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From: rogue@cellar.UUCP (Rache McGregor)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Student suspended for distributing /etc/passwd
Message-ID: <cN8m44w164w@cellar.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jun 91 16:29:11 GMT
References: <1991Jun16.042916.15434@athena.cs.uga.edu>
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mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:

> I appreciate your concern that the student who was suspended cannot
> speak here to defend himself.
> 
> However, let me point out that:
>   (1) The suspension was imposed on him by a court of three of his
> fellow students;

Since we've had discussions here before about the possible differences 
between a jury of fellow citizens and a jury of one's peers, what was the 
computer expertise of the three student judges?

>   (2) At his hearing, he pleaded guilty and admitted knowing that he
> was sending /etc/passwd to someone who habitually tried to break into
> computers, and thereby facilitating a probable break-in.

Pardon me if this has been asked before, but I believe we've all been 
assuming that the cracker has no relationship to the University.  What was 
the relationship, if any, between the University and the cracker?  Was [he] a 
student?  A former student or employee?  What had [he] done while breaking 
into the other system, and what measures are being taken against [him]?

> Computers at Georgia are not funded by student activity fees or lab fees.
> The main UNIX system was donated to the University by Sun Microsystems
> and is operated by the Department of Computer Science as a service to
> the University community. So this student is not being denied anything
> that he paid for.

This is not to defend the student, but I'm of the "school" that if a student 
is paying tuition, they're paying for the entire university, and that 
anything (not underwitten by the defense department and requiring a security 
clearnce) set up for student use should be open to all students.

> Finally, I reject the idea that the world divides sharply into "authorities"
> and "little guys." We're all computer users. Some of us are also sysadmins.
> Believe me, it was not just the sysadmins who were upset to find that
> /etc/passwd had been mailed out -- it was all the users who were knowledgeabl
> enough to understand what this action meant.

Just out of curiosity, what's the facutly/student ratio of the sysadmins?

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