Slashdot Mirror
Prison Terms For Spammer Ralsky, Scientology DoS Attacker
tsu doh nimh writes "Alan Ralsky, the 64-year-old dubbed the 'Godfather of Spam,' was sentenced to 51 months in prison on Monday, the Washington Post's Security Fix blog reports. According to anti-spam group Spamhaus.org, Ralsky has been spamming since at least 1997, using dozens of aliases and tens of thousands of 'zombies' or hacked PCs to relay junk e-mail. Also sentenced — to 40 months in jail — was Ralsky's 48-year-old son-in-law, Scott K. Bradley, and two other men named last year in a 41-count indictment for wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and violations of the CAN-SPAM Act."
And eldavojohn writes "19-year-old Dmitriy Guzner, Anonymous member and Scientology DDoS attacker, received one year and one day in jail for his admitted crime. His sentence could have been a maximum ten years. According to the Church of Scientology, Anonymous has harassed and attacked them with '8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders.'"
Scientology members complaining about being harassed is like Mormons bitching about missionaries knocking on their doors.
Since when is visiting a website vandalism? This is terrifying! /. could have me arrested for almost 10 years of visiting!
'8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders.'
Well, that's one way to keep busy.
Sorry, what was the website URL again?
If you're going to make up statistics, Scilons, at least make sure they're over 9,000.
It's funny to me that the people who complain about spam the most are also the "information wants to be free" types. You can't have it both ways. Freedom of speech, freedom of data transmission also applies to hawkers of Viiagr11a and c1la15!!) doesn't it? As to DDoS attacks, how many times are you allowed to knock on a church's door before it becomes illegal? Though you might agree with this particular case, it opens up the door for more intrusive precedents. Once you allow the government to ban heroin, you give them jurisdiction over your body that will become more and more intrusive.
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
He took it right in the ass. It was beautiful.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/06/1554227
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
A direct quote from L Con Hubbard:
Attack...never defend.
Apparently the only way to keep up a teetering "religion" is to attack.
He got the website 141 million hits? Sounds like they should be paying him, not prosecuting him.
...it's a tax evasion scheme.
8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism , 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders.
1.1 GOLDEN YEARS!
But Scientology is just pure evil. I can't help but sympathize even if I can't condone. I have mixed feelings though...no one should have their lives threatened...but another part of me thinks Scientologists kind of deserve it because of the suffering they cause. Very confusing. It would all be easier if people didn't like and exploit each other. Too bad that will never happen in my life time.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
...Never gonna give you up!
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
Rules 1 & 2, buddy.
Why is it freedom of religion is so sacred in these modern times? It's the 21st century already and we still let these lunatics preach their thought control?
No one should go to jail for such an altruistic effort as shutting down a cult. Janet Reno and her cronies killed 76 people just like the ones these guys harassed and didn't see a day in jail. These guys make some threats and they all do time? The whole thing would be laughable if it weren't eerily true.
I'm sure the religious nuts that frequent /. will mod me down. It's ok. You probably lost control of your thoughts at an early age, when your parents forced it on you, so I don't hold you accountable.
Peace and love.
is not a church.
"So, you're the guy who keeps sending me those male enhancement meds spam huh?"
"No sir, i'm only specialising in female spam, nothing else!"
"Yeah, right! well i'll make an example for the next spammer who dares saying that i need such drugs!"
*drops pants*
"Mommy!"
secularist martyr
you don't fight vile "religions" that zombify and enslave the weak with kind words and cupcakes
this is the way the mafia known as the church of scientology plays:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White
turn around is fair play
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
How fitting for the godfather.
What was the sentencing judge trying to say with that sentence? It's a very sort of "traditional" span of time. Was this a "you don't do any real harm, but you must realize that this behavior is not acceptable?" type of message?
not your personal army
'8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders.'
part of me mentally read all of those numbers as 'over 9000'
it was inevitable that a story about someone the hivemind dislikes has a insensitive joke about prison rape.
and of course, it's also inevitable that we'll have some nimby-pimpby sanctimonious PC jerkwad stating that isn't funny.
"Anonymous has harassed and attacked them with '8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders.'"
They always say that.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church^Wsect leaders
Where do I send fan mail for this guy?
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Anonymous has done a lot since the early days of prank calls and whatnot. The legal protests as well as other actions by Anonymous (also legal) have delivered a crushing and unprecedented blow to Scientology. Anon has probably done more to fuck them over than even the FBI did at the end of the 1970's. Now because of Anon, there is massive negative media coverage of the scilons. Hollywood is rebelling against them and more and more celebs are walking away or saying no. And on top of all that, now the Australian government is taking a hard look at Scientology as a criminal organization with a Senator actually denouncing them in open Parmiment. Anonymous has enabled many ex-scientologists to speak out as well as family of those still inside to seek communication with their loved ones without fear of reprisal. Anonymous enabled this by breaking the back of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs and has them so tied up, they can't prioritize which targets to go after and have lost their effectiveness almost entirely. After nearly 2 years of this, only one conviction against an anon and for a lowly DDOS attack that happened in the early few weeks of the movement is a testament to how good Anonymous is at staying within the law. Sure it may cut out some form of lulz, but we have found that action against the Scientologists that hurts them but leaves us legally untouchable generates way more lulz because it leaves them no lawful recourse against us.
Lisa McPherson
"Scientology has harassed and annoyed them with Millions of phone calls, millions of mailed brochures, censoring websites or any thing else they see that doesn't make them money, acts of vandalism against, threats, and death threats against former Church members and non members."
There, fixed that for you.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
They use those same tactics against what they consider to be their enemies, but when someone turns the tables on them, they shed a few crocodile tears and run to the police.
They have broken into the offices of the FBI and have members of their cult have died under suspicious circumstances while under their care, yet they have the gall to call what others do illegal.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
On June 22, 2009, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering charges and violating the CAN-SPAM Act.[10] He agreed to assist in the prosecution of other spammers in exchange for sentencing consideration
By comparison, trials for other spammers have been held without them present as they tend to not stay in one place long.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
... you'd think he/she/it could keep these simple attacks from a puny unenlightened human at bay.
It's Linux, damnit! Pay no attention to renaming attempts by self-aggrandizing blowhards.
"According to the Church of Scientology, Anonymous has harassed and attacked them with '8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders."
According to the Curch of Scientology, they have been the fastest growing curch on the planet for, what, some 20-30 years. Long enough that everyone on the planet should be converted by now.
Guess what, they lie.
Anon.
I don't see request for Tor by default in Ubuntu. What about other distros or other onion routers? That would increase the base. Amnesty or Human Rights Watch or The Democracy Center all have a stake in onion routing. To take the thread in the same direction, but further, the group that backed Bush may have left the top offices in the administration, but it has not entirely left power. And the voting machine problem is not yet solved. Those are still under their sphere of influence.
Phil Zimmermann's Why I Wrote PGP and OpenSSH's SSH FAQ are two works that come to mind first about privacy. Most countries recognize the natural right to peaceable assembly. Do the corporations that now have larger budgets and more political clout than some small countries also those rights? You know the answer. The price of freedom is not just eternal vigilance, the cost also includes acting to proactively resolve threats to that freedom.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
He got off light. Hanging is to goo for him.
not saying that bomb threads are funny. But its hard to know who's more nuts, the "scientologists" or a
19 yr old so pissed off at them to do all that?
Freedom of Speech devolves from the pamphletting started around the time of King James I (of England) from Holland through James II and William of Orange. William, of course, was somewhat implicated in their distribution as a means by which he could influence the English people prior to his landing there and taking over the government. This started limited rule in England and William of Orange was as annoyed by these published tracts as his predecessor was after he became King of England.
Obviously these pamphlets were designed to "preach to the choir," but they were also written to persuade some of the population that there were alternatives to a Catholic King who was increasingly suspicious of the overwhelmingly Protestant subjects he ruled. In other words, there were people increasingly "wanting to listen."
During the US Revolution against King George III, these exact issues became doctrine in the American Colonies. Anyone today who reads "Common Sense," written by John Payne, will sagely nod their head at how important it was to quit the (seemingly) "despotic rule of an overbearing European tyrant." But, taken in the context of his time, this was just shy of blasphemous, as Kings were assumed to have certain, divine rights that placed them above the masses, and Payne was arguing for mass rule -- something that had never been tried.
Another George -- Washington was roundly discomfited by this "free press," which, in opposition, roundly criticized him and impugned his motives as our first President. I'm fairly sure he would have enjoyed a discussion about this wide freedom with William of Orange.
But in all of these cases, the "speech," was being written for people who were either open to persuasion or more than happy to receive the content.
The Internet is a completely new medium that almost completely democratizes "freedom of speech." I say "almost" because there are areas of the US and income levels here in this country that make access to the Internet pretty close to impossible. And there are areas of the world where Internet access is absolutely impossible and access is carefully limited, as in Saudi Arabia and China.
That said, Internet "Spam" is being touted as free speech. And I have to ask about this ideal of either "openness to persuasion," or "happiness to receive content." Surely George Washington didn't want to read the Philadelphia Aurora publishing their take on his (mis)deeds. I'll bet King James II read some of the published works circulated against him that culminated in what the English call "The Glorious Revolution." I'm also positive that Alan Ralsky and Dmitriy Guzner would style themselves modern day Thomas Paynes.
But this issue does not fall into this area of "free speech."
Where this area ought to fall is in another area, and I like to quote the justification of the law used to prohibit "junk faxes." You send out business cards with your fax number on it and you'll start receiving them. And according to federal law, prohibiting unsolicited faxes, the justification lies in the costs that you have to incur.
You have to buy paper. And if someone sends you a ream's worth of junk faxes yearly, you have to go out and spend more money on paper. Additionally, you have to buy toner (or whatever kind of ink your fax uses, be it thermal paper or whatever) to print those faxes. Also, members of Congress tend to have fax machines in their own offices and they were offended by these same "junk fax" senders. So the law says, each fax sending machine must put its real telephone number on the top of the fax. And the law says that a fax sender cannot keep sending a fax to someone who says they don't want the advertisement. After a few pretty high-profile suits, lots of tho
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
Ding dong, the witch is dead!!! Yay - one more spammer bytes the big weenie in the sky.
The article says, "According to the Church of Scientology, Anonymous has harassed and [blah blah]". This is stated uncritically, with no attempt to determine if it's true or not, even though Scientology has been found over and over again (by both journalists and court systems) to be a criminal conspiracy to steal money from credulous believers.
A good journalist would have actually researched Scientology's claims and almost certainly would have determined that they were fabricated and inflated to make Scientology look like it was under massive attack, rather than being annoyed by occasional teenage Anonymouses.
It's a little known fact that Little Debbie is the last great bastion protecting us from the great unwashed horde of practioners of Voudon in Miramar.
Putting toilet paper in a toilet is obviously nor vandalism. Putting an entire rol in at once, is.
This isn't that hard to understand is it? The law doesn't fall for such childish wordplay games. Grow up and join the real world.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I was born and raised Catholic. Went to Catholic schools. The parent poster brings up some interesting points.
While many people may agree Scientology is a cult, I suggest we all look inward:
People are put in physically or emotionally distressing situations;
Early Christian followers were threatened, beaten, etc.
Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized;
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader;
Jesus is said to have unconditional love for all people.
They get a new identity based on the group;
Followers of Jesus are no longer Jews, Pagans, etc... They are known as Christians.
They are subject to entrapment (isolation from friends, relatives, and the mainstream culture) and their access to information is severely controlled.
The 4 gospels were all pretty much copied from the same source (and long after Jesus died). Each one has a different audience, but the content is largely the same. In this sense, followers have restricted access to information. The Catholic church also regulates which scriptures form the Bible (and which do not). Not all writings of the Dead Sea scrolls made it into the Bible. Throughout time, religion have been used as a means to divide people. In the past, those who have questioned the religious leadership have been excommunicated, or worse...
Even today, try being a Catholic and marrying a non-Catholic in a Church. It is not allowed! The meaning of "Catholic" (as welcoming) only applies to their Cathechism school!
(People may argue that the Catholic Church is no longer a cult, even if there is strong evidence for it being a cult at one time. So I ask you, did the religion change or did society change around it? If you think it is now no longer a cult, does that make you feel better?)
From everything I've read about and seen of Scientolgists and Scientology, they do all of those things.
From everything I have read and know about Catholicism, they do and/or have done all those things.
Contrast that to say...Judaism or Islam, theres a big difference.
Indeed, the other religions spell their name differently.
I should point out that you're taking Scientology's claim at face value.
Even if true (which I question), I have to believe it's a tally of everything that Anonymous has done to them, not the actions of this one particular person.
One hit, one miss, so that's a batting average of 500 for the courts.
I'd give them a 750 if they let the 1.1 guy off for time served by virtue of effort - at 19, he is - by definition - thinking of the children.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
But note that I'm free and clear with the photos still of Ralsky's house in my possession and Bradley and Ralsky are both in the can. I'm so sad for them both.
What is up with this "one year and one day in jail ", why did they not just make it a year?
Don't buy into that bogey man of kiddie snuff. It is being used to get a carte blanche for all kinds of restrictions against democratic principles like freedom of the press, freedom of speech and the right to peaceably assemble. The way it works is simple, a corporate or political interest has its skunk works bombard a service or site with offending material then they run to their co-investors in the media and whine for restrictions. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Keeping encryption and privacy in the mainstream is a very strong reason to promote Tor and one of the reasons mentioned for creating PGP in Phil Zimmermann's Why I Wrote PGP. Technology cannot police social problems.
Chauchesku, Big Bush & Little Bush, various politburos and national Party committees have a problem with Usenet, Tor or anything else decentralized. Even e-mail and mailing lists, though centralized, seem a little to Free for them.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Anonymous has harassed and attacked them with '8,139 threatening phone calls, 3.6 million e-mails, 141 million hits on its website, ten acts of vandalism against its property, 22 bomb threats, and eight death threats against Church leaders.'
And still it’s not enough. There is no punishment that equals mass-psycho-manipulating people into religious schizophrenia, to use them as bondservants for the own greed for power and money. It’s on one level with mass-murder.
But since it’s invisible it”s treated as being “not real”. I tell you, it’s a full-scale weapon of mass-destruction. Just a psychological one.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.