Computer underground Digest Sun Jun 25, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 53
ISSN 1004-042X
Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@MVS.CSO.NIU.EDU
Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
Ian Dickinson
la Triviata: Which wine goes best with Unix?
CONTENTS, #7.53 (Sun, Jun 25, 1995)
File 1--Commentary and Background on CCC (Cincinatti) BBS Bust
File 2--Message From Bubba IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! (fwd)
File 3--german police only seizes computers with pgp
File 4--GovAccess.145: Newt opposes censors
File 5--GovAccess.143: Cybersex! What to do? What to do?
File 6--File 1--Against Intellectual Property
File 7-- FBI to search 30,000+ US homes/businesses
File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)
CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1995 23:01:43 PDT
From: Paul J. Ste. Marie
Subject: File 1--Commentary and Background on CCC (Cincinatti) BBS Bust
((MODERATORS' NOTE: The follow post reports on a meeting of users of
the Cincinnati Computer Connection, and includes a comment by the CCC
Sysop, reprinted with permission)).
I attended the meeting held tonight by the users of the Cincinnati
Computer Connection. About 100 users were in attendance. Here's
what I found out:
On Friday 6/16/95 5 BBS's in the Cincinnati area were seized by the
"Regional Electronic Computer Intelligence" task force organized by
Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis (of Mapplethorpe fame). All
materials were seized and held under sealed search warrants, but no
charges have been filed so
far. Two of the BBS's are back on-line to a limited extent.
The BBS's involved are:
Cincinnati Computer Connection
Data: 513-752-1055
Sysop Bob Emerson, bob.emerson@cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us
Up All Night
Sysop Steve Brown
Love Land
Data: 513-683-8814
Fox Palace
(no info)
Inner State BBS
(no info)
The only comment to date by Leis is that things other than computer porn are
being investigated. He declined to attend the meeting.
The Cincinnati Computer Connection is a large BBS, with about 25 nodes.
There is an adult area on the board, but access is quite limited and the
files are screened fairly carefully. (I previously mentioned in email
that I got the general impression that there were no adult areas on the
board, but that was not correct.) Sysop Bob Emerson has retained Lou
Serkin (spelling?) as his attorney, who has been trying to reach
.
Many users expressed support for Emerson at the meeting, which was taped by
crews from all the major Cincinnati television stations. I'm still
researching to see what coverage I can find in the Cincinnati newspapers.
Ann Hartman from WNKU taped a few sound bites from me on the Exon bill, and
will air a show about this on WNKU (NPR affiliate in Northern Kentucky)
Thurs 6/29 @ 4 pm. Her number is (606)572-6564.
=============================
Here's the statement from the Sysop about what happened:
Date: 06-17-95 (09:03) Number: 27 of 1384 (Refer# NONE)
To: ALL
From: SYSOP
Subj: C.C.C. BBS
Read: (N/A) Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE
Conf: Main Board (0) Read Type: GENERAL (+) HAS REPLIES
Well boys and girles it seems the GOD of Hamilton County has spoken!
On Friday at about 10:00am the Hamilton County Sheriff department
showed up at the C.C.C BBS and took all of our computers and related
items. Seems they where looking for X-Rated pictures. They had NO idea
what they where doing so some of the stuff may be worthless. The best
thing anyone can do right now is to let them know you have rights and
call, and or write everyone you can think of. Since they knew what they
where looking fo all they needed to take was the hard drive or the
server, no one they sent knew anything about computers other that the
very basics. They just took everything to show they could do it and to
make it hard on you and me. We have around 5000 people that use this
system (NOT all subscribers) and I think if we spread the word to other
systems and make a LOT of phone calls someone will have to start to hear
us. So please call the TV news stations the Papers and for sure the
Hamilton County Shefiff's offices and ask for Simon if you want but make
sure you let them know how you feel. Thats the only way there gonna know
how much your ticked off. Anyone that does this please leave a message
and let us know what there responce to you was.
The Cincinnati Computer Connection will be back on-line in a few days.
I'm gonna have to buy a ton of computer in the next few days so please
hang in there with me.
Thanks Bob...
PS I'm realy bad at getting things like this rolling if anyone has
numbers and addresses they can post please do so and we can make a
difference.
=============================
Here's a letter from a user to Sheriff Simon Leis about this incident:
The Cincinnati Computer Connection Node 15 06-23-95 01:09
Name: PAUL STE.MARIE
Date: 06-20-95 (20:11) Number: 787 of 1391 (Refer# NONE)
To: ALL
From: BOB HEIGES
Subj: THURSDAY'S MEETING
Read: (N/A) Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE
Conf: Main Board (0) Read Type: GENERAL (+) HAS REPLIES
This is a copy of a letter I sent AS YOUR SPOKESPERSON to Sheriff
Leis. The sheriff was on Channel 5 saying that he had not gotten his
invitation yet (no doubt true!), so I FAXed him a copy to back up the
one he will get in the mail. A copy went to Chs 5, 9, 12, 19.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sheriff Leis,
I am writing this letter as a spokesperson for the users of one of the
computer bulletin board systems (BBS) "raided" last Friday by the
Regional Electronics Computer Intelligence (RECI) task force. I do
not speak for or represent any BBS operator, nor do I operate a BBS
myself.
You and others from your department or RECI task force are invited to
attend a "town hall" meeting on Thursday, the 22nd of June. This
meeting will be held at the Tom A. Moore Building, 3457 Montgomery
Road, at 7:30 PM. There are two purposes for this meeting. First,
many of the people affected by the BBS shut down want to know what
happened. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the rumors are not
complimentary to either the Sheriff's Department or the task force,
but most of us understand that there may be two very different sides
to this issue. You and/or a spokesperson for you will be welcome to
speak to the group. We anticipate some media coverage, so both sides
of the issue will be on the record. If you require special
arrangements to attend, please let me know what they are.
Sheriff Leis, I look forward to meeting you Thursday evening. I hope,
if nothing else, you leave the meeting knowing that BBSers - both
operators and users - are not a bunch of dirty old men drooling over
porn. As a matter of fact, we anticipate that there will numerous
families at the meeting.
I am providing a copy of this invitation to a few media organizations.
If you cannot attend the meeting and choose instead to give us a
written statement, we will read that at the meeting and provide
complete, unedited copies to the media.
Sincerely,
s/bob heiges
<<<>>>
=============================
Here's another statement from a BBS user:
As many of you know, the Computer Task Force, or perhaps better named The
Smut Gestapo , raided Bob Emerson, sysop of Cincinnati Computer Connection
and removed over $100,000 in computer equipment.
This is one of the better BBS's in our area. Out of over 81,000 files only
40 could be classified, in their opinion, as adult and pornographic in
nature.
Note, we did say, "Their Opinion!" Without going into long comments about
all the Rights we are losing on what seems to be a daily basis, What's Next?
Are we going to be told on what side of the street we have to walk? If you
go to Church, are we going to be told, where we have to go?
Censorship, now there's a word for you to consider. Webster's New World
Dictionary, of the American Language, College Edition, defines it, in part,
as follows:
1. A censoring 2. A system of censoring 3. The work or position of a censor.
Now, if you look at Censor:
You'll find some of the following:
1. To supervise public morals
or better yet:
2. A person who tells people how to behave
or perhaps:
A person whose task is to examine literature, motion pictures, etc., and
remove or prohibit anything considered unsuitable.
Now here are just a few more thing to consider. Isn't Censorship illegal?
And, what in the world has happened to our Freedom of Choice, Speech and who
knows how many more? Are we going back in time? Perhaps we're all living in
Germany, second world war. The GESTAPO would come crashing through anyone's
door, for any reason, confiscate whatever, and perhaps drag you off to a
Concentration Camp!
Where are we now? In the U.S.A.? All this could make you really wonder?
Enough of the soap box. Bob is not the type of person, Thank GOD, who puts
his head in the sand or runs like a frightened child. His system, CCC, is
back on line!
THAT'S RIGHT! He bought NEW EQUIPMENT and is back! However, he could use you
help. ANYTHING, you can send, Dimes or Dollars. Just drop something in the
mail and send it to:
Bob Emerson
4466 Dogwood Drive
Batavia, Ohio 45103
Even if you don't call his system, you will be helping other sysops keep
their BBS's up and running and give yourself some place to call. Of course,
you can elect not to become involved and keep the money in your pocket.
However, in a short time you maybe trying to sell you modem, since there
will be NO local systems to call. What will to be worth? Not much, since it
will be a worthless piece of equipment.
#12 of 12: Paul J. Ste. Marie (pstemari) Thu Jun 22 '95 (23:04) 16 lines
In general, the users in Cincinnati are furious. There's about 5,000 users
on the CCC BBS (I have little info on the other boards raided). Aparently
Leis has harassed the sysop, Bob Emerson, in the past in regards to his
video store.
There are also some strange quirks in this. The BBS was operated out of
Clarement County, outside Leis's jurisdiction of Hamilton County, and Leis
did not brief the Clarement County representative on his RECI task force
about this raid in advance. Some of the other 4 boards are located in
Kentucky, not Cincinnati.
Finally, there is apparently some sort of FBI operation going on IRT AOL and
kiddie porn. Emerson's case is not involved in this, and both he and the
users of this BBS emphatically denied and denounced kiddie porn.
I'll post more news as it becomes available.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 09:45:38 -0600
From: Gordon R. Meyer
Subject: File 6--File 1--Against Intellectual Property
In comp.society.cu-digest you write:
>AGAINST INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
>There is a strong case for opposing intellectual property. There are a number
>of negative consequences of the ownership of information, such as retarding
>of innovation and exploitation of poor countries. ...
I have a great deal of sympathy for Martin's argument. However, I
suspect that it is unworkable.
Let me first make two points in support of the proposal.
1: It is impossible to account for the origin of intellectual
property. If I create something valuable -- a book or a computer
program -- then my creativity owes something to my teachers and
to all of the other reading I have done. My ability to create is
a consequence of what I was given by my forebears. I owe it to
them to likewise pass on my own inventions.
2: Intellectual property is contrary to human nature. You can see
this by looking at young children. They seem to have a natural
sense of physical property. But when it comes to ideas they
always want to share.
But there is another side, and the other side exists because of the
nature of our economies, and the nature of businesses.
Martin makes the case that a creator often feels rewarded adequately
if people use her intellectual creation. I agree. But imagine
someone has created a great new computer program. She hears that it
is being widely used. She may feel elated. But then she hears that
the users have purchased it from Microhard corporation, which is
selling it as its own creation, and is making $$millions. I think
her elation will quickly turn to anger. Perhaps she would not be
upset if Microhard corporation made it clear that this was her
invention, was available free, and purchasers were only buying the
setup and support to make the product easily available to them. But
Microhard corporation has done enough in creative packaging that it
wants to consider this its own product.
Martin suggests that such plagiarism will not be a serious problem,
because there are social pressures. I think he is largely correct
when it comes to individuals. But the only pressure corporations
feel is the pressure of the "bottom line," so they will not be so
easily dissuaded from plagiarizing. Moreover, as rich corporations,
they can spend some of their profits on TV advertizing so as to
maintain an image.
I have suggested that intellectual property is contrary to human
nature. Under the law a corporation is a virtual person, but
corporations are not responsive to the drives of human nature. In a
sense corporations are themselves contrary to human nature.
Perhaps a problem with current law is that it fails to distinguish
adequately between private individual use of intellectual property,
and corporate and business use of intellectual property. There is a
de facto distinction, in that it is rarely useful to file a lawsuit
against individuals on these issues. Maybe the law should be moved
in a direction more consistent with current practice.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 95 14:09:15 EDT
From: "W. K. (Bill) Gorman" <34AEJ7D@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject: File 7-- FBI to search 30,000+ US homes/businesses
FBI plans to search upwards of 30,000 American homes and businesses were
"leaked" in a VERY BRIEF mention on the Rush Limbaugh show 6/21/95.
Mr. Limbaugh referred to a USA Today article, presumably of the same
date, which referenced a newspaper in CT as the original source.
According to the article, the FBI, apparently in anticipation of the
passage of the Constitution-aborting Anti-Terrorism bill AND the
equally totalitarian Exon "Communications 'Decency' Act" which has
been attached to the Telecom Reform Act, has leaked plans to conduct
SEARCHES OF THE HOMES AND BUSINESSES OF 30,000+ AMERICANS. Their
rationale for this is the claim that these persons - now get this - MAY
HAVE VIEWED some form of "child pornography", real or morphed, on
their PC screens sometime in the past.
Articles describing this totalitarian lunacy have also appeared
in the Fort Wayne newspaperson 6/21/95. No mention of it that
I am aware of from TV journalists. No guts, guys?
Will the feds find it expedient to seize every single piece of
computer equipment found in these homes, along
with any firearms, cash, jewelry, other valuables or financial records,
regardless of whether or not anything actually ILLEGAL is found? Past
performance indicates that this is likely to be the case. How many
innocent Americans will be killed in these raids? How many children?
How many pets will be tortured to death for the amusement of those
conducting the raid, as was the kitten which was stomped to death by
a rogue BATF agent during the infamous Lamplugh raid, as revealed
during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Terrorism Subcommittee?
Why is anyone who would perform such a psychotic act permitted to hold
a position of responsibility in government service or law enforcement?
Has Congress lost all touch with reality? Are they TRYING to see how
many ways they can find to force Americans into the burgeoning militias?
Are they TRYING to make the appellation "jack-booted thugs" actually
synonimous with all federal law enforcement personnel?
W. K. Gorman
Copyright (C) 1995 by W. K. Gorman.
With explicit reservation of all rights, exclusively and without prejudice,
per UCC 1-207. Any commercial or for-profit use of all or any part of this
message, in any form, is expressly forbidden. Opinions are my own.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1995 22:51:01 CDT
From: CuD Moderators
Subject: File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)
Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are
available at no cost electronically.
CuD is available as a Usenet newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest
Or, to subscribe, send a one-line message: SUB CUDIGEST your name
Send it to LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-0303), fax (815-753-6302)
or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL
60115, USA.
To UNSUB, send a one-line message: UNSUB CUDIGEST
Send it to LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
(NOTE: The address you unsub must correspond to your From: line)
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 DL1 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 Delphi in the General Discussion database of the Internet SIG;
on RIPCO BBS (312) 528-5020 (and via Ripco on internet);
and on Rune Stone BBS (IIRGWHQ) (203) 832-8441.
CuD is also available via Fidonet File Request from
1:11/70; unlisted nodes and points welcome.
EUROPE: In BELGIUM: Virtual Access BBS: +32-69-844-019 (ringdown)
Brussels: STRATOMIC BBS +32-2-5383119 2:291/759@fidonet.org
In ITALY: Bits against the Empire BBS: +39-464-435189
In LUXEMBOURG: ComNet BBS: +352-466893
UNITED STATES: etext.archive.umich.edu (192.131.22.8) in /pub/CuD/
ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/Publications/CuD/
aql.gatech.edu (128.61.10.53) in /pub/eff/cud/
world.std.com in /src/wuarchive/doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
EUROPE: nic.funet.fi in pub/doc/cud/ (Finland)
ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud/ (United Kingdom)
JAPAN: ftp://www.rcac.tdi.co.jp/pub/mirror/CuD
The most recent issues of CuD can be obtained from the
Cu Digest WWW site at:
URL: http://www.soci.niu.edu:80/~cudigest/
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. Authors hold a presumptive copyright, 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.
------------------------------
End of Computer Underground Digest #7.53
************************************
