Ask Kevin Mitnick

Okay, Kevin Mitnick is getting back online and can start taking email tomorrow, January 21. We've spoken with Kevin by phone, and he agrees that a Slashdot interview is a fine way to help celebrate his return to the Internet, especially since he has a book to sell and a consulting business to build. (Don't forget: Kevin hasn't been able to make much money for a number of years, and has a lot of lost time to make up for.) One question per post, please. We'll email Kevin 10 of the highest-moderated questions, and post his answers shortly after he gets them to us.

Comments

No Offense meant, but..

[ackthpt]

No offense meant,but

he has a book to sell and a consulting business to build. (Don't forget: Kevin hasn't been able to make much money for a number of years, and has a lot of lost time to make up for.)

Knowing all this as the result of your choice, would you choose this path again? If so, why?

Re:No Offense meant, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think he chose to be kept in Federal prison without a trial for more than 4 years. I don't think he chose to have the software he downloaded (and did not distribute) valued at an amount way beyond reality because the Feds said to. I don't think he chose to have terms of his probation which kept him from using his First Amendment rights or being able to make a meaningful use of his technologic abilities.

Did he choose to be the poster-boy of government corruption when it comes to prosecution of technology-related case? I don't think so.

You're the type of person who would ask Skylarov why he chose to come to the U.S. to speak at a technology conference.

Re:No Offense meant, but..

[ackthpt]

You're the type of person who would ask Skylarov why he chose to come to the U.S. to speak at a technology conference.

On the contrary, I applaud Dimitri Sklyarov and feel his work was construct, in the face of unjust legislation the USA exports and tries to exert on other peoples. It should be the choice of each sovereign nation to determine the extent of copyright/patent protection to inventors. One country, such as the USA, may attempt to hold all others in thrall as long as the life of intellectual property protection.

Besides, Kevin didn't attempt to bypass electronic IP safeguards, except as the DMCA may regard hacking. He revealed the swisscheese security of information systems in their infancy. He made people afraid, powerful people. We already, well most of us, are aware what sort of democracy-for-sale the Congress and Administration are, when their friends sneeze, they catch cold, and act within or without the law. It's a matter for the defendant to pry him/herself out of such a mess. As often as such examples play it's remarkable anyone wants to open themselves to such harrassment, particularly without alerting the ACLU or some group ahead of time that they intend to demonstrate how unjust the system is, in whole or part.

Anyone remember the 414's? A group of young men in the Milwaukee area who, when caught breaking into DEC systems wanted to sell movie rights? It wasn't too hard to figure how they did it, hell, I was admin on a DEC system and there were default passwords and field service passwords easy enough to guess. You just had to be bored and stupid enough to go trespassing.

I have plenty of sympathy for those treated unjustly, but those who go alone to spread fear among powerful interests are no more clever than a swimmer dogpaddling around in a shark tank.

Was Your Penalty Fair and Will It Deter?

[mikehihz]

Seeing that you have taken some responsibility for your actions, do you think your penalty was fair and will a penalty like you received, fair or not, deter others from following in your footsteps?

How do you see yourself?

[Astrogen]

There has been alot of press, and over the years you have been a hero, and a Martyr to thousands of geeks and hackers, in addition to phone phreaks and anti establishment movements.

In what light and or combination of these types do you see yourself now, is that different from how you were 20 years ago, and do you see yourself as a champion of these things in the future or do you intend to just mix back into society and get a "normal" life back (after your book of course)?

Re:How do you find it?

[TGK]

Welcome back. Things have changed a lot in the last 8 years. People with your kind of skills are becoming rarer while the number of people that commit on line "crimes" has increased.

The hot issue for many of us concerns the idea of Fair Use, copyright, and copyright enforcment. Government regulations have been changed and are changing in favor of the same kinds of large corporations that claimed huge damages against you during your less than ideal experiance with the Judidical System.

My question is this. What are your thoughts on the continued expansion of corporate copyright enforcement rights, including the legalization of some of the techniques you were convicted of using?

Do you trust corporate america to weild the tools you've used and helped pioneer and what if any regulation do you consider both accecptable and feasable?

What Really Happened

[Tuxinatorium]

The government had access to all the records that Mitnick could have used for his defense, but they arbitrarily withheld the records indefinitely. Each six months Mitnick was given the choice of going to trial with an unprepared defense and some crappy government lawyer with no access to the records necessary to prove his innoccence, or to sign a waiver allowing the government to delay the trial for another 6 months while he stayed in jail. In other words, they were just trying to fuck with him untile he broke, gave in, and pleaded guilty. They never had any intention of giving him a fair trial. It was a total mockery of the legal system and a travesty of justice.