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Perl's Chip Salzenberg Sued, Home Raided
Chip continues: "The key evidence in the search warrant was so ridiculous as to be surreal: CVS logs indicating that I downloaded more than I uploaded, and that I sometimes accessed the company network from home. Apparently, for company management, the police, and a judge, working at home through a gateway the company set up for that very purpose, and refraining from editing every source file for every code change, is a sign of nefarious behavior.
My behavior in accessing the company network was entirely within my job description and in no way involved misappropriation of anything. For the more than two years that I worked at HMS, I used ssh and CVS to access company files with my laptop both from work and home, with management knowledge and approval.
What would lead management to such a sudden action? Days beforehand, I had made an internal report of unethical and apparently illegal behavior by the company: Use of open proxies for web harvesting to avoid blockage by web site operators. HMS apparently decided that working with me to address their use of open proxies was not an option.
Health Market Science is a large corporation with, compared to me, effectively infinite resources. My legal bills have topped $40K already over just two months. If HMS succeeds in tarring me with their false accusations, what's to stop your employer or client from doing the same to you, should your relationship sour?
Friends have set up GeeksUnite.net, an informational web site and Legal Defense Fund. The site includes the search warrant, my letter about open proxy abuse, and court documents.
Please contribute to my Defense Fund to fight this attack on the normal and legal work practices of millions of tech workers. Every little bit counts! If every person who visits the site contributes only ten dollars, that will make a huge difference. Only through community effort can we protect ourselves."
What is it with Perl developers and legal hassles?
'Same speed C but faster'
Let me clarify - you should do what's right and face any charges, civil or criminal - however - don't allow yourself to even spend one day or even an hour in jail - see http://www.spr.org/ for why.
Stay out of jail while getting evidence and aid to your side (or having public supporters do so).
Your #1 priority is staying out of jail until a final disposition of the case (if there is a criminal case).
Even if you win in the end, you must not be left alone in prison for any length of time.
Increasing level of risk:
Police/court lockups -> city jail -> county jail -> state and federal pen
Get the number of a bail bond agency NOW. Read http://www.spr.org/ NOW. Do some weight training to get strong NOW. Train yourself to run fast too - not to escape prison, but to escape the other prisoners. Remember, on the inside, you have no friends, just those who are threats, and those who (currently) are not.
An hour imprisoned can be a death sentence with AIDS.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
If you read the warrant, they just basically wanted their company property back because they were terminating him (from the sound if it). He has checked out stuff from CVS on his personal laptop which he was refusing to return. The company wanted to, rightfully so, remove from him any and all company source code.
No big deal really, I mean he did have company secrets at his home on his computers. They have a right to make sure the data is safe.
Perhaps that's why you have no social life.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-