Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!wivax!linus!cca!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: Privateers - (nf) Message-ID: <332@ima.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Jun-83 18:36:06 EDT Article-I.D.: ima.332 Posted: Fri Jun 3 18:36:06 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jun-83 02:10:33 EDT Lines: 20 #R:lanl-a:-33600:ima:16900006:000:885 ima!johnl Jun 3 11:43:00 1983 A privateer historically was somebody given "letters of marque and reprisal" by one government that allowed him to attack ships flying the flag of some hostile government. The line between privateering and privacy was always very thin. To the people on the ships that got looted and burned, it sure didn't make much difference. I hear that the USSR embassy in Washington has a huge IBM computer center largely so that they can drop copies of the software in their diplomatic pouches and send them off to run on knockoff 360s in Russia. (See the June 1978 issue of ACM Computing Surveys for more details of Russian computing.) That sounds more like privateering to me. Wonder how their micros are coming along. Haven't heard anything new since the reverse-engineered 8080. John Levine, decvax!yale-co!jrl, ucbvax!cbosgd!ima!johnl, {research|alice|allegra|floyd|amd70}!ima!johnl