Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1991 05:35:45 GMT From: Mike Godwin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Well Len, Was it Worth a Prison Term? Message-ID: Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 462, Message 2 of 7 Lines: 37 Our Moderator demonstrates his moral sensibility with the following comment: > [Moderator's Note: What Len Rose was *convicted* of doing was being in > possession of AT&T computer source code illegally, and transporting > the code across state lines. And Al Capone was sent to prison for > failure to pay his income tax. This is a contemptible comparison. Len Rose is Al Capone? Capone committed thousands of crimes. All Rose did was write an article showing how to hack login.c to enable the capturing of passwords. Did Rose ever use this program to gain unauthorized entry? No. Did anyone else ever use it? No. Is it ever allowable to show how code can be modified to break system security? Yes. Does Pat Townson have any moral perspective at all? Read his comparison of Len Rose to Al Capone and draw your own conclusions. I think you should be ashamed, Pat. But the kind of people who make such comments typically know no shame. > Thanks to all who wrote me on this issue; I've got more articles in > the queue to continue this thread tomorrow, and will summarize a > rebuttal of my own, also probably tomorrow space permitting. PAT] The "rebuttal" should include apologies: to Len Rose, whose worst sin was bragging in an article about his ability to modify login.c, and to "EFF supporters," who do not approve of system breakins and who have a little more regard for the First Amendment than Townson does. Mike Godwin, mnemonic@eff.org (617) 864-1550 EFF, Cambridge, MA