crime with computers?
Searchnet Zec
Forwarded on: Saturday, 09/25/93 at 02:08
Conference: [0022]-I:Conspire @ XBN BBS
Originally From: CHRIS BURIAN
To: ALL
Date: 09/17/93
Subject: Unrelated (?) busts
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The following files are just bits and pieces of what's going on in three
different computer busts that _don't_ involve porn.
A college student had available on his BBS text files that describe how
to make rudementary explosives. He is now in jail, on $500,000 bond for
having these files on his BBS. The police in his jurisdiction
apparently have never heard of the first amendment.
Grady Ward is the compiler of a variety of computer databases known as
Moby.* such and Moby-Thesaurus, Moby-Dictionary, etc. He was about to
publish an electronic volume known as Moby-Crypto, a database of
encryption algorithms and C language source code. The government has
subpoenaed Mr. Ward's publisher, claiming (falsely) that there exists a
violation of export controls on cryptography. Mr. Ward's database is,
in fact, culled from publicly available, exportable textbooks.
ViaCrypt software has been subpoenaed regarding the pending release of
the commercial version of Phil Zimmerman's Pretty Good Privacy, again
regarding "international distribution" of illegal munitions. ViaCrypt
had no intention, naturally, of violating export laws. Freeware PGP is
available around the world, and may be the most widely used mail
encryption program outside the US. (Other secure encryption methods
using public key technology are available in the US, such as RSA, Ripem,
LotusMail.)
The following files are quite long, but I want to convey all the facts,
not just blurbs.
Being a conspirophile, I do see a connection between recent BBS porn
busts, encryption busts, and even "anarchy" text-file busts. I also see
them connected with Waco, S-8, and suggestions that the National Guard
be used for border patrol. The Clinton administration is making bold,
unprecidented efforts to assert control over individuals just for the
sake of control. I don't blame Washington for the Elansky case
directly, but the feds are setting a tone for a new police state to
rival Cold War East Germany or Facist Italy.
Maybe Elansky is a test case for defining a computer as a weapon?
Note the relation between S-8's forfeiture based on meetings in your
home vis-a-vis people communicating with one another on your BBS.
Your XXX-fist-piss-bondage-XXX-rated .gifs make your computer a criminal
tool, subjecting your computer to forfeiture. Your text files and
message bases make it a TERRORIST tool; subjecting your computer, your
home, and your LIFE to "forfeiture."
I politely request that we devote more talk to our rapidly eroding civil
liberties here on the Civil Liberties echo.
There's a huge amount of noise about abortion, as always. How many
times must people repeat the same tired arguments? Pro-choicers: Women
already have the "right to choose" to end a pregnancy, but if Slick
Willie has his way, she won't have the right to choose to own a gun or
have a private conversation outside earshot of Big Brother's
microphones, or use her own computer in her own home as she sees fit.
Pro-lifers: When King Willie drives through your house with tanks,
takes your guns, sends your kids off to PC reeducation gulags and throws
you in a work camp, you can say you didn't see it coming because you
were bitching about "baby killers." Everybody wake up before Slick's
100,000-stormtrooper secret police force drags you out of bed.
Chris Burian
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