Apples to Oranges. McKinnon hacked into a server on the US. He should be liable under US law. You DoS a US server, you should be liable under US Law. You make a web site in the UK advocating the assassination of the US president, you're in the clear, IMHO. However, IANAL.
Yes, the policy I put forward can be exploited for ill. However, there are Nigerian scammers who have persuaded their victims to come to Nigeria to "finish the deal", and their victims haven't come back (and it wasn't because Nigeria is such a nice place that they just had to stay). Plus there are are the Russian cracker rings which have been engaging in extortion against websites with the botnets in their control. A lot of these guys aren't getting prosecuted in Russia or in Nigeria, either because the laws are full of holes, or because they've bought off the system. Do you honestly think they should get away with what they've done?
Extraditing a Spam King who had been using bot-nets to attack those who tried to stop him? I'm all for it.
Extraditing an E-Mail scammer who rips the less net-savvy off from their life savings? I'm all for it.
If it takes extraditing a script kiddy (he's over the age of majority, but he's still a script kiddy) who cracked some US Government systems to help clear the way, I'm all for it.
I'm not for sending this guy to prison for 70 years. However, he broke the goddamn law, he knew he was breaking the law, and this isn't a situation like with DVDJohn where he was doing it for reasons that ought to be legal. He had access to the systems for 2 years - if he was doing white-hat hacking, he should have left them an anonymous tip to the hole 23 months ago! Also, he was doing it for a crack-pot reason.
If some loon hacks the FBI's systems to try and find a non-existant secret file to try and prove that John Siegenthawler did mastermind the Kennedy assssination, and he lives in the UK, or Canada, or Norway, should he be extradited to the US and prosecuted for it? Yes. Now, if that's all he did, and didn't take anything else, does he deserve 70 years? No. However, as I said on an earlier post, this figure may be put forward simply because the prosecutor knows he has enough evidence to convict, and is trying to get the defendant to agree to a much smaller plea deal, as to free up the docket for other cases.
I've thought about this some, and actually, perhaps it's a better idea to bring him to the US for trial, even if he doesn't get a 70 year sentence, because it establishes a precident, which could possibly be extended to, say, Russian Spam Kings, Nigerian E-Mail scammers, or any other person or group which is engaging in more serious computer crime against the US and lives in a country we have an extradition treaty with (or could get with) and has weak computer crime laws.
That 70 years figure seems, at least to me, to be a little higher then what he'd actually get, I think. Quoting such a figure might just be to get him to cop a plea, for a lower sentence, thus saving the expense of a trial, and freeing up the dock for more important cases.
However, considering his previous behavior, he'll probably plead not-guilty, and insist on defending himself, rather then hiring an attorney, or using a court assigned one.
They still are like this. They have a good crew, and the writing overall is good (though everytime I bought a book I felt like getting a red pen to tag all of the errors and sending it to them for corrections in the next printing), but Kevin's insistence on keeping 100% control over everything really hurt. Want to make a character generator? Sorry. Can't do that. Want to mention core characters (Erin Tarn, Emperor Prosek, etc)? You're treading a fine line. Want to even discuss a method to port to another system (D20, GURPS, Interlock)? Expect a nasty letter. Meanwhile, the one character generator that they did release was crappy and limited (based on Microsoft Access), and while they did eventually kick it out to the public, releasing new files for it was a risky business at best, IIRC. Their website has always been a storefront, with token game support at best.
I have observed one exception to this, and it probably rankles them every time they come across these conversions - They have not taken action against any conversions from the old Robotech RPG to Mekton II and Mekton Zeta.
I've got mixed feelings about the plea for help myself. On the one hand, I've always wanted to play Rifts at least once (though I never found a group nearby). On the other hand, not too long ago I heard they were considering getting Robotech RPG licence back, and I wouldn't want to see all those Robotech-to-Mekton Z mech-design conversions getting shut-down (and I wouldn't be suprised if Maryann had a whole bunch of nasty E-Mails in the "Drafts" folder of her E-Mail software, just waiting to be sent out the moment the ink had dried.)
Every piece of private property is owned by someone. As benevolent or tyrannic as he wants to be. Those households that claim they're "democratic" are so because the dictator decided it would be nice to let his or her "peasants", his or her family, act as the ruling body. But ultimately, one person is in charge.
Technically, this isn't the case, due to emminant domain, which allows the government to take your land from you (albiet not without paying you for it).
Worms 2 & Armageddon: I'm suprised no-one has suggested this one already. I got into playing Worms 2 about 9 years ago, when I was in either 7th or 8th grade (I forget which), and bought Worms: Armageddon when I was in High School. They're absoutly wonderful games, and if it wasn't for pricks on WormNet (and no way to have admins ban the fuckers), I'd play Armageddon online more often.
NetHack: NetCrack more like. Killing Grid Bugs has never been more fun (unless you read that Scroll of Punishment. Oh, and I always avoid the Gnomish Mines, they still give me nightmares, damn gnomes).
Gabriel Knight 1 & 2: Two of the greatest adventure games ever. Period. (Alas, I have not found a copy of #3 yet.
Extreme Warfare Revenge: The greatest booking sim ever, and has none of the atrocious copy-protection crap that was put in Total Extreme Warfare.
Civilization Series + Alpha Centauri and Colonization: Must... play... just one more turn!
Starfleet Command: I was always a fan of Star Fleet Battles, and this game did not disappoint in the least.
Fallout 1 & 2: Two of the greatest PC RPGs ever.
Smackdown vs. Raw 2006: Possibly the best console wrestling game outside of...
Fire Pro Series: Which is the best console wrestling series. Ever.
And that's all I can think of for now. I'll probably come up with more later.
I remember reading somewhere that a X-Com clone or port or whatever was put out for the GBA. Anybody hear anything about that?
Frankly, I could see a port of X-Com working pretty well on the GBA or the DS. Yeah, particularly on the DS. You could put a mini-map/radar on the touch screen so you can use the stylus to quickly move the close up view around the map during missions. In between missions when you're doing base construction and so forth, the touch screen would handle the world map view. Nintendo (and whoever currently holds the rights for X-Com), are you listening?
Agreed. When I played Diablo for the first time, my first thought was "This is NetHack, with better graphics, in real time, and with worse controls, and it's shorter." I've been playing Nethack for 9 years and I still haven't reached the bottom.
I agree with the Gabe Knight trilogy. I managed to pick up the "Sins of the Fathers/Beast Within" bundle from my library's "Friends of the Library" store for cheap. They are amazing, wonderful games, with a wonderful story and wonderful characters. I really hope that in the not-too-distant future we get a Gabriel Knight 4.
IIRC, movies were attacked (at least they used to) just as much. I remember people going after The Matrix (the first one) after Columbine because of the Government Lobby shoot-out (cause they were using guns and wearing trench-coats, you see. *rolls eyes*)
Supposedly there's a way to avoid the copy protection that Starforce does - once I figure out how to do that, I'll pick up a copy of "Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich" and "X3".
Agreed. There is another thread on an RPG form which I won't mention because I don't want to Slashdot them called "Creepiest Person You've Ever Gamed With", which has some of the worst examples of disturbingly socially except gamers (worse then Steve Urkel and Comic Book Guy combined), with the exception of one example which I will name (but won't link to because it's alot of links to wade through and again, slashdotting) - The Brazilian Death Squad. If that story was made up, they did a good job about making it up.
I'm very, very glad that I'm not the only person who thought about Stone Cold Steve Austin when I read about this and, to be honest, the mental image of Google giving Bell South the finger, immediatly followed by a Stone Cold Stunner gives me the Warm 'n Fuzzies.
Re:Frequent Shopping Card @ Grocery Store
on
Myware and Spyware
·
· Score: 1
I believe I've heard the same story, but it was a credit card, not a frequent shopper card.
Depends on the team. From what I've observed, Star Trek geeks are more accepted by society then (rabid) Oakland Raiders fans (and Raiders Fans aren't particularly accepting of fans of the opposing team, at least at home games).
As another possibilty, at the end of each chapter, put the titles and/or URLs of web sites with information relevent to the chapter's contents, stuff like "If you want to learn more about the history of the Internet, there are these other books you may enjoy."
Also, try to get the book published by a more mainstream publisher, not O'Reilly. If you can get it published as a "...For Dummies" or an "Idiot's Guide to..." even better. Neophytes tend to go straight to those. O'Reilly books just don't have the right amount of recognition a book like this would need to be really helpful.
Slashdot Mirror
Apples to Oranges. McKinnon hacked into a server on the US. He should be liable under US law. You DoS a US server, you should be liable under US Law. You make a web site in the UK advocating the assassination of the US president, you're in the clear, IMHO. However, IANAL.
Yes, the policy I put forward can be exploited for ill. However, there are Nigerian scammers who have persuaded their victims to come to Nigeria to "finish the deal", and their victims haven't come back (and it wasn't because Nigeria is such a nice place that they just had to stay). Plus there are are the Russian cracker rings which have been engaging in extortion against websites with the botnets in their control. A lot of these guys aren't getting prosecuted in Russia or in Nigeria, either because the laws are full of holes, or because they've bought off the system. Do you honestly think they should get away with what they've done?
Extraditing a Spam King who had been using bot-nets to attack those who tried to stop him? I'm all for it.
Extraditing an E-Mail scammer who rips the less net-savvy off from their life savings? I'm all for it.
If it takes extraditing a script kiddy (he's over the age of majority, but he's still a script kiddy) who cracked some US Government systems to help clear the way, I'm all for it.
I'm not for sending this guy to prison for 70 years. However, he broke the goddamn law, he knew he was breaking the law, and this isn't a situation like with DVDJohn where he was doing it for reasons that ought to be legal. He had access to the systems for 2 years - if he was doing white-hat hacking, he should have left them an anonymous tip to the hole 23 months ago! Also, he was doing it for a crack-pot reason.If some loon hacks the FBI's systems to try and find a non-existant secret file to try and prove that John Siegenthawler did mastermind the Kennedy assssination, and he lives in the UK, or Canada, or Norway, should he be extradited to the US and prosecuted for it? Yes. Now, if that's all he did, and didn't take anything else, does he deserve 70 years? No. However, as I said on an earlier post, this figure may be put forward simply because the prosecutor knows he has enough evidence to convict, and is trying to get the defendant to agree to a much smaller plea deal, as to free up the docket for other cases.
I've thought about this some, and actually, perhaps it's a better idea to bring him to the US for trial, even if he doesn't get a 70 year sentence, because it establishes a precident, which could possibly be extended to, say, Russian Spam Kings, Nigerian E-Mail scammers, or any other person or group which is engaging in more serious computer crime against the US and lives in a country we have an extradition treaty with (or could get with) and has weak computer crime laws.
That 70 years figure seems, at least to me, to be a little higher then what he'd actually get, I think. Quoting such a figure might just be to get him to cop a plea, for a lower sentence, thus saving the expense of a trial, and freeing up the dock for more important cases.
However, considering his previous behavior, he'll probably plead not-guilty, and insist on defending himself, rather then hiring an attorney, or using a court assigned one.
I have observed one exception to this, and it probably rankles them every time they come across these conversions - They have not taken action against any conversions from the old Robotech RPG to Mekton II and Mekton Zeta.
I've got mixed feelings about the plea for help myself. On the one hand, I've always wanted to play Rifts at least once (though I never found a group nearby). On the other hand, not too long ago I heard they were considering getting Robotech RPG licence back, and I wouldn't want to see all those Robotech-to-Mekton Z mech-design conversions getting shut-down (and I wouldn't be suprised if Maryann had a whole bunch of nasty E-Mails in the "Drafts" folder of her E-Mail software, just waiting to be sent out the moment the ink had dried.)
If I had cable, the only things I'd really consider watching on Spike would be re-runs of ST:TNG and DS9, and maybe TNA Impact)
Aahh. Well, it worked on me (and normally I'm pretty good at spotting trolls.)
Which beta version are you using and how much RAM do you have?
Yeah. Same guy. He left Microsoft for Infenium Labs, and then left them three months later.
Worms 2 & Armageddon: I'm suprised no-one has suggested this one already. I got into playing Worms 2 about 9 years ago, when I was in either 7th or 8th grade (I forget which), and bought Worms: Armageddon when I was in High School. They're absoutly wonderful games, and if it wasn't for pricks on WormNet (and no way to have admins ban the fuckers), I'd play Armageddon online more often.
NetHack: NetCrack more like. Killing Grid Bugs has never been more fun (unless you read that Scroll of Punishment. Oh, and I always avoid the Gnomish Mines, they still give me nightmares, damn gnomes).
Gabriel Knight 1 & 2: Two of the greatest adventure games ever. Period. (Alas, I have not found a copy of #3 yet.
Extreme Warfare Revenge: The greatest booking sim ever, and has none of the atrocious copy-protection crap that was put in Total Extreme Warfare.
Civilization Series + Alpha Centauri and Colonization: Must... play... just one more turn!
Starfleet Command: I was always a fan of Star Fleet Battles, and this game did not disappoint in the least.
Fallout 1 & 2: Two of the greatest PC RPGs ever.
Smackdown vs. Raw 2006: Possibly the best console wrestling game outside of...
Fire Pro Series: Which is the best console wrestling series. Ever.
And that's all I can think of for now. I'll probably come up with more later.I remember reading somewhere that a X-Com clone or port or whatever was put out for the GBA. Anybody hear anything about that?
Frankly, I could see a port of X-Com working pretty well on the GBA or the DS. Yeah, particularly on the DS. You could put a mini-map/radar on the touch screen so you can use the stylus to quickly move the close up view around the map during missions. In between missions when you're doing base construction and so forth, the touch screen would handle the world map view. Nintendo (and whoever currently holds the rights for X-Com), are you listening?Agreed. When I played Diablo for the first time, my first thought was "This is NetHack, with better graphics, in real time, and with worse controls, and it's shorter." I've been playing Nethack for 9 years and I still haven't reached the bottom.
I agree with the Gabe Knight trilogy. I managed to pick up the "Sins of the Fathers/Beast Within" bundle from my library's "Friends of the Library" store for cheap. They are amazing, wonderful games, with a wonderful story and wonderful characters. I really hope that in the not-too-distant future we get a Gabriel Knight 4.
They were originally published in Denmark in September. IIRC, they didn't make it to Egypt until a month later.
And if you're unemployed?
IIRC, movies were attacked (at least they used to) just as much. I remember people going after The Matrix (the first one) after Columbine because of the Government Lobby shoot-out (cause they were using guns and wearing trench-coats, you see. *rolls eyes*)
Well, the virus doesn't hit until Friday, so in theory, if you're infected you'll have time to remove the worm before it starts damaging your system.
Supposedly there's a way to avoid the copy protection that Starforce does - once I figure out how to do that, I'll pick up a copy of "Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich" and "X3".
Agreed. There is another thread on an RPG form which I won't mention because I don't want to Slashdot them called "Creepiest Person You've Ever Gamed With", which has some of the worst examples of disturbingly socially except gamers (worse then Steve Urkel and Comic Book Guy combined), with the exception of one example which I will name (but won't link to because it's alot of links to wade through and again, slashdotting) - The Brazilian Death Squad. If that story was made up, they did a good job about making it up.
Ehh, Chow Yun Fat is much, much cooler. (I can't believe he didn't get mentioned The Ultimate Showdown).
I'm very, very glad that I'm not the only person who thought about Stone Cold Steve Austin when I read about this and, to be honest, the mental image of Google giving Bell South the finger, immediatly followed by a Stone Cold Stunner gives me the Warm 'n Fuzzies.
Has anyone seen anything on Snopes about this?
Depends on the team. From what I've observed, Star Trek geeks are more accepted by society then (rabid) Oakland Raiders fans (and Raiders Fans aren't particularly accepting of fans of the opposing team, at least at home games).
Also, try to get the book published by a more mainstream publisher, not O'Reilly. If you can get it published as a "...For Dummies" or an "Idiot's Guide to..." even better. Neophytes tend to go straight to those. O'Reilly books just don't have the right amount of recognition a book like this would need to be really helpful.