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Either way, that process can be time intensive as there are not a lot of people out there who have experience with the data models, the technology, and the business models.

Conjecture: the limited supply of such knowledge base experts today is a direct but unintentional result of the early 1990's The Hacker Crackdown.

It's a case of management incompetence.

Or a case of the law of unintended consequences?

Either way, that process can be time intensive as there are not a lot of people out there who have experience with the data models, the technology, and the business models.

Conjecture: the limited supply of such knowledge base experts today is a direct but unintentional result of the early 1990's The Hacker Crackdown.

It's a case of management incompetence.

Or a case of the law of unintended consequences?

couldn't help but think of the similarities between him and RMS. I couldn't decide if it was amazing how two similar people could end up going in two different directions, or if this was foreshadowing the future for RMS.

Interesting... I guess the main issue is that although they might share a similarity on the "hippiesque" attitude they are certainly different.

Anyway, I feel really sorry for Mr. Draper, there was a time during my early University years (1998) when I read a lot about the old school hacking/phreaking/cracking scene. I got amazed with them and even tried to reproduce the different circuits (boxes) built just for fun (although they did not worked in the Mexican TELMEX company... well the one with the diode to avoid a call to be charged did kind of worked =o) ...

I would sugest The Hackers Crackdown for a really nice read about those times... I remember also reading some interviews made to "Dark Avenger" (a girl made the interview, which made it more interesting)... if you do not know who D.A. was, he was one of the best virus creators back when viruses did not need a user to click "Yes, install this virus on my computer" button...

Ah the old days... to think that some guys made loads of money with movies like Hackers, Sneakers, The Wizard among others commercializing in *some* way what this guy did...

Someone should rise some funds for these guy... I always thought of him as a genius

funny I should see this story after spending the morning reading this

http://www.chriswaltrip.com/sterling/hackcrck.html

I would recommend it as an interesting backgrounder it was written around 1990, and covers a lot of ground that older readers may remember and younger should find informative.

funny how so much has changed and somethings haven't.

The MPAA can hack servers and harvest private information if it wants; not a single MPAA employee would suffer any sort of police harrassment. But someone ostensibly assists violation of MPAA copyrights and BAM! - 200 servers are confiscated by police authorities.

The reason for this is explained in Sterling's account of the first major institutional crackdown on hackers, ezine publishers and other dispensers of information which some powerful corporation don't want to see in the wild. From the text:

Another problem is very little publicized, but it is a cause of genuine concern. Where there is persistent crime, but no effective police protection, then vigilantism can result. Telcos, banks, credit companies, the major corporations who maintain extensive computer networks vulnerable to hacking -- these organizations are powerful, wealthy, and politically influential. They are disinclined to be pushed around by crooks (or by most anyone else, for that matter). They often maintain well-organized private security forces, commonly run by experienced veterans of military and police units, who have left public service for the greener pastures of the private sector. For police, the corporate security manager can be a powerful ally; but if this gentleman finds no allies in the police, and the pressure is on from his board-of-directors, he may quietly take certain matters into his own hands.

So police is acting as mercenaries for the big corporations, since otherwise they'd hire their own. Not a very comforting thought, especially considering you are nowadays likely to be arrested for suspicion of violating corporate copyrights. Remember when police and laws were used to protect citizens, not criminialize millions for hurting corporate profit machines...?

Heck, some of SlashDot may not have been born at the start of events from The Hacker Crackdown. For those who don't recall, BellCore claimed that the E911 document stolen and published in Phrack was worth almost $80,000... despite it later being shown that BellCore was selling documents containing all the same information with more detail for $13 to anyone who bothered to ask.

"Operation Sundevil", an attempt to crackdown on the Legion of Doom cracking and phreaking group, happened. Craig Neidorf (Knight Lightning), was indicted, subjected to search and seizures by the US Secret Service, brought to a jury trial and finally had all charges dropped by the prosecution...

For those with a few hours to spare and a desire to learn what happened back in 1990 with Operation Sundevil, Phrack, the feds, etc. etc. - read The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling, available at http://www.chriswaltrip.com/sterling/hackcrck.html .

A database isn't tangible property.

I would agree with you, but look at how the court argued in United States vs Riggs back in 1990 (yes, the famous E911 BellSouth document case) about applying the "interstate transfer of stolen goods" rule to an electronic file. When the issue of tangibility was brought up, the court briefly compared the electronic file with "a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas", arguing that the "interstate transfer" rule could reasonably be applied to the gas in spite of its "intangibility". Now, even an odorless gas does consist of very tangible atoms, and it seems to me like a rather weak argument for applying the law also to what is essentially a transmission of information. If a TV station broadcasts a movie without paying royalties, is that "interstate transfer of stolen goods" too?

In the E911 case, the "value" of the stolen document was heavily inflated, quoted as $79,499 when a paper copy was actually available from Bellcore for $13.

There are actually two pieces of intangible property involved here. One is the original work as such, the database that may have cost a lot of time and money to compile. The other is an electronic copy of said original, perhaps available for a modest fee. I believe that in both the E911 case and this AOL case, only the copies have been transferred. The difference is that copies of the E911 document was available for sale, while the AOL customer database appearantly wasn't. How do you determine the "value" of something that isn't legally available for sale? Are we talking black market prices with respect to the copy (what someone is prepared to pay for it) here, or estimated damages to the database owner caused by the misappropriation of the information in it?

When a copy of a printed book is stolen, the value is considered to be the retail price for the copy (and that copy is quite tangible). No license fee for a reprint or damages for copyright infringement is ever involved. If an original manuscript is stolen, that is quite a different thing. But if you make an unauthorized copy (on paper) of an unpublished manuscript?

If I remember correctly, others were found guilty for the entire $80K+ bill. If I remember correctly the 2 others were sentenced to multi-year convictions. However Neidorf because his lawyer called and got a copy of the document from Ma Bell for 14.98 was able to escape conviction once it was shown how ridiculous the original claim by Ma Bell was. The other convictions stood though.

Not sure it's been a while. For better information check out The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling

The operation by the government that resulted in the case was called operation Sundevil.

Wikipedia Links
Operation Sundevil
Legion of Doom

I've never even heard of half of these "prominent science fiction writers." Guess I've been living under a rock!

Yup. You might want to grab a copy of the Encylopedia of Science Fiction and catch up with the rest of us. My guess is that you're a hard SF / space opera fan, and you haven't heard of the authors listed because they write new wave / cyberpunk SF rather than the stuff you're into.

Cory Doctorow is a new author who has had success giving away his books under the creative commons licence. You might know him better as a blogger.

Pat Murphy has been around for a while. She mostly writes science-fantasy stuff... kind of like a midway between LeGuin and Cherryh, if you've heard of them.

Kim Stanley Robinson writes hugely popular airport newsstand bestsellers. Y'know, those big thumping books with gold leaf on the front. You've probably read his Mars books.

Norman Spinrad is one of my all time favourite writers. He is often compared to Norman Mailer (also a favourite), a comparison I find apt. You'd probably hate him, as he presents a strong criticism of psychology space opera fans in his novel The Iron Dream.

Bruce Sterling is probably best known to Slashdotters as the author of The Hacker Crackdown (full text here) and my sig. He's also a blogger for Wired and the Pope Emperor of the Virdian movement.

Ken Wharton is a relatively new writer, but a long time physicist. He's probably the most convention hard SF type writer of the lot.

I've never even heard of half of these "prominent science fiction writers." Guess I've been living under a rock!

Yup. You might want to grab a copy of the Encylopedia of Science Fiction and catch up with the rest of us. My guess is that you're a hard SF / space opera fan, and you haven't heard of the authors listed because they write new wave / cyberpunk SF rather than the stuff you're into.

Cory Doctorow is a new author who has had success giving away his books under the creative commons licence. You might know him better as a blogger.

Pat Murphy has been around for a while. She mostly writes science-fantasy stuff... kind of like a midway between LeGuin and Cherryh, if you've heard of them.

Kim Stanley Robinson writes hugely popular airport newsstand bestsellers. Y'know, those big thumping books with gold leaf on the front. You've probably read his Mars books.

Norman Spinrad is one of my all time favourite writers. He is often compared to Norman Mailer (also a favourite), a comparison I find apt. You'd probably hate him, as he presents a strong criticism of psychology space opera fans in his novel The Iron Dream.

Bruce Sterling is probably best known to Slashdotters as the author of The Hacker Crackdown (full text here) and my sig. He's also a blogger for Wired and the Pope Emperor of the Virdian movement.

Ken Wharton is a relatively new writer, but a long time physicist. He's probably the most convention hard SF type writer of the lot.

You mean Operation Sundevil?

Theres a good book out there for all of you interested in the early hacker/cracker movement written by Bruce Sterling.Its called the Hacker Crackdown and is available here in the electronic format.
Very well researched and written.Gives you a good insight intothe days of LoD,MoD and others.A lot of the guys on this list feature in the book.

Theres a good book out there for all of you interested in the early hacker/cracker movement written by Bruce Sterling.Its called the Hacker Crackdown and is available here in the electronic format.
Very well researched and written.Gives you a good insight intothe days of LoD,MoD and others.A lot of the guys on this list feature in the book.

Who is Bruce Sterling?

Many more Bruce Sterling Interviews

After hearing about Bruce Sterling I found a copy of Islands in the Net in a used bookstore... I've never been able to bring myself to read another one by him. Anyone with thoughts about his other books?

As for the novels, personally I think Heavy Weather and Zeitgeist are brilliant, but I've had trouble convincing other people of this. Schismatrix, which is rather older, is also quite good -- something like what might have happened if Heinlein's juveniles had been written by William S. Burroughs.

If your wondering whether you'd like Sterling, probably the easiest thing to do is check out some of his nonfiction online.

(Oh, and if you like Sterling, or even Stephenson, you should also probably check out Charles Stross. You might call his stuff post-Slashdot cyberpunk.)