Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!ucbvax!unisoft!fai!sequent!jimp
From: jimp@sequent.UUCP (James Pilcher)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Judge for Yourself
Keywords: Fact Fancy Paranoid Bizarre
Message-ID: <43566@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 4 Oct 90 23:40:00 GMT
References: <1084@lsicom2.UU.NET>
Reply-To: jimp@crg1.UUCP (James Pilcher)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc
Lines: 65

In article <1084@lsicom2.UU.NET> len@lsicom2.UU.NET (Len Rose) writes:
>
>This article was pointed out to me by a friend and came from the
>newsgroup alt.sex.pictures.d ... Can anyone verify this?
>
>BEGINNING OF ARTICLE
>--------------------
>>From article <1990Sep29.181306.11316@rodan.acs.syr.edu>, by jstewart@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ace Stewart):
>> 
>> If anyone knows, what is the userid of the person/people who maintain
>> the archives over at MARS? I wanted to send them so email about the
>> GIFS and some other questions, but ROOT and OPERATOR don't work. Does
>> anyone happen to know who should I mail to?
>> 
>
>	Can't help you how here but this is a message that a friend
>of mine got off of there BBS
>
>==============================================================================
>=                             copy of message                                =
>==============================================================================
>Posted By: lush (Ed Luke)
>Date:      Sat Sep 29 21:54:03 1990
>Title:     The story about the GIF files.
>
>Ok, since everyone has been asking about the gif files, here's the story of
>what happened with the gifs...  It seems that the secret service under
>direction of Pres. Bush is on a campaign against computer crime. You've read
>about some of this probably.  It's called  Operation Sun Devil.  Some of the
>older users will remember when this bbs was called the Pirates Resource BBS
>and was on athena.ee.mssate.edu.  Well we eventually got shut down in a
>fashion similar to that of the victims of operation sun devil.  However, in
>our case, since we were such an allegedly large center for computer criminal
>activity, the Secret Service, along with the National Computing Defence
>Council decided to conduct an ongoing investiation.  If you want to catch
>mice, you don't just plug their holes.  You lay traps.  Well they allowed us
>to set up again at mars on the strict requirement that we would do strict
>accounting.  We have been keeping records of every (timestamped) upload and
>download that's been made to this board. In addition, in hopes of cooperating
>with the Feds for obvious reasons, I instituted the monitoring system software
>on mars.  When anyone did an ftp it logged the date, did a finger on the
>system that was connecting and snarfed up the userid via ftp protocol and made
>a complete record of all files downloaded and uploaded.  Also, users that
>download files from the bbs had the machine name they were connecting to, and
>any other evidence collected in a similar manner.  After enough information
>was collected, we gave them the reams of data files and removed the gifs,
>giving yall the bogus NSF story.  So there it is.  The GIFS and GL's aren't
>the biggest part of the story, but they are illegal in some states and the FCC
>has been interested in cracking down on computer obscenity for a long time.
>I can't say I like it, but that we have to live with it.
>
>
>
>
>Later,
>Ed Luke
>==============================================================================
>
>any comments?
>
>
At some point in human history, someone is going to realize
that obscenity and pretty pictures (sexually oriented) are not
synonyms. Trust the prudes in the government to take a swipe
in passing at anyone having a little fun.