105 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
105 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
Why do we maintain the *Illegal* archives?
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By _King Fisher_ aka _Linus Walleij_.
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In the years 1987-1989 there was just *one* big cracker zine in Europe. (With
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the term 'cracker' we hereby mean a person who removes protection from
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software.) Alongside the dutch magazine *Hacktic* this was probably the crown
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media of the European computer underground, comparable to *TAP* and *2600* in
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the United States. Word has it that *Illegal* was the main inspiration source
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for all underground diskzines later produced on C= 64, Amiga, Atari ST and IBM
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PC. *Illegal* was not the first cracker fanzine, and certainly not the last,
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but beyond reasonable doubt it was the biggest and most influential
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"Warez"-producer magazine in the world history of cracking. ("Warez" is slang
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for pirate software.)
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In the United States underground zines were already established, but the
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cracker scene was never as big as in Europe. This was probably due to the fact
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that Americans used a great many different brands of computers: Apple II,
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Atari 800 and even the good old Altair 8800. In Europe almost *everybody* used
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Commodore 64. Naturally Europe became the cracking centre of the world for C=
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64 warez. The scene surrounding C= 64 cracking was so huge that it developed
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its own cultural ethos. The highlight of that culture was, I would say,
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*Illegal*.
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*Illegal* has it all. The legendary groups, the big ones, throwing out
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*all* produced software in a deprotected and compact format. Cracking, at this
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time, was a branch of amateur-programming, widely appreciated by almost all
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computerized teenagers in Europe.
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Needless to say, *Illegal*, and the underground scene surrounding it, was
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viewed as a great threat to the software industry, both by the industry itself
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and in the *official view* of the magazines who would rise and fall with this
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industry. This was a time when software producers _System 3_ could invite the
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software reviewing journalists to a free trip to Thailand, having them stay in
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a horribly expensive hotel and in the evening bring them downtown to watch an
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*ad hoc* game of Thai Boxing, arranged to look like the fights in the game
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*Bangkok Knights*, for which this release party was launched. What would the
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established computer media do for the industry in return for all these
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advertisements and costly software happenings? Almost anything I'd say. Were
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the glossy software magazines in the lap of the software industry? You bet!
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They were, in many aspects, one and the same.
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Companies like those I mention above could not possibly accept the
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existance of a zine like *Illegal*. Even though this industry had its own
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lobbying organizations, like _FAST_ (Federation Against Software Theft) in the
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United Kingdom and later the international organization _BSA_ (Business
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Software Alliance), they were unable to track down and terminate *Illegal*.
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Their knowledge of the underground scene and its organization was simply too
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stereotypical. They believed that crackers cracked software to sell it, and
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thus tried to track down business-like small scale firms selling pirate
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software. Though they succeded in busting a great many such firms, *Illegal*
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stayed put, since the cracker scene did not work the way these huge companies
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believed. In fact, crackers exchanged software inbetween themselves *for
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free*. The motto was *"share and enjoy"* and this sharing was for fun and not
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for profit.
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However, these companies talked the language of _the power_ and very early
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convinced certain authoritive officials on the need to outlaw and extinguish
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software piracy in all its forms. Many authorities were more than willing to
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listen to voices talking about national-economic loss due to certain bogus
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underground formations. It is no secret that the most authoriative and
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power-worshipping country in Europe happens to be Germany. And *Illegal*
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happened to be located in - Germany. Always willing to restrict its' citizens
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freedom in every possible way, the German government had on an early stage
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cleared a law which outlawed software swapping in almost every form. Some
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countries in Europe didn't recieve such restrictions until the breakthrough of
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the PC in the early 90's, and some still haven't.
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On May 18th 1989, just 2 days before the planned release date for
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*Illegal* #38, _Jeff Smart_, the editor of *Illegal* gets his apartment raided
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by German police. All his equipment is confiscated, including the computer and
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software he used to publish *Illegal*. (In this case a Commodore C= 64 and a
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DTP-program called Newsroom.) Jeff is charged with software piracy but the
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trial is cancelled due to lack of evidence. _However_: Jeff had to fight to
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get his equipment back, and his disks _AND_ the back issues of Illegal he has
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published over the years, as well as lots of other information related to
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*Illegal*, remains confiscated.
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On January 18th 1990 _Knight Lightning_ (Craig Neidorf) is raided by US
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Secret Service for publishing supposed copyrighted material in his
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phreaker-underground zine *Phrack*. This is just one incident in a series of
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crackdowns on hackers throughout the United States, known as *Operation
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Sundevil*, which in combination with other police activities with connection
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to a software theft from Apple performed by some group called *Nu Prometheus
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League* leads to the forming of an organization called *the Electronic
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Frontier Foundation*, dedicated to preserve human rights in the information
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age. EFF constantly raises debate around the freedom of press and
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"Intellectual Property" (eg software copyrights).
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You probably see some connection here. You get to suspect that the German
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police raided Jeff Smart with the only intention to *shut down* the magazine
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*Illegal*, just like they used to do in the earlier stages of the 2nd World
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War. In fact, the police told Jeff he had to promise *never to publish a
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cracker magazine again* in order to stay out of trouble. And so, he has not.
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The German police _killed_ *Illegal*.
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*We don't want the World to forget about this*. The freedom of press and
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information is a criteria for a democratic society.
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_That is why we publish_ *Illegal* _on the Internet._
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Thank you for reading.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| GOD King Fisher of T R I A D |
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| / \ Adress thru c/space connexions: triad@df.lth.se |
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| / \ Realm of software cowboys: http://www.df.lth.se/~triad |
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| / \ - * - |
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| POWER-------OBEY Karl Marx + Robert Nozick => Cyberpunk Outlaw Ideology |
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| Pjotr Kropotkin + Unabomber => Dynamite |
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| [JUSTIFIED] We Are All A Part Of The Inevitable |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| I adhere to Michael Synergy and his followers worldwide! |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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