Computer underground Digest Wed Jan 13, 1992 Volume 5 : Issue 03 ISSN 1003-032X Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Copy Editor: Etaionet Shrdlu, Junior CONTENTS, #5.03 (Jan 13, 1992) File 1--Moderators' Cornered File 2--STEVE JACKSON GAMES TRIAL DATE SET File 3--Re: COM DAILY ON F.C.C. File 4--with regards to the DoJ's keystroke logging notice File 5--Re: White Sands (SIMTEL-20) and copyrighted software File 6--Re: Dorm Room Raid (CuD #5.02) File 7--Follow-up to CuD #5.02 File 2 [Re: Dorm Room Raid (CuD #4.67)] File 8--CFP-3 Scholarships Available File 9--Canadian Media and BBSes File 10--United Kingdom Software Seizure Laws File 11--High Students charged in Computer Burglaries (Reprint) File 12--Comments on _Hacker_Crackdown_ Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost from tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu. The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-6430), fax (815-753-6302) or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL 60115. Issues of CuD can also be found in the Usenet comp.society.cu-digest news group; on CompuServe in DL0 and DL4 of the IBMBBS SIG, DL1 of LAWSIG, and DL0 and DL12 of TELECOM; on GEnie in the PF*NPC RT libraries and in the VIRUS/SECURITY library; from America Online in the PC Telecom forum under "computing newsletters;" on the PC-EXEC BBS at (414) 789-4210; in Europe from the ComNet in Luxembourg BBS (++352) 466893; and using anonymous FTP on the Internet from ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/cud, red.css.itd.umich.edu (141.211.182.91) in /cud, halcyon.com (192.135.191.2) in /pub/mirror/cud, and ftp.ee.mu.oz.au (128.250.77.2) in /pub/text/CuD. European readers can access the ftp site at: nic.funet.fi pub/doc/cud. Back issues also may be obtained from the mail server at mailserv@batpad.lgb.ca.us. COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of diverse views. CuD material may be reprinted for non-profit as long as the source is cited. Some authors do copyright their material, and they should be contacted for reprint permission. It is assumed that non-personal mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise specified. Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles relating to computer culture and communication. Articles are preferred to short responses. Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary. DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not violate copyright protections. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Jan 93 13:21:32 CST From: Moderators Subject: File 1--Moderators' Cornered WHAT'S COMIN' UP: CuD will come out twice-weekly for the next two weeks or so, then we'll be back on the once-a-week schedule. The continuation of the SPA (Software Publisher's Association) articles resumes next week with a few interviews and commentary. The Steve Jackson Games trial begins next week, and we'll keep readers up-to-date on it. ++++++ SUBMITTING TO CuD: To submit a piece to Cud, simply write something up and send it over. We obviously cannot print everything we receive, but we try to reflect the diversity of readers' views. Some guidelines: Articles should: 1. Be written in English (or a reasonable variant), make sense, and address a timely or relevant topic related to computer culture (see the statement of purpose in the header, above) 2. AVOID excessive quotes. Unless the exact wording of a post is relevant to the respondent's message, it is generally more effective to summarize a previous post (WITHOUT MISREPRESENTING) than to cite. 3. AVOID unnecessary flaming and excessive ad hominem attacks. Posts should address issues, not personalities. We encourage research/scholarly/think-piece papers of up to 6,000 to 7,000 words. We also encourage reviews of books related to cyber-issues. For more on publishing guidelines, request a FAQ (frequently asked questions) file from us. ++++++ SUBBING/UNSUBBING TO CuD: To Sub, simply send a one-line "SUB" request, BUT BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS. Not all mailers include a workable address in the header info. WHEN UNSUBBING, *PLEASE* include the address you've subbed under. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that a one word msg that says only "unsub" and a "From:" line that isn't from the subbed address will cause problems. May seem obvious, but some folks can't quite figure out that if we don't know the original sub address, then we can't readily delete it. ++++++ CuD'S FACT-CHECKERS: We are periodically criticized for running an article written by a reader--not by ourselves--that may contain inaccurate information or a debatable interpretion of information. We are then berated for "not checking our facts," for running false information, or for not doing our homework. Although it may surprise some, CuD HAS NO FACT CHECKERS. We do not check every line of every post to insure accuracy. CuD is a forum for debate and issue-raising: We provide a forum for an exchange of views, but we are not paid enough (in fact, we're not paid at all) to function as fact-checkers for articles that we, ourselves, do not write. We attempt to assure total accuracy in our own pieces, and on the (increasingly rare) times we're in error, we correct it and apologize. But, we can't be responsible for relatively minor errors of others. If an gross inaccuracy is made we'll generally contact the author, but if we aimed for zero-tolerance on the miscues of others CuD would appear quarterly instead of weekly. The best way to deal with inaccuracies is to invest some time and send in a correction or an alternative interpretation. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 13:29:02 -0500 From: Gerard Van der Leun Subject: File 2--STEVE JACKSON GAMES TRIAL DATE SET Newsnote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation | 12/23/92 | STEVE JACKSON GAMES TRIAL DATE SET Mike Godwin, General Counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, announced today that the case of Steve Jackson Games, et.al. v. The United States Secret Service et. al. will go to trial in Austin, Texas on Tuesday, January 19, 1993. +=====+===================================================+=============+ | EFF |155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141 (617)864-0665| van@eff.org | +=====+===================================================+=============+ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 02:35:15 EDT From: Dorothy Denning Subject: File 3--Re: COM DAILY ON F.C.C. James Love distributed an article from Communications Daily that included some highly critical remarks by himself and Marc Rotenberg about the appointment of Ron Plesser as head of the Clinton transition effort on the FCC. Below is a follow-up article from Comm. Daily that offers a much more positive view of the appointment. I have worked with Ron in the past and the views expressed here are more consistent with my own observations. Dorothy Denning denning@cs.georgetown.edu +++++++++++++++++ from PRIVACY Forum Digest, Vol. 01: Issue 28 Date--Sat, 12 Dec 1992 13:46:00 -0500 From--Andrew Blau Subject--Other Perspectives on Clinton FCC Transition Pick TELECOM Digest V12, #895 reprinted an article from %Communications Daily% by Art Brodsky on the FCC transition. Here's a follow-up article that fills out the picture a bit, by the same writer. It appeared in the December 9, 1992 issue of %Communications Daily%. I am posting it here with permission. Communications Daily is published by Warren Publishing, Inc., 2115 Ward Court, N.W. Washington, DC 20037. Copyright 1992 Warren Publishing, Inc. Communications Daily December 9, 1992, Wednesday SECTION: Vol. 12, No. 237; Pg. 2 HEADLINE: Plesser Praised; CLINTON TRANSITION TEAM STARTS REVIEW AT FCC BODY: Transition team for Clinton Administration paid first visit to FCC Tuesday, meeting with Chief of Staff Terry Haines. FCC transition team currently is composed of eight persons and its charge has been described as effort to take "snapshot" of operations at agency, rather than go into great policy detail or make personnel recommendations. "Their mission is to come up to speed with what's going on at the Commission and report back to superiors," we were told. Team has been assigned office space on 5th floor of FCC hq. Composition of team makes clear that effort is being made to work closely with Congress, even before Clinton takes office. About half of team members are congressional staffers. Senate Commerce Committee is represented by Antoinette (Toni) Cook (who has been mentioned often as possible FCC chmn.) and John Windhausen, while House side is represented by David Leach from Commerce Committee and Gerald Waldron from Telecom Subcommittee. (Telecom Subcommittee staffer Larry Irving also will be working on telecommunications infrastructure issues for another part of transition). Transition team at FCC also includes Howard U. Prof. Clay Smith, ex-chmn. of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (husband of Patti Smith, who is deputy dir. of policy and planning for FCC associate managing dir.) and Prof. Henry Parrett of Villanova U. Others will be named later. Transition team leader is attorney Ronald Plesser of Washington office of Baltimore law firm Piper & Marbury. His appointment was strongly criticized by public interest groups (CD Dec 7 p1), who cited his positions on policy issues and suggested conflicts of interest in his representation of clients Information Industry Assn. (IIA) and Direct Marketing Assn. (DMA). Plesser met Tues. at FCC with Haines. Later, Haines met with bureau and office chiefs and commissioner aides to inform them what is going on, and asked them to give full cooperation. However, others in public policy sector praised Plesser, who was strong supporter of ACLU's Information Technology Project and who once worked for consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Cathy Russell, counsel for Senate Technology Subcommittee, said Plesser was "sensitive to privacy considerations." While acknowledging he's "strong advocate for his clients," she said Plesser understands privacy concerns and works to "bring clients to the table with the ACLU to hash things out." Plesser, she said, has been "very reasonable with us" and she was surprised that public interest groups "would attack him on that." Similarly, Jerry Berman, head of Washington office of Electronic Frontier Foundation, called Plesser "one of the leading advocates of the Freedom of Information Act, and a supporter of making an electronic Freedom of Information Act." Plesser has brought IIA "much further toward recognizing public access to information than they [IIA] originally were doing, and brought DMA to the table in signing off on some privacy rights," Berman said. "I don't think that's an accurate description [to say he is out of mainstream]. [ Plesser] makes a great effort to balance interests." Sheryl Walter, gen. counsel of National Security Archive, said Plesser did significant pro bono work on case for her group on Freedom of Information Act on behalf of reporter Raymond Bonner, who was working on book about Philippines Pres. Marcos. In terms of experience with Archives, "we've found him to be very supportive of government disclosure." OMB Watch Exec. Dir. Gary Bass said it "makes good sense" to have Plesser and others familiar with issues involved. Bass said he would like to see more public interest sector representation in transition, but said critics of Plesser are "reacting because of his institutional role." If Plesser were "the sole person deciding policy, I would have a real problem with that," Bass said, but transition team focus is narrower. James Davidson, former staff dir. for House Judiciary Committee and ex-Senate staffer who wrote much of Privacy Act in 1974, said of Plesser: Ron Plesser has won more cases upholding freedom of information than any litigator in the country. Davidson added: "There is no more good advocate for good information policy" than Plesser. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 10:55:33 -0800 From: jet@NAS.NASA.GOV(J. Eric Townsend) Subject: File 4--with regards to the DoJ's keystroke logging notice Please keep in mind that the policy was intended for federal government computer systems. There have been a couple of cases of people getting off the hook because they were "illegally tapped" --their keystrokes were logged without notification or a court warrant. You may not realize it, but the government operates under an entirely different set of rules than private businesses. The US government can order me to kill another human; it can search my workplace (a government office) without a warrant; and it can execute tight control over its resources. (A running joke around here is "Hey, get your privately owned coffee cup off of that NASA desk -- that desk is for official government use only!") If nothing else, we have the occasional public outrage over "government tax dollars fund christmas parties". The legality of the keystroke logging message in the private sector is another matter entirely. I don't think the DoJ seriously expected that message to ever leave the sphere of intragovernment communications. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 09:17:59 EST From: morgan@ENGR.UKY.EDU(Wes Morgan) Subject: File 5--Re: White Sands (SIMTEL-20) and copyrighted software In CuD5.03, rio!canary!chris@UUNET.UU.NET(Chris Johnson) writes: >He was recently a student at a university which >has Internet access (I do not, or I'd verify the following). As a general rule, one should not make allegations that one cannot verify. It's a rather unhealthy practice, unless one aspires to a political career. 8) >He mentioned that the White Sands Missile Range (an obvious DoD >installation) had one of the largest collections of ftp accessible >computer files. He said they had everything imaginable. This is true. wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (192.88.110.20) is one of the largest collections of publicly distributable software in the world. Its archives are mirrored by wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4), which is *the* largest collection in the world. I believe that oak.oakland.edu (141.210.10.117) also mirrors the simtel20 archives. >Now, it's true I haven't looked myself, nor did I specifically ask him >at the time if they had copies of copyrighted images, data or programs >as the conversation was about other topics. But I have seen other ftp >sites "libraries", and there's next to no doubt in my mind the White >Sands site must have megabytes of copyrighted materials. Well, you are dead wrong. The maintainers of the SIMTEL20 archives keep an extremely vigilant watch over their collection(s). They'll remove a package if there is *any* question of its copyright/distribution status. The fine folks at St. Louis (wuarchive.wustl.edu) have a similar policy. I help maintain the wuarchive collection, and I can assure you that our "moderator's mailing list" regularly takes care of problems such as this. I'm not saying the copyrighted materials don't find their way into ftp archives. SIMTEL20 is constantly saturated with ftp sessions, and wuarchive.wustl.edu has over 1200 ftp connections *per day*. With thousands (yes, *thousands*) of anonymous users, it's a near-certainty that some of them will upload copyrighted material. However, you can rest assured that it is gone as soon as we find out about it. In fact, almost all uploads to "major" ftp sites are screened before they are placed in the general archives. [ If you should happen to find a piece of copyrighted material on ] [ an ftp site, *please* let the moderators/administrators know ] [ about it. We don't claim to be infallible, and user feedback ] [ is always welcome! ] I can't speak for all ftp archives/archivists (heck, a single-user Sun SPARCStation can be set up as an anonymous ftp archive), but most of the "major players" in the archiving game make a regular practice of eliminating copyrighted materials. >Perhaps someone out there would like to take a look and see just how >legal they are. Perhaps you would like to check things out yourself before waving red flags. >Of course, the federal government seems more interested in busting >college students and other individuals than say, cleaning up its own >act. In recent years, many "community computing" operations have come under public scrutiny/censure/concern. Examples include the St. Catherine's BBSs mentioned earlier in this issue of CuD, the Steve Jackson Games incident, Usenet newsgroups (the infamous alt.sex.* "scandals"), and your local adult BBSs. In fact, CuD was founded, in part, to discuss this very trend. Why on earth would you want to contribute to this downward spiral with unsubstantiated allegations? I'm sure that there will be some people who see your original posting WITHOUT seeing this reply; those people will, in all likelihood, associate SIMTEL20 with pirated software. That's both in- correct and undeserved. You do a disservice to both SIMTEL20 (and, by extension, those sites which mirror its collection) and the people who maintain the archives. With all of the "institutional" paranoia among the media and other so-called watchdogs, we don't really need arbitrary accusations like this. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 12:01:42 PST From: Wes Plouff -- MLO3-3/E67 DTN 223-2677 11-Jan-1993 1448 Subject: File 6--Re: Dorm Room Raid (CuD #5.02) Chris Johnson discusses a story he heard about a big FTP archive at White Sands Missile Range, and speculates that "there's next to no doubt in my mind the White Sands site must have megabytes of copyrighted materials." He then exhorts the Federal government to clean up its own act before persecuting students. This story undoubtedly refers to the SIMTEL20 archives of MS-DOS, CP/M and other public domain software. Sure, there's plenty of copyrighted software there. Problem is, it's all there perfectly legally as freeware, shareware and vetted commercial demos. The contents of SIMTEL20 are tightly controlled by its archivist, Keith Petersen, and are highly trusted in the MS-DOS world. The full name of the archive node is WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil. For more information, read the Usenet newsgroup comp.archives.msdos.announce, or buy the SIMTEL CD-ROM. Just a few facts. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 21:37:29 CST From: Kevin Andrew Buhr Subject: File 7--Follow-up to CuD #5.02 File 2 [Re: Dorm Room Raid] In CuD #5.02 File 2, writes: | This reminded me of a conversation I had with my brother over the | Christmas holiday. He was recently a student at a university which | has Internet access (I do not, or I'd verify the following). He | mentioned that the White Sands Missile Range (an obvious DoD | installation) had one of the largest collections of ftp accessible | computer files. He said they had everything imaginable. | | Now, it's true I haven't looked myself, nor did I specifically ask him | at the time if they had copies of copyrighted images, data or programs | as the conversation was about other topics. But I have seen other ftp | sites "libraries", and there's next to no doubt in my mind the White | Sands site must have megabytes of copyrighted materials. The archive of which you speak has hundreds of megabytes of copyrighted material. However, all of this copyrighted material is shareware or freeware: the authors who hold the copyrights have made explicit allowances for its free distribution subject to certain terms. I can assure you that there is next to no material in the White Sands archive (also known as the Simtel archive) that resides there in violation of the respective copyrights. | Of course, the federal government seems more interested in busting | college students and other individuals than say, cleaning up its own | act. While it might be very true that some agents of the U. S. Federal Government are hypocritical at the best of times, you couldn't be more wrong about this particular archive. Keith Petersen (, , or ), who maintains the MSDOS, MISC, and CP/M archives at SIMTEL20, takes great pains to screen the incoming files for, among other things, possible copyright violations. His efforts are appreciated by a great many. Feel free to contact him if you would like more information about his screening policies. In the future, be more cautious before making these kinds of claims. Mr. Petersen has at least once found his future employment in jeopardy thanks to internal "restructuring". The higher-ups evidently ask themselves, "why do we employ someone to maintain a free archive for the benefit of the general public?" Articles like yours can have no positive effect in this kind of climate. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Dec 92 16:59:20 EST From: mcmullen@MINDVOX.PHANTOM.COM(John F. McMullen) Subject: File 8--CFP-3 Scholarships Available The Third Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP-3) will provide a limited number of full registration scholarships for students and other interested individuals. The conference is sponsored by ACM SIGCOMM, SIGCAS & SIGSAC and will be held 9-12 March, 1992 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel in Burlingame CA. The conference will be attended by computer and library scientists, legal scholars, government officials, information industry and other private sector representatives, law enforcement officials, civil liberties advocates and many others. Active participants will include Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Counsel Mike Godwin, Georgetown University Computer Science Chair Dorothy Denning, California County District Attorney Don Ingraham, SRI's Peter G. Neumann, Autodesk's Jim Warren (founder of InfoWorld, The West Coast Computer Faire and the CFP conferences), New York State Police Senior Computer Crime Investigator Donald Delaney, George Trubow of the John Marshall Law School, Rand Corp's Willis Ware, Lance J. Hoffman of George Washington University, IBM's Barbara Simons and CPSR's Marc Rotenberg. The conference is chaired by Bruce Koball, a key planner of CFP 1 & 2. These scholarships will cover the full costs of registration, including three luncheons, two banquets, and all conference materials. Scholarship recipients will be responsible for their own lodging and travel expenses. Persons wishing to apply for one of these fully-paid registrations must send a request (no more than two typewritten pages) postmarked by 15 January 1993. The request should concisely contain the following information: 1. Personal Information -- Name, Address, Phone, E-Mail Address, School or Employment Affiliation. 2. Category and Supporting Information -- Student, Academic, Law Enforcement Official, "Hacker", etc. We are particularly interested in providing scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students majoring in computer or information science, journalism, law, law enforcement, political science, and related disciplines as well as "hackers" and law enforcement officials who could otherwise not attend the conference. 3. A specific statement saying that you will attend the entire conference and that you understand that you are responsible for your own transportation and lodging expenses related to the attendance. 4. A paragraph explaining why you are interested in attending the conference and what use you expect to make of the information obtained at the conference. 5. A paragraph explaining the need for the financial assistance and stipulating that, without the scholarship, attendance is not possible. 6. A statement committing the recipient to write a short summary (2 pages minimum) of the recipient's evaluation of the conference, complete with recommendations for subsequent conferences. The paper is to be submitted to the scholarship chair no later than March 31, 1993. The request should be sent by email to: John F. McMullen mcmullen@mindvox.phantom.com or by mail to: John F. McMullen CFP-3 Scholarship Committee Perry Street Jefferson Valley, NY 10535 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Jan 93 13:52:03 -0500 From: carterm@SPARTAN.AC.BROCKU.CA(Mark Carter) Subject: File 9--Canadian Media and BBSes The following article appeared on December 30th, on the front page of the St. Catharines Standard. While reiterating much of the articles appearing on July 25, this new one (again by the same authors) presents new information, significantly interviews of two more sysops. However, the person they state to be sysop of Interzone is actually the co-sysop. Further, Interzone is hardly a good example of local boards. It is not connected to Fidonet, meaning that the message areas it has are basically filled with obscenities, the primary attractions of Interzone are the on-line games, and it is sponsored by a commercial interest, which pays the phone bills. The other sysop they interviewed is someone who's board was up for about six months (not particularly recently, since I never heard of it) before it had to go down when the sysop moved to a new apartment. What I'd like to know is, how does the sysop of a board that no longer exists get interviewed by the Standard when the local NEC does not? Apart from the factual inaccuracies and narrow-minded presentation, however, I think the main thrust of the article was for the authors to pat each other on the back and claim credit for the self-regulation that was already on local boards. How this warranted the front page, I'll never know. And of course, the Standard continues with it's practice of looking at one or two boards out of the hundreds available in Niagara, and then presenting those boards as the standard to judge others by. Following is the verbatim transcript of the article: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Limits Set On Access to Computer Porn: But Explicit Images, Stories Still Available (By Paul Forsyth and Andrew Lundy, Standard Staff) A local crackdown has made it harder for kids in Niagara to get access to hard-core pornography via their computer screens. Until recently, local computer bulletin boards offered an array of X-rated photographs and stories to anyone with a phone and a computer. But after recent reports by the Standard on the phenomenon, some boards-- electronic "meeting places" run by hobbyists through their home computers-- have begun to restrict access to hundreds of explicit files. Now it's much more difficult for kids to view the files, which contain still photos and animated images ranging from topless women to depictions of bondage and bestiality. That's not to say computer pornography has disappeared in St. Catharines and cities and towns across Canada. Board operators have no legal obligation to impose age restrictions, and there are no signs government will step in to control something which has slipped through the legislative cracks. Users logging on to Interzone, a board with one of St. Catharines' widest selection of hard-core pornography, now have to ask specifically for access to the files, provide a driver's licence number and undergo other verification like answering a telephone call. The board, like dozens of others in Niagara, had minimal restrictions when the issue of computer pornography was first publicized in July. "We just took a look at it and figured we should do something (about) it ... take a look at what we were doing," said Interzone operator Matt Mernagh. In a letter to the editor several months ago, a defiant Mernagh decried any attempts to regulate bulletin boards. He said it wasn't his responsibility to make sure kids were denied access to X-rated areas of his board-- where a photo of two women engaging in bestiality was stored along with dozens of other explicit images. Kenneth Werneburg's St. Catharines bulletin board, Alleycat's Emporium, also had pornography files until it shut down recently. Other board operators besides Mernagh are opting for access restrictions now since publicity over the issue surfaced, he said. "When I was running the board I felt that I should be able to run the board however I felt like doing," he admitted. "Basically I just said, 'If (kids) want (pornography), they can have it,'" he said. "I didn't even think twice about ... open access to it all." The Standard reports created "quite a stir" among board operators who were angered at first by the publicity, he said. "Most of the (operators) now, I think, feel they have a responsibility to screen it. It seems that quite a few people have restricted access to that sort of stuff and taken it out completely in some cases." But operators say pornography remains among the most-asked-for files on boards, which also offer selections ranging from games to computer virus-fighting programs. One St. Catharines high school student removed X-rated files from the board he operates when contacted in July, but reintroduced them later-- according to an electronic memo on the board--due to "popular demand." Police say there are no laws forcing bulletin boards to prevent kids from accessing X-rated files. And most of the explicit images are legal under the Criminal Code of Canada. Besides, police say, even if restrictions were put in place in Canada, computer-wise kids could simply call the United States, or anywhere else in the world, to retrieve pornography through their phone lines. Michael Werneburg, who operated Alleycat's Emporium along with his brother, Kenneth, said animated pornographic images-- some finding their way on to local boards from Italy, France and Spain-- are growing in popularity. The federal Department of Communications has no plans to begin censoring what is transmitted over phone lines, said Communications Minister Perrin Beatty. In a recent interview in St. Catharines, Beatty wasn't even aware of the existence of computer pornography. "Anything related to pornography is particularly the responsibility of the minister of justice," he said. Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson, assistant to Justice Minister Kim Campbell, said the government plans to introduce a bill in the new year aimed at redefining pornography under the Criminal Code. But he admitted it will be a difficult process and couldn't say if new legislation will specifically address computer pornography. "We're wrestling with the whole subject" of pornography, he said. Opposition MPs say wide-open access to computer pornography is an example of laws not keeping pace with rapid technological changes. "It's disgusting to think that children have access to this," said Mary Clancy, Liberal critic for the status of women and associate communications critic. "The great difficulty with this whole computer and communications explosion is control." Ian Waddell, NDP justice critic, said legal chaos could erupt if lawmakers don't keep pace with changes in technology. "If that happens we're throwing in the towel in law and order." ------------------------------ Date: 11 Jan 93 18:19:32 EST From: Gordon Meyer <72307.1502@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: File 10--United Kingdom Software Seizure Laws The European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has agreed on a new procedure to combat software piracy. The new agreement is that a single ELSPA official can seize all illegal software found to be on sale in a public place, rather than each software publishing company having to dispatch their own agent to seize their respective products. The new initiative will be administered by FAST (Federation Against Software Theft?) and will include a crack down on the recently escalating incidents of bootleg software being sold from the trunks of automobiles. (From--ST Applications #25 Jan 1993 p: 6) ++++++++++++ "Great Britain Trading Office Settles on Sampling Case" The Dorset Trading Standards Office has dropped their case against South West Software Library, a public domain software distribution company. The Office had seized thirty disks from SWSL, claiming that 13 of them violated the Copyright Designs and Patents Act. Some of the disks seized were demo versions of commercial applications, but the focus of the prosecution was on disks containing digitized or 'sampled' portions of popular songs and movie soundtracks. The Office maintained that there is no difference between a sampled sound demo and an illegal bootleg cassette. All charges were dropped in exchange for an admission of guilt from the husband and wife owners of SWSL. Reportedly, the officer in charge of the matter referred to the seized disks as 'tapes' through out the several month case, perhaps reflecting a basic ignorance of technology as is often displayed by enforcement officials in the United States. (From--ST Applications #25 Jan 1993 p: 6) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 17:02:44 EST From: sc03281@LLWNET.LINKNET.COM(Cheshire HS) Subject: File 11--High Students charged in Computer Burglaries (Reprint) From the 1-7-93 Issue of The Cheshire Herald (Front Page) Typed by Lord Valgamon (YUNSANJ@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU) THREE CHS STUDENTS CHARGED IN BURGLARIES Former CHS Student Also Charged in Case by Amy Carpenter, Herald Staff Three Cheshire High School students and a former student charged with the theft of $23,000 worth of computer and electronic equipment from the high school have turned themselves in to Cheshire police. Jared D Bishop, 17, of 500 South Meriden Road, William J Vallo, 17, of 1081 South Meriden Road, and John Beltrami, 17, of 12 Woodland Drive, have each been charged with 6 counts of third-degree burglary, 6 counts of third-degree conspiracy to commit burglary and first-degree larceny by common scheme, police said. Brendan Monahan, 17, of Littleton, New Hampshire, was charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree conspiracy to commit burglary and third-degree larceny, police said. -Lesser Charges Monahan, a former CHS student, received the lesser charges because he is believed to have participated in only 1 of 6 burglaries at the high school, said Detective Thomas Stretton. Bishop and Vallo turned themselves in last week, and Beltrami and Monahan turned themselves in early this week, Stretton said. All four were released to the custody of their parents and are scheduled to appear in Meriden Superior Court on January 14, police said. ((Remainder of article deleted)) ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 93 10:17:43 GMT From: rhogan@ALUDRA.USC.EDU(Ron Hogan) Subject: File 12--Comments on _Hacker_Crackdown_ First, I'm going to jump back about four years to my freshman days at Notre Dame. The first semester, independent reading on avant-garde movements of the 20th century led to the discovery of the Futurist Manifesto, and Marinetti's declaration "Time and space died yesterday." The second semester, during my research for a paper on the founding of the Interstate Commerce Commission, I ran across the following line in the 1888 ICC report: "The railroads can be said to annihilate time and space." 21 years before Marinetti. The point of this, I guess, is that the avant-garde, the cutting edge, the oppositional, whatever you want to call it, is engaged in more than a simplistic, dualistic relation with the dominant culture. Foucault can talk about power relationships a lot better than I can-- I just want to say that a good many of the oppositional movements of the last century owe a substantial chunk of their existence to the development of technology within the dominant system. Not just on the level of quotes drawn from different documents. The fact is that the railroads did annihilate time and space, or at least they shrunk time and space a little bit. And it wasn't just freight and people that they were transporting from place to place-- but information. The systems of railroad tracks that crisscrossed the continents can be seen as a prototype of the telecommunications networks that we have today. A rough prototype, to be sure, and one which would soon be replaced by telegraphs and telephones, but a prototype nonetheless. All of which is a long way of introducing Bruce Sterling's THE HACKER CRACKDOWN. In this book, Sterling examines the power dynamics that are taking place "on the electronic frontier", the interaction between hackers and the telephone company, hackers and the Secret Service, hackers and the judicial system, etc. But he doesn't just deal with the surface material, the scandal du jour stuff you can pick up by reading the paper. He does an excellent job of compiling and synthesizing that material, and showing how it all pieces together, but there's more to it than that. What Sterling provides the reader with is an institutional examination of the forces that are in collision on the electronic frontier. That examination can only come about in a full and meaningful way when one realizes that cyberspace has been in existence for about 130 years. Sterling puts the invention of the telephone as the creation of cyberspace, and details the story of how Alexander Graham Bell's machine became the basis of the American Bell Company, later bought out by the Morgan cartel and transformed into American Telephone and Telegraph. The history of AT&T is outlined; Sterling shows how it was that they acquired and maintained their control over the phone system, and how the breakup in the 80s changed the rules of the game. He applies this institutional/historical analysis to all sides of the issue-- the details on the founding of the United States Secret Service, and the later development of interdepartmental conflict within the Federal Government between the USSS and the FBI is particularly useful. One specific advantage of an institutional analysis is related to a point that Sterling himself makes about the telephone, that it is "technologically transparent." We accept it as part of our everyday lives, without realizing the depth and the complexity of the system that lies behind it. The same is true of the institutions that Sterling examines. A close look at the Secret Service allows the reader to discover it anew, to go far beyond those aspects which are taken for granted. And to question both that which is discovered and that which is assumed. Sterling grounds this book thoroughly in the practical side, outlining that which has happened, which is happening now, and may happen tomorrow. But he also talks about the implications of all those events: what they mean. Even a seemingly random encounter with a homeless person can lead to a digression on the ramifications of the growth of the computer sphere of influence within the public communities, and the rising distinction between computer literates and illiterates that results. For a book with a potentially overwhelming array of data, the clarity of the presentation is noteworthy. This is scientific journalism at its sharpest, not jargonized beyond the scope of the general reader, and it's also political commentary. The two elements come together seamlessly through Sterling's razor-sharp prose. I think that any future book about the social implications of cyberspace is going to have to refer to Sterling's groundbreaking work here at one level or another. This one book, IMHO, does more than any book I've seen to show what's *really* at stake on the electronic frontier, and how it got that way in the first place. SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Avital Ronell: THE TELEPHONE BOOK: TECHNOLOGY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, ELECTRIC SPEECH David Hawke: NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE PAST Mike Davis: CITY OF QUARTZ (not really related to the topic, but it does for the city of Los Angeles what Sterling does for cyberspace) Lewis Shiner, SLAM ------------------------------ End of Computer Underground Digest #5.03 ************************************