Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: zellich@stl-07sima.army.mil (Rich Zellich)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Crackers: Innocent and Misunderstood, Says Mr. Kapor
Message-ID: <8532@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 90 14:10:49 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 405, Message 2 of 6


Mr. Moderator - Please don't advocate ripping off commercial software,
even in sarcastic jest mode.

Being somewhat more charitable than PT, I assume two points in Mr.
Kapors favor:

   1)  So far, at least, there has been no monetary loss shown by the various
   federal prosecutors involved in Sun Devil; they have alleged much in their
   self-serving statements to the media but, as has been pointed out in this
   forum, no actual damage of any kind has yet been substantiated.

   2) I assume Mitch Kapor is reacting to the "witch hunt" atmosphere that
   seems to be pervading the LoD and Sun Devil busts - as witness the raid on
   Steve Jackson Games.  Clearly, *somebody* needs to help the less-well-
   funded witch-huntees caught in the government's fuzzily-conceived trap.

While it seems clear that there was some serious crackery going on, it
seems just as clear that a *lot* of innocent people are being harassed
by the authorities for no good reason except ignorance on the part of
those authorities, are having their systems seized (to the detriment
of some of the rest of us, in the case of e-mail relay systems), and
are going to have to spend a lot of their hard-earned dollars on
attorney fees just to point out the obvious in court.


[Moderator's Note: Whether or not there is a monetary loss is of
absolutely no relevance. If you don't think this is the case, then
kindly leave your door unlocked tomorrow while you are gone, so I can
come in and snoop around. I won't steal anything! I will just read
through your personal papers, etc.  Ah, you say, that is different!
Not a bit. Why are AT&T, Sprint, MCI and similar fair game for the
crackers and your home system -- or Mr. K's software is not?  

Now you go on to say a *lot* (your emphasis) of people are 'being
harassed'. Name two or three; go ahead, I'll wait.  You want to use
Steve Jackson Games as one example?  Ha! That's rich ... more and more
news is coming out of that every day ... i.e. a little blurb in news
yesterday alleging a cracker (I think previously convicted) was/is on
his payroll. And you complain that innocent users on the net are being
harmed by the disruption in mail: why is that the government's fault?
Your complaint should be with the administrators of e-mail relays who
have *violated the trust of the net community* by getting wrapped up
in this stinking mess. If I were arrested for something today, would
you blame the government because TELECOM Digest did not get published
tomorrow?  PT]