Hacker 2/HACKER2.mdf/cud/cud435b.txt

Text File | 1995-01-03 | 11KB | 215 lines

Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1992 09:23:01 (CDT)
From: CuD Moderators <[e-mail])
Subject: File 2--What's a "CuD?"

With the change to comp.society.cu-digest, we assume that
newcomers may not know what a "CuD' is. This seems like a good time to
respond to the FAQs (for newbies, "frequently asked questions"). We've
ignored some of the irrelevant ones (like "why doesn't Thomas cut his
ponytail" --he did, sort of), and "Yo, d00dz, got any good codez?"
(sigh). If we've missed any serious questions, let us know and we'll
try again.

WHAT IS CuD?

Cu-Digest, or CuD, is a weekly on-line electronic journal/news forum.
CuD began at the suggestion and encouragement of Pat Townson
(moderator of Telecomm Digest) in March 1990. The federal indictments
of Craig Neidorf (in the "PHRACK case" in Chicago) and Len Rose (in
Baltimore) generated more posts than Pat could manage, and the nature
of posts exceeded his Digest's Usenet charter.  Jim Thomas and Gordon
Meyer volunteered to collect the surplus posts, and Pat helped get it
started.  It was originally conceived as an interim forum that would
quietly depart after a few months. Volume 1, in fact, was originally
intended as the first and final volume in August '92, but a week later
Volume 2 appeared because of the continuous material.  As of this
writing, CuD is publishing Volume 4.
Each issue is about 40 K.

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF CuD?

The broad goal of CuD is to provide a forum for discussion and debate
of the computer telecommunications culture. This culture especially
includes, but is not limited to, the unique world of BBSes, Internet,
and public access systems.  We focus especially on alternative gropus
that exist outside of the conventional net community.  We try to focus
on a broad range of issues that include news, debates of legal,
ethical, and technical issues, and scholarly research of relevance to
a broad audience of professionals and lay persons.  Other than
providing a context for an article if necessary, the moderators *do
not* add commentary of agreement or disagreement.  We see our role as
one of facilitating debate, although we will do take part in
discussions in separate articles.

WHO EDITS CUD?

Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas publish CuD from Northern Illinois
University. Gordon Meyer's MA thesis, "The Social Organization of the
Computer Underground", was the first systematic attempt to place the
social world of "phreaks, hackers, and pirates" in a context that
looked at the culture, rather than the "deviance", of alternative uses
of computer use.  Gordon is currently a system engineer with a large
national firm in the Chicago area.  Jim Thomas, a professor of
sociology/criminology at Northern Illinois University, is a prison
researcher and qualitative methodologist.  Gordon lured him into the
"underground" world 1987, and he has since become interested in the
legal and cultural issues of computer use.

WHY THE LABEL *UNDERGROUND*?

For some, the term underground connotes malice and a dark side of human
activity. For others, including the CuD editors, it denotes
alternative or unconventional activity. Like the "underground," or
"alternative" press of the counterculture of the 1960s, the "computer
underground" refers to types of behavior or characteristics of a
subculture that are unique, cohesively identifiable, possessing norms,
roles, and social expectations that define participants, and are
considered socially marginal by the dominant culture.  Like the term
"hacker," there were originally no negative connotations associated
with "underground" when the term was first used. The name "Computer
underground Digest" was suggested with a bit of irony prior to the
first issue (how, after all, can a conventional digest that is
publicly accessible be "underground?"), and the name stayed. Early
discussions to change the name seemed impractical once the "CuD"
monogram was established, and the name stands.

IS CuD "PRO-HACKER?"

The term "hacker" has been grossly distorted by the media and law
enforcement personnel, who use it synonymously with "computer
intruders." CuD editors have repeatedly stated their own opposition to
all forms of predatory and malicious behavior, including malicious
computer intrusion.  We accept Bob Bickford's definition of a "hacker"
as someone who derives joy from discovering ways to  exceed
limitations. Hackers, in the original sense, referred to explorers who
solved problems and exceeded conventional limits through trial and
error in situations in which there were no formal guidelines or
previous models from which to draw. In this sense, CuD is quite
"pro-hacker," and we prefer the term "cracker" for malicious
practitioners of the hacking craft.  Exploration is good, predation is
not.  However, CuD encourages articles from all perspectives and
attempts to provide a forum for reasoned discussion on all sides of
an issue.  CuD is against predatory behavior by any group, whether
computer enthusiasts or those who oppose them. CuD is for civil
liberties and for civilizing the electronic frontier by securing
rights assumed in other social realms and by advocating protection
from all forms of abuse.

Like rock 'n Roll and Richard Nixon, the computer underground culture
has not, and will not likely soon, go away. It has become an
entrenched part of computer culture.  CuD attempts to document the
computer culture and ease the transition as the culture moves toward
the mainstream with articles that bridge the cultural gaps as
telecomputing becomes an increasingly important part of daily life.
The political, legal, economic, and social impact of changes in the
new technology is poorly covered elsewhere.  We see our goal as
addressing the impact of these changes and providing alternative
interpretations to events.

WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DOES CuD PUBLISH?

We encourage submissions on a broad range of topics, from articulate
short responses and longer opinion pieces to book reviews, summaries
of research, and academic papers.  We especially encourage:

1. Reasoned and thoughtful debates about economic, ethical, legal, and
other issues related to the computer underground.

2. Verbatim printed newspaper or magazine articles containing relevant
stories. If you send a transcription of an article, be sure it
contains the source *and* the page numbers so references can be
checked. Also be sure that no copyright protections are infringed.

3. Public domain legal documents (affidavits, indictments, court
records) that pertain to relevant topics.

4. General discussion of news, problems, or other issues that
contributors feel should be aired.

5. Unpublished academic papers, "think pieces," or research results
are strongly encouraged. These would presumably be long, and we would
limit the size to about 800 lines (or 40 K). Longer articles
appropriate for distribution would be sent as a single file and
so-marked in the header.

6. Book reviews that address the social implications of computer
technology.

7. Bibliographies (especially annotated), transcripts of relevant
radio or television programs (it is the poster's responsibility to
assure that copyrights are not violated), and announcements and
reports of relevant conferences and conference papers are strongly
encouraged.

8. Announcements for conferences, meetings, and other events as well
as summaries after they've occured.

9. Suggestions for improvement, general comments or criticisms of CuD,
and ideas for articles are especially helpful.

Although we encourage debate, we stress that ad hominem attacks or
personal squabbles will not be printed. Although we encourage
different opinion, we suggest that these be well-reasoned and
substantiated with facts, citations, or other "evidence" that would
bolster claims.  Although CuD is a Usenet group, it does not, except
in the rarest of cases, print post-response-counterresponse in the
style common among most other groups.

HOW CAN I PUBLISH IN CUD?

To submit an article, simply send it to the editors at
[e-mail]. If you receive CuD on Usenet, you can reply
(using the F or f commands) and your response will come directly to
the editors and will not be distributed across the nets. If you do not
have an article, but know of people who do, encourage them to send
their work along. Although CuD is a forum for opposing points of view,
we do prefer that articles a) be written in English, b) make sense,
and c) are not out-dated.

Submissions should be formatted at 70 characters per line and should
include a blank space separating individual paragraphs. Submissions
may be edited for spelling and format, but no other changes are ever
intentionally made without permission. Sigs are also removed to save
bandwidth.

WHO READS CuD?

As a conservative estimate, CuD reaches about 30,000 to 35,000 readers
each issue.  According to monthly Usenet statistics, CuD averaged
about 23,000 readers a month on alt.society.cu-digest. We estimate
another 3,000 from the mailing list and feeds into various systems.
BBS readership, judging from non-scientific sysop feedback,
constitutes at least another 5,000, and public access systems
(Peacenet, America Online, GEnie, CompuServe) constitutes the rest of
domestic readership. Our figures do not include substantial European,
Australian, or ftp distribution.

Judging from a survey we took in 1990 and from the feedback we receive
from readers, CuD readers cut across occupational, ideological, and
age lines. The overwhelming majority (about 80 percent) of the
readership is college graduates About half is computer professionals
or in related fields. The remaining half is distributed among a
variety of professions (attorneys, journalists, academicians, law
enforcement, students) and territory (the mailing list includes every
continent except Asia and all west European countries).

HOW DO I RECEIVE CuD?

If you're reading this, you've already received it, and most likely
you can just keep doing whatever you did to get it. If you aren't sure
what you did, you can do any of the following:

CuD is *FREE*. It costs nothing. The editors make no profit, we take
no money, we accept no gifts (but we drink Jack Daniels and lots of
it, should you run into us in a pub). To receive CuD, you can access
it from many BBSes and most public access systems. Or, if you have
Usenet access, you can obtain it by subscribing through your local
system to comp.society.cu-digest.

If you do not have Usenet access, you can be placed on a mailing list
by dropping a short note to: [e-mail] with the subject
header: SUB CuD and a message that says:
    SUB CuD my name     my.full.internet@address

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