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From: ryoder@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert W Yoder)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: Copyright??!
Message-ID: <1991Mar22.160607.26670@en.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 91 16:06:07 GMT
References: <8btWXFS00V86M653JH@andrew.cmu.edu> <5482@umbc3.UMBC.EDU> <1991Mar22.070901.13060@nmt.edu>
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Lines: 33

In article <1991Mar22.070901.13060@nmt.edu>, nraoaoc@nmt.edu (Daniel Briggs) writes:

[text deleted]

The fallout from postings can get worse then that.  Some time back,
I made a posting asking for information about a certain individual;
Nothing derogatory, just a request for information.

A few days later, I was editing a file, when my account was abruptly iced.
I contacted the system administrator to find out what was going on, and
found a very distraught individual who was being innundated by phone calls
from the local police department wanting information regarding charges
being filed against him, Purdue, and myself, and also calls from the
individual named in the posting, threatening criminal charges, civil suits,
and veiled threats of violence.  Before it was all over, the FBI even got
involved in it.

In my case, I was lucky;  There was an individual here who already had
an extensive file about this character, and showed it to the authorities,
which resulted in clearing up the hassle in a couple of days.

What I learned from all of this is to assume that anything you put in a
posting is immediately propagated to every living being on the planet.

(Incidently, the individual previously mentioned never even saw the text
 of my posting.  He just learned second-hand that there was a posting
 mentioning him.)

-- 
Robert Yoder  "It's 10 o'clock.  Do you know where your child processes are?"
306 Hawkins Graduate House  Internet: ryoder@ecn.purdue.edu
West Lafayette, IN 47906    Bitnet:   ryoder%ecn.purdue.edu@purccvm
(317)495-6845    N9CON      UUCP:     {purdue, pur-ee}!ecn.purdue.edu!ryoder