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From: barry@ames-lm.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.micro
Subject: Re: Computer Bulletin Boards Must Be Confiscated!
Message-ID: <305@ames-lm.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Jun-84 19:24:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames-lm.305
Posted: Tue Jun  5 19:24:38 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jun-84 07:31:46 EDT
References: <171@ssc-vax.UUCP>, <357@teldata.UUCP>, <531@cbdkc1.UUCP>
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 36

[*************=8>:)         (snort)]

> C'mon gang, we are forgetting one of the more important facts about
> the case.  The BB in question maintained an UNDERGROUND board, where
> this kind of posting (credit card nos, etc.) may be presumed to have
> been either welcomed, or at least tolerated.  The posting in question
> had been in the board for a month.  These two facts were probably the
> reasons for the confiscation.  The normal, well run BB would not be
> guilty of "aiding and abetting".  The "Pirates Cove" sleaze operations
> are hereby put on notice.
> 			Frank Webb

	Aren't you assuming rather a lot? You are taking a single word,
"underground", and deciding that it must mean that this BBS was engaged
in illegal activities. I'm not a sysop or a dedicated system gypsy, but
I have logged on to dozens of BBS's over the last year or so, including
some that have been characterized to me as "underground". And what did
they offer? Mostly they were boards dedicated to passing around information
on how to copy copy-protected disks. Some others were "sexually oriented",
and seemed to mostly have dumb messages with lots of dirty words.
	Need I add that the above-mentioned activities are completely
legal? Oh, I'm sure that the phone phreaks have their BBS's, too, but
I don't think we have enough information to know if the BBS in question
was that kind of operation. My impression (no hard facts) is that boards
which feature sections for the phone phreaks put restricted access on
those sections, in order to avoid the sort of thing that's happened to
Mr. Tcimpidis (sp?). The (reported) fact that a phone company employee
discovered illegal information on his board without needing any special
authorization, suggests to me that he was running a legit operation,
and was unaware of the illegal messages. I certainly have no reason to
assume otherwise; do you?
                                                Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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