
||
The Jackson case became even more peculiar when the
|
||
Secret Service attorneys went so far as to allege that the
|
||
federal raid against the gaming company had actually
|
||
*improved Jackson's business* thanks to the ensuing
|
||
nationwide publicity.
|
||
|
||
It was a long and rather involved trial. The judge
|
||
seemed most perturbed, not by the arcane matters of
|
||
electronic law, but by the fact that the Secret Service could have
|
||
avoided almost all the consequent trouble simply by giving Jackson
|
||
his computers back in short order. The Secret Service easily
|
||
could have looked at everything in Jackson's computers, recorded
|
||
everything, and given the machinery back, and there would
|
||
have been no major scandal or federal court suit. On the
|
||
contrary, everybody simply would have had a good laugh.
|
||
Unfortunately, it appeared that this idea had never entered
|
||
the heads of the Chicago-based investigators. They seemed to
|
||
have concluded unilaterally, and without due course of law,
|
||
that the world would be better off if Steve Jackson didn't
|
||
have computers. Golden and Foley claimed that they had both
|
||
never even heard of the Privacy Protection Act. Cook had heard of
|
||
the Act, but he'd decided on his own that the Privacy
|
||
Protection Act had nothing to do with Steve Jackson.
|
||
|
||
The Jackson case was also a very politicized trial,
|
||
both sides deliberately angling for a long-term legal precedent
|
||
that would stake-out big claims for their interests in
|
||
cyberspace. Jackson and his EFF advisors tried hard to establish that
|
||
the least e-mail remark of the lonely electronic pamphleteer
|
||
deserves the same somber civil-rights protection as that
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 28 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
afforded *The New York Times.* By stark contrast, the
|
||
Secret Service's attorneys argued boldly that the contents of an
|
||
electronic bulletin board have no more expectation of
|
||
privacy than a heap of postcards. In the final analysis, very
|
||
little was firmly nailed down. Formally, the legal rulings in the
|
||
Jackson case apply only in the federal Western District of Texas.
|
||
It was, however, established that these were real civil-
|
||
liberties issues that powerful people were prepared to go to the
|
||
courthouse over; the seizure of bulletin board systems,
|
||
though it still goes on, can be a perilous act for the seizer.
|
||
The Secret Service owes Steve Jackson $50,000 in damages, and a
|
||
thousand dollars each to three of Jackson's angry and offended
|
||
board users. And Steve Jackson, rather than owning the
|
||
single-line bulletin board system "Illuminati" seized in
|
||
1990, now rejoices in possession of a huge privately-owned
|
||
Internet node, "io.com," with dozens of phone-lines on its own T-1
|
||
trunk.
|
||
|
||
Jackson has made the entire blow-by-blow narrative of
|
||
his case available electronically, for interested parties.
|
||
And yet, the Jackson case may still not be over; a Secret Service appeal
|
||
seems likely and the EFF is also gravely dissatisfied with the
|
||
ruling on electronic interception.
|
||
|
||
The WELL, home of the American electronic civil
|
||
libertarian movement, added two thousand more users and
|
||
dropped its aging Sequent computer in favor of a snappy new
|
||
Sun Sparcstation. Search-and-seizure dicussions on the WELL
|
||
are now taking a decided back-seat to the current hot topic
|
||
in digital civil liberties, unbreakable public-key encryption
|
||
for private citizens.
|
||
|
||
The Electronic Frontier Foundation left its modest home
|
||
in Boston to move inside the Washington Beltway of the
|
||
Clinton Administration. Its new executive director, ECPA
|
||
pioneer and longtime ACLU activist Jerry Berman, gained a
|
||
reputation of a man adept as dining with tigers, as the EFF
|
||
devoted its attention to networking at the highest levels of
|
||
the computer and telecommunications industry. EFF's pro-
|
||
encryption lobby and anti-wiretapping initiative were
|
||
especially impressive, successfully assembling a herd of
|
||
highly variegated industry camels under the same EFF tent, in open
|
||
and powerful opposition to the electronic ambitions of the
|
||
FBI and the NSA.
|
||
|
||
EFF had transmuted at light-speed from an insurrection
|
||
to an institution. EFF Co-Founder Mitch Kapor once again
|
||
sidestepped the bureaucratic consequences of his own
|
||
success, by remaining in Boston and adapting the role of EFF guru and
|
||
gray eminence. John Perry Barlow, for his part, left
|
||
Wyoming, quit the Republican Party, and moved to New York City,
|
||
accompanied by his swarm of cellular phones. Mike Godwin
|
||
left Boston for Washington as EFF's official legal adviser
|
||
to the electronically afflicted.
|
||
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 29 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
After the Neidorf trial, Dorothy Denning further proved
|
||
her firm scholastic independence-of-mind by speaking up
|
||
boldly on the usefulness and social value of federal
|
||
wiretapping. Many civil libertarians, who regarded the
|
||
practice of wiretapping with deep occult horror, were
|
||
crestfallen to the point of comedy when nationally known
|
||
"hacker sympathizer" Dorothy Denning sternly defended
|
||
police and public interests in official eavesdropping.
|
||
However, no amount of public uproar seemed to swerve the "quaint" Dr.
|
||
Denning in the slightest. She not only made up her own
|
||
mind, she made it up in public and then stuck to her guns.
|
||
|
||
In 1993, the stalwarts of the Masters of Deception,
|
||
Phiber Optik, Acid Phreak and Scorpion, finally fell afoul of the
|
||
machineries of legal prosecution. Acid Phreak and Scorpion
|
||
were sent to prison for six months, six months of home
|
||
detention, 750 hours of community service, and, oddly, a $50
|
||
fine for conspiracy to commit computer crime. Phiber Optik,
|
||
the computer intruder with perhaps the highest public
|
||
profile in the entire world, took the longest to plead guilty, but,
|
||
facing the possibility of ten years in jail, he finally did so. He
|
||
was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
|
||
|
||
As for the Atlanta wing of the Legion of Doom, Prophet,
|
||
Leftist and Urvile... Urvile now works for a software
|
||
company in Atlanta. He is still on probation and still
|
||
repaying his enormous fine. In fifteen months, he will once again be
|
||
allowed to own a personal computer. He is still a convicted
|
||
federal felon, but has not had any legal difficulties since
|
||
leaving prison. He has lost contact with Prophet and Leftist.
|
||
Unfortunately, so have I, though not through lack of honest
|
||
effort.
|
||
|
||
Knight Lightning, now 24, is a technical writer for
|
||
the federal government in Washington DC. He has still not
|
||
been accepted into law school, but having spent more than
|
||
his share of time in the company of attorneys, he's come to
|
||
think that maybe an MBA would be more to the point. He still
|
||
owes his attorneys $30,000, but the sum is dwindling steadily
|
||
since he is manfully working two jobs. Knight Lightning customarily
|
||
wears a suit and tie and carries a valise. He has a federal
|
||
security clearance.
|
||
|
||
Unindicted *Phrack* co-editor Taran King is also a
|
||
technical writer in Washington DC, and recently got
|
||
married.
|
||
|
||
Terminus did his time, got out of prison, and currently
|
||
lives in Silicon Valley where he is running a full-scale
|
||
Internet node, "netsys.com." He programs professionally for a
|
||
company specializing in satellite links for the Internet.
|
||
|
||
Carlton Fitzpatrick still teaches at the Federal Law
|
||
Enforcement Training Center, but FLETC found that the issues
|
||
involved in sponsoring and running a bulletin board system
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 30 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
are rather more complex than they at first appear to be.
|
||
|
||
Gail Thackeray briefly considered going into private
|
||
security, but then changed tack, and joined the Maricopa
|
||
County District Attorney's Office (with a salary). She is
|
||
still vigorously prosecuting electronic racketeering in Phoenix,
|
||
Arizona.
|
||
|
||
The fourth consecutive Computers, Freedom and Privacy
|
||
Conference will take place in March 1994 in Chicago.
|
||
|
||
As for Bruce Sterling... well *8-). I thankfully
|
||
abandoned my brief career as a true-crime journalist and wrote a new
|
||
science fiction novel, *Heavy Weather,* and assembled a new
|
||
collection of short stories, *Globalhead.* I also write
|
||
nonfiction regularly, for the popular-science column in
|
||
*The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.*
|
||
|
||
I like life better on the far side of the boundary
|
||
between fantasy and reality; but I've come to recognize that
|
||
reality has an unfortunate way of annexing fantasy for its own
|
||
purposes. That's why I'm on the Police Liaison Committee for EFF-
|
||
Austin, a local electronic civil liberties group (eff-
|
||
austin@tic.com). I don't think I will ever get over my
|
||
experience of the Hacker Crackdown, and I expect to be
|
||
involved in electronic civil liberties activism for the rest
|
||
of my life.
|
||
|
||
It wouldn't be hard to find material for another book
|
||
on computer crime and civil liberties issues. I truly believe
|
||
that I could write another book much like this one, every year.
|
||
Cyberspace is very big. There's a lot going on out there,
|
||
far more than can be adequately covered by the tiny, though
|
||
growing, cadre of network-literate reporters. I do wish I
|
||
could do more work on this topic, because the various people of
|
||
cyberspace are an element of our society that definitely
|
||
requires sustained study and attention.
|
||
|
||
But there's only one of me, and I have a lot on my
|
||
mind, and, like most science fiction writers, I have a lot more
|
||
imagination than discipline. Having done my stint as an
|
||
electronic-frontier reporter, my hat is off to those
|
||
stalwart few who do it every day. I may return to this topic some day,
|
||
but I have no real plans to do so. However, I didn't have any
|
||
real plans to write "Hacker Crackdown," either. Things happen,
|
||
nowadays. There are landslides in cyberspace. I'll just
|
||
have to try and stay alert and on my feet.
|
||
|
||
The electronic landscape changes with astounding speed.
|
||
We are living through the fastest technological transformation
|
||
in human history. I was glad to have a chance to document
|
||
cyberspace during one moment in its long mutation; a kind of
|
||
strobe-flash of the maelstrom. This book is already out-of-
|
||
date, though, and it will be quite obsolete in another five
|
||
years. It seems a pity.
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 31 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
|
||
However, in about fifty years, I think this book might
|
||
seem quite interesting. And in a hundred years, this book
|
||
should seem mind-bogglingly archaic and bizarre, and will
|
||
probably seem far weirder to an audience in 2092 than it
|
||
ever seemed to the contemporary readership.
|
||
|
||
Keeping up in cyberspace requires a great deal of
|
||
sustained attention. Personally, I keep tabs with the
|
||
milieu by reading the invaluable electronic magazine Computer
|
||
underground Digest (tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu with the
|
||
subject header: SUB CuD and a message that says: SUB CuD your
|
||
name your.full.internet@address). I also read Jack
|
||
Rickard's bracingly iconoclastic *Boardwatch Magazine* for print news
|
||
of the BBS and online community. And, needless to say, I
|
||
read *Wired,* the first magazine of the 1990s that actually looks
|
||
and acts like it really belongs in this decade. There are other
|
||
ways to learn, of course, but these three outlets will guide your
|
||
efforts very well.
|
||
|
||
When I myself want to publish something electronically,
|
||
which I'm doing with increasing frequency, I generally put
|
||
it on the gopher at Texas Internet Consulting, who are my, well,
|
||
Texan Internet consultants (tic.com). This book can be
|
||
found there. I think it is a worthwhile act to let this work go
|
||
free.
|
||
|
||
From thence, one's bread floats out onto the dark
|
||
waters of cyberspace, only to return someday, tenfold. And of
|
||
course, thoroughly soggy, and riddled with an entire amazing
|
||
ecosystem of bizarre and gnawingly hungry cybermarine life-
|
||
forms. For this author at least, that's all that really
|
||
counts.
|
||
|
||
Thanks for your attention *8-)
|
||
|
||
Bruce Sterling bruces@well.sf.ca.us -- New Years' Day
|
||
1994, Austin Texas
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
Fidonews Information
|
||
========================================================================
|
||
|
||
------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ----------------
|
||
|
||
Editors: Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Tim Pozar
|
||
Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello,
|
||
Tom Jennings
|
||
|
||
IMPORTANT NOTE: The FidoNet address of the FidoNews BBS has been
|
||
changed!!! Please make a note of this.
|
||
|
||
"FidoNews" BBS
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 32 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
FidoNet 1:1/23
|
||
BBS +1-519-570-4176, 300/1200/2400/14400/V.32bis/HST(DS)
|
||
Internet addresses:
|
||
Don & Sylvia (submission address)
|
||
editor@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
|
||
|
||
Sylvia -- max@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
|
||
Donald -- donald@exlibris.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
|
||
Tim -- pozar@kumr.lns.com
|
||
|
||
(Postal Service mailing address) (have extreme patience)
|
||
FidoNews
|
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128 Church St.
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Canada
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N2H 2S4
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Published weekly by and for the members of the FidoNet international
|
||
amateur electronic mail system. It is a compilation of individual
|
||
articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The
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||
contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the
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||
rights of the authors. Opinions expressed in these articles are those
|
||
of the authors and not necessarily those of FidoNews.
|
||
|
||
Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
|
||
copyright 1993 Sylvia Maxwell. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or
|
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distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in
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||
other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or FidoNews
|
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||
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||
OBTAINING COPIES: The-most-recent-issue-ONLY of FidoNews in electronic
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form may be obtained from the FidoNews BBS via manual download or
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PRINTED COPIES may be obtained from Fido Software for $10.00US each
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INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via FTP from ftp.fidonet.org, in
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SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
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FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
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|
||
"Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
|
||
trademarks of Tom Jennings, and are used with permission.
|
||
|
||
Asked what he thought of Western civilization,
|
||
M.K. Gandhi said, "I think it would be an excellent idea".
|
||
-- END
|
||
FidoNews 11-02 Page: 33 09 Jan 1994
|
||
|
||
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|