Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 20:26 CDT From: Bill Kennedy Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: These People and Institutions Were Hurt by Len Message-ID: Organization: W.L. Kennedy Jr. and Associates, Pipe Creek, TX 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 481, Message 6 of 7 Lines: 78 My concern is strictly for the damage that Len did to people and organizations who were just whooshed into his vortex. > Mr. Rose is on his way to jail for posessing unlicensed source code. > The world is now safer for humanity. The case that I want to plead has nothing whatsoever to do with the legality or lack thereof for which Len Rose is being incarcerated. I want to talk about common courtesy and respect for your fellow man. Not common courtesy or respect for Len, but rather HIS lack of it for others. > One stark bad example. Heading off to jail. Now, let us contrast the > damage done by Mr. Rose to the damage done by the SS to Steve Jackson > Games, and scale an appropriate sentence for them. Tanner makes my point with precision. Let me enumerate the damage done which could have been avoided had Len acted more responsibly: Steve Jackson games - They never would have become vulnerable to SS abuse had Len not made excursions beyond reason and the law. This wasn't Tanner's point, but it's my take on it. Usenet killer/attctc - This invaluable resource and national spoke in the Usenet wheel would not have been shut down had Len not decided to joyride beyond the bounds of propriety and common sense. Southwestern Bell - I'd use his name but I don't have his permission. He lost his job, for all intent and purposes, despite his *total* exhonoration in the matter. He was put under a microscope, intimidated, and otherwise mistreated and had to leave the company. His only "mistake"? He was honestly and innocently associated with Len Rose. AT&T employee - Ditto above. In my view these two people lost their jobs just because they had dealings with Len Rose in all good faith. Had Len Rose remained within the bounds of professionalism they would still be employed by their previous employers (in the SWBT case 22 years went down the drain). I happen to think that they are both better off in their current jobs and they probably agree, but it's not the point. Their careers with their employers were wrecked because Len Rose couldn't behave. Usenet texbell - THE major news and mail site in Texas came under scrutiny as a result of the Len Rose case. Southwestern Bell who had sponsored and underwritten it for years decided to shut it down on four days' notice and I can't be convinced that it wasn't realted to the internal investigation stimulated by the Len Rose case. Unnamed person Austin - I don't have his permission either so he'll have to stay anonymous too. His apartment was raided and all of his electronic stuff confiscated the same day as Steve Jackson Games, same city, Austin, TX. This individual is now having to file a lawsuit to get his gear back (no charges were ever filed) and it costs him money to do that. Len's stuff was returned. Here's my point. I don't care what anyone says or thinks about right or wrong with regard to Len Rose. My animosity and resentment stems from the "collateral damage" caused by a long standing collection of really bone headed things that the man did. I am just as sympathetic as everyone else for what he did to his family (I said "what he did") as I am what he did to the rest of the net at large, examples above. He caused a lot of grief. He grieved some people who could have been spared had he been able to contain himself. He didn't, they weren't spared. He's headed for the hoosegow, but I think he and we would be better served if he could get some treatment for what makes him hurt others. Yes, I'm an injured party too, but stomach acid only, he *HURT* the things I laid out above. Don't slather me with "it was the big bad feds"; had he not attracted their attention they'd have left him (and the rest of us) alone. 'Nuff said, I thought you ought to know. Bill Kennedy internet bill@ssbn.WLK.COM or ssbn!bill@attmail.COM uucp {att,cs.utexas.edu,pyramid!daver}!ssbn.wlk.com!bill