Xref: utzoo alt.security:1432 alt.folklore.computers:4891 comp.society.futures:2046 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!wuarchive!uunet!lll-winken!taurus!cs!spl From: spl@cs.nps.navy.mil (Steve Lamont) Newsgroups: alt.security,alt.folklore.computers,comp.society.futures Subject: Re: Re: Feedback on Computer Crime - Apology Message-ID: <1310@cs.nps.navy.mil> Date: 25 Aug 90 15:07:49 GMT References: <1990Aug20.180703.3667@eng.umd.edu> <1990Aug23.235734.9401@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <19375@ttidca.TTI.COM> Reply-To: spl@cs.nps.navy.mil (Steve Lamont) Followup-To: alt.security,comp.society.futures Organization: Foo Bar Brewers Cooperative Lines: 32 In article <19375@ttidca.TTI.COM> hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) writes: >In article <1990Aug23.235734.9401@ddsw1.MCS.COM> zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Sameer Parekh) writes: >}>> > >}>> > I was busted and the feds laided 8 felony counts on me, basically >}>> >all the same: I called a number and connected. There was no damage, > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >He didn't just call a number. He called a number he knew had a modem on >the other end and connected with his modem. It was a number he had no >legitimate reason to call. His saying there was no damage doesn't mean >there wasn't any. If nothing else, he tied up that number and caused a >temporary denial of service to the legitimate users. By this reasoning, any wrong number dialed could be a prosecutable offense. After all, the caller is denying the callee service. Even if we put aside this admittedly extreme and perhaps absurd example, one has to ask why such intentional "denial of service" is legal in the case of such annoyances as "junk fax" or computerized telemarketing and not in the case of some clown dialing a bunch of computer modem numbers? [Please not that I am in no way defending or accusing the original poster (zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM). We have been presented with almost no evidence or information other than one clearly self serving and unverifiable statement. Certainly insufficient grounds to form any conclusion whatsoever.] spl (the p stands for phone *this*, suckah!) -- Steve Lamont, SciViGuy -- (408) 646-2752 (subject to change at random) NPS Confuser Center / Code 51 / Naval Postgraduate School / Monterey, CA 93940 "You're okay," said Honeysuckle. "The dogs like you." - Charles Bukowski, "How to Get Published"