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From: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: bbs's and pirates
Message-ID: <119@stag.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Apr-87 16:30:10 EST
Article-I.D.: stag.119
Posted: Sun Apr 19 16:30:10 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Apr-87 03:59:22 EST
References: <222@cbnscs.UUCP>
Reply-To: trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey )
Distribution: world
Organization: Mindtools ST Access Group, Plymouth, MN
Lines: 29


After sysop'ing a board (stag @ 612-542-8980) for almost 2 years now,
I can safely say that only about 5% or less of the people who dial
into my ST board have actually had the nerve to ask about non-PD
softare availability. I am sure there are boards that you can dial
into that are heavily into piracy, but overall, I would guess that
most boards are somewhat overloaded with PD software. I have a hard
enough time dealing with the 30-40 megs of PD STuff that is available.
And for the occasional person who insists on trying to 'trade'
software, I have a special 'scare tactic' key that I can press (it
sends a message to the user informing him/her that the user has
violated their moral responsiblilities to using the board, pretends to
trace the users' phone number and add it to a nation wide blacklist
(complete with bells and pauses), and then does a permenant lockout of
the user from the board.

One thing people should be aware of is that while sysops don't
exchange user lists (that would be an incredible waste of time), I am
sure that some sysops out there probably are willing to take advantage
of the fact that a LOT of people use the same password on different
BBS's. I have noticed many illegal attempts to log onto my BBS by
people who indicated that they weren't even near a computer at the
time my BBS recorded the attempts (my BBS supports several security
levels for access, etc). All I can recommend is changing your password
every once in a while and keeping it slightly different for each BBS
you get onto.

-Todd Burkey
...ihnp4!meccts!zeke!stag!trb