On Mon, 26 May 2003, Dean Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 25 May 2003, shogunx wrote:
Dean,
[1] SPEWS has attemtped to avoid prosecution and legal responsibility by
remaining completely anonymous. ORBZ.ORG was criminally investigated for
crashing the City of Battle Creek's computer system. The City dropped the
investigation after ORBZ announced it would end operations. However,
simultaneously or before the City's announcement, ORBZ operator Ian
Gulliver registered DSBL.ORG with a Brazilian address. Quite obviously, he
had no intention of halting operations, but merely to disguise their
jurisdiction.
sounds like ORBZ 1 Battle Creeek 0
ORBZ got away with a deception, yes. Ian Gulliver is not the first
con-artist to talk his way out of a jam with the cops and won't be the
last.
I'm not saying anyone was right or wrong in this instance. I'm just
calling the score.
[2] Even though Kevin Mitnick was on the FBI's most wanted list, the FBI
was unable to track him down. Only after one of his victims became
involved, was Mitnick finally located and arrested.
Kevin gets locked away for years without even being CHARGED, and suddenly
he has victims? He was the victim.
He was not locked away for any years without being charged. While he may
also have been victimized in some respects due the difficulty and
complexity of his trial, he was by no means innocent. He brought it all on
himself. He was a self-described con-artist, and violated numerous civil
and criminal statutes. He had no regard to civil or criminal laws, and
therefore couldn't be allowed to roam about society unsupervised. He had
many victims, as he recently admitted at a talk I attended. What he did
was wrong in a big way. He has completely repudiated his earlier
activities.
Those who see Mitnick as representative of the hacker ethic don't really
understand the hacker ethic. Hackers are not dishonest. Hackers share,
they do not steal. Hackers ask politely, and invent for themselves what
they are refused. Hackers do not coerce or extort anything.
I am not challenging Mitnick's guilt or innocence. I am challenging the
method in which the situation was dealt with.
Scott
--Dean
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