Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!world!bzs From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: hacker = computer criminal Message-ID: Date: 6 Oct 90 02:00:31 GMT References: <4761@bone25.UUCP> <69148@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <20225:Oct319:48:5690@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1990Oct4.152821.3150@cbnews.att.com> Sender: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) Distribution: na Organization: The World Lines: 38 In-Reply-To: wv@cbnews.att.com's message of 4 Oct 90 15:28:21 GMT >Isn't recording a phone conversation without the other party's >knowledge of it illegal? One would have to determine whether >recording a "computer" conversation isn't illegal, also. Gak. I would not even entertain the concept of a separate ruling on a "computer" conversation. Computers don't have conversations, people do, even if both ends were computer initiated it's *people's* privacy that can get violated. The (voice) phone system itself is largely digital, would this reasoning lead us to believe that at the point it becomes digital it's somehow "just a computer conversation" and might lose its legal rights? The whole thing is a semantic minefield. I realize a lot of people have negative knee-jerk reactions to this sort of thing, but something we may have to strive to do is take back the language. If they take it from you they've got you. Look at what happened to the Hacker's Conference a few years back, the whole negative incident was purely semantic. The conference was named back when "hacker" had a positive connotation, and never changed in spirit. But the word did, so suddenly some people read it as some sort of terrorist's meeting or something, and there was some trouble. Purely semantic. Don't even admit the phrase "computer phone conversation". If someone does just look at them with blank affect and ask if artificial intelligence has really gotten that far along. Or did they really mean a people conversation with computers somehow involved. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | {xylogics,uunet}!world!bzs | bzs@world.std.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD