Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ut-sally!ut-emx!emp
From: emp@ut-emx.UUCP (naDev~tlhIngan~putulu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Bulletin Board Software Needed
Message-ID: <996@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 27 Feb 88 03:29:12 GMT
References: <901@ut-emx.UUCP> <149@marob.MASA.COM>
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 42
Summary: Ah! THis is true, BUT....

In article <149@marob.MASA.COM>, manes@marob.MASA.COM (Steve Manes) writes:
> From article <901@ut-emx.UUCP>, by emp@ut-emx.UUCP (naDev~tlhIngan~putulu):
> > ...you've GOT to be kidding!!!!
> > ....Try WWIV instead. At least it's got the SOURCE CODE!
> > ....can Dopus or any oter say that?
> 
> Unfortunately, that software title might be more descriptive than the
> author intended.  Having BBS software source in hand is convenient for
> local site modifications but it's equally attractive to the runny-nosed
> Snidelys out there.  The only thing that could be more irresistable to
> junior terrorist mindsets than the knowledge of zapping the hard disks
> of possibly thousands of people is gaining first-person access to those
> machines, which is exactly what happened here a few years ago when a
> hacked copy of the RBBS-PC source made the rounds.

...this is a possibility that the programmer, Wayne Bell, realized when he
put the program into the Pubic Domain. His solution was simple: On the docs
themselves, put the following notice:


	"Unless you have received this package from my BBS via downloads,
	Then you implement this at your own risk."

...on the other side of the coin, there's this:

	"Under no circumstances should you distribute this software in any
	other form than it's original version. If you modify it in any way,
	do not distribute your version. You may distribute a file desribing
	how to make the same mods you have made, but not the actual modified
	BBS."

...I agree. There are a few jerks who have tried in the past to pass off a
bugged copy of WWIV on a BBS so that some unsuspecting moron can D/L it and
get ripped, but this has only happened in three recorded instances. Ironically,
two of them happened here in town (And the little pest who got the viraled
copy got just what he deserved, too)(Not that I advocate viral revenge, mind you).

...A word to the wise: If you DO get WWIV, get it from Wayne Bell's board. One
of these days I'll find the number again, and post it on the Net.


						OM