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From: gors@well.UUCP (Gordon Stewart)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Prosecution in the Internet Worm case
Message-ID: <12874@well.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jul 89 16:34:06 GMT
References: <8907211627.aa28013@note.nsf.gov> <8137@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: gors@well.UUCP (Gordon Stewart)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 38


[excerpted from NY TIMES NATIONAL Edition - July 27, 1989]

STUDENT, AFTER DELAY, IS CHARGED IN CRIPPLING OF COMPUTER NETWORK

After more than eight months... the Justice Dept. said that a Federal
Grand Jury in Syracuse had indicted the 24-Year old Cornell U. graduate
student ... Robert Tappan Morris ... 

[He] was charged with a single felony count under a 1986 computer crimes
law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  This law makes it illegal to gain
unauthorized access to Federal computers. ... Under the law, authorities
must show that Morris intended to cripple the computer network.

...

The incident has ... bitterly divided computer scientists and computer
security experts around the country.  Some have said that they believe
"an example" should be made of Mr. Morris to discourage future tampering.
Others, however, have argued that Mr. Morris performed a valuable service
by alerting the nation to the laxity of computer security controls.

[By John Markoff -- Special to the NY Times]


_________________________________________________________________________

I wish Mr. Morris well -- I subscribe to the notion that a breach of
etiquette was committed, not a breach of security.  Lock your car,
take your keys...  I suppose he's had a major lesson in the possible
far-reaching consequences from such a prank -- although the lesson
isn't over, the burden of proving that he INTENDED to cause harm is
probably too great for the Justice Dept. to carry off.

-- 
				{apple, pacbell, hplabs, ucbvax}!well!gors
							gors@well.sf.ca.us
(Doolan) | (Meyer) | (Sierchio) | (Stewart)