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04-dfw.general-df.txt
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2002-09-10
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this reply was mailed to me by Daniel. I am posting it for him.
Steven Parker writes:
>were terminated. In the Summer of 1991 a couple of teenage killer
>alumni, Ted Uhlemann and Daniel Finster, turned to me for help in
>converting a PC-based BBS into a public access Unix system. The three
Correction: Ted and I had already installed Unix on the 386, and requested
your help in administering it, since we had (at that point) no administration
experience.
>Daniel had been expelled by unanimous vote in February of 1993 for
>continuous instances of "conduct unbecoming a trustee of a public
>resource" (such as repeatedly using root privileges to read other
>user's mail). This was the only case of forced expulsion, as the
1. I did this under the direction of doug@letni, who said I should do
so to pretect myself from criminal liability were a cracker to
use the system for illegal purposes.
2. I only actually _read_ the mailboxes of people who were suspected or
known to be crackers, to make sure they were not transmitting any
illegal information. The only thing I did to other people was grep
for certain keywords, like "Phrack", and "phreak", etc. I realise
now this was a mistake; we should have simply kicked these miscreants
off of the system.
The so-called "council" that removed me from administration consisted of
you and a couple of your friends. I don't believe Stephen ever considered
himself part of this "council", but I'll let him speak for himself on that.
>by the entire usership via an open vote. The involvement of the users
>in establishing policy had long been considered by the council, but
>always obstructed by Daniel because of his strong personal opposition
>to any kind of democratic process. At the same time, I was actively
So? Does that make me a bad person? You make it sound like I am some
sort of a Nazi or something. I am not; I simply do not like democratic
systems, and I have come to my current beliefs through much thinking
on my own, not following other peoples ideas.
>not reported it. Shocked, I asked why, and all he would say was, "it's
>nobody's business but mine". I pointed out that he was violating a
If that is truly what he said, he was correct. It _was_ noones business
but his. The users of sdf had no "right" to know its financial status,
yet you imply they did, and that Stephen is a bad person for not giving
it to them. Sdf is not, and was not ever required to disclose financial
information, either legally or morally. Sdf is not, and was not ever
a "public trust"; it is and was a system run by the good graces of whoever
happened to be paying its bills at the time, which ocassionally included
its users. I think it's interesting to note that you not once gave any
material support to sdf. Ted, I, and Stephen (especially Stephen), on
the other hand, have spent large sums of money on the system. All you
ever contributed was time.
Sdf did actually publish financial information every now and then, but
it was not obligated to. And the only times it did were when you
set up a system of postings.
>But his reaction was to use his access to the equipment to remove the
>administrative privileges of the entire remainder of the council, and
"Entire remainder of the 'council'", being _you_. Don't distort the
facts. Don't try to imply that there was some large group of people
involved.
And it was not his access to _the_ equipment. It was his access to
_his_ equipment. I am sick of your idea that sdf was some sort of
community property. Ted and I bought all the hardware involved, and
_gave_ that hardware to Stepen, making it _his personal property_.
>he suddenly removed the system to an unknown location, simultaneously
>changing his address, and chosing not to have a listed telephone
>number. I suspect he was already considering this even before I
People do typically change their address when they move. He did not
get a voice phone line because he simply could not afford it. The
money he could have spent on a voice line he instead spent on EIGHT
phone lines for the benefit of sdf.
>confronted him, and the unreported hundreds of donation dollars were
>earmarked for the expenses involved and equipment acquisitions he
>intended to be made only in his own name.
People do tend to like to have their property be in their name.
Or do you, when you go buy a car, sign it over to Joe Frobozz or
somesuch? Don't be ridiculous.
>so, Daniel was caught (for the third time) making unauthorized access to
>other systems; and this time using sdf to receive files obtained during
>those sessions. The administrator of one of the city's larger Unix
I was fully authorized by the owner of the account, which so happened to
be my mother.
>user-directed policies have been abandoned; replaced by a restrictive
>screening process to prevent access by prior council members and law
>enforcement officials.
A restrictive screen process to prevent access by criminals. If you'dve
deigned to set your pristine feet on sdf's soiled filesystems, Stephen
would have been more than happy to give you an account. As for law
enforcement officials, we offered them an account several years ago;
they never logged in. No law enforcement officials ever contacted sdf
wanting an account; if they had, they would have received it. The
screen is _solely_ there to keep criminal elements off of the system.
Law enforcement agencies and former administration do not qualify
as "criminal elements" (At least, I assume you don't qualify, Mr. Parker..).
>His attitude is that on the basis of physical possession, he is the
>sole owner and authority over the operation of the system from now on.
He is the owner because the previous owners (Ted and I) gave it to him,
thus ending our authority over it. Of course he would have authority over
his property. That is what property means. Sometimes I think you are
a Communist or something, since you seem to have trouble with the concept
of personal property.
>about something a user did or said while on-line, and the censorship of
>usenet news groups and articles based on his personal opinions of their
>source and/or content.
No, based on a lack of enough disk space to store 60 megs of Usenet feed
every day. I doubt anyone (or at least, anyone worth listening to) would
argue that alt is worthwhile material. I personally read _one_ alt group:
alt.folklore.computers . It is not "censorship": users are free to go
somewhere else (there are lots of Usenet sites in Dallas) to read any
missing groups. And this is not new: when _you_ installed news onto
sdf you explicitly set it up to not receive _any_ flame-oriented groups.
Why do you not see that as "censorship"?
P.S. I do not have news access right now, so will not be able to reply
very often (if at all) on this thread. If anyone wishes to contact me
on this or anything else, you may call me at 214-750-1145.