NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/comp/bbs/misc/311

Text File | 1992-07-24 | 8.6 KB | 169 lines

Newsgroups: comp.bbs.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!neoucom.edu!red
From: [e-mail] (Richard E. Depew)
Subject: Munroe Falls BBS Bust
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 16:36:01 GMT
Lines: 159

Here are two articles about a local BBS system that will be of
interest to all who run or use such systems.  The first is from
comp.risks (Volume 13, Issue 67) and the second is from
comp.org.eff.talk.

Little brother is watching.  :-)
Dick Depew

--------------(begin first selection)----------------

Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 22:19:05 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Peter D. Junger)
Subject: A computer as a criminal tool

In the Cleveland Plain Dealer for July 21, 1992 a story appears with a
headline nearly worthy of the National Enquirer.

The headline is:  POLICE PULL PLUG ON COMPUTER IN MORALS STING
The byline is:  By DEBORAH A. WINSTON, PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
The venue is:  MUNROE FALLS

    [I've lived in Cleveland for over twenty years and have never heard of
    Munroe Falls--that's how small it is.  It turns out that it is in Summit
    County, Ohio, near Akron.]

    The story suggests that there is an especial risk to having
computers in a very small, Midwestern town.
        According to the story, the Munroe Falls police received a
complaint that a local electronic bulletin board "containing sexually
explicit material might be accessible to children."
        So the police set up a sting operation, using a local 15
year-old boy as their agent.  The story goes on to say:  "After the
youth was able to hook into the bulletin board, police arrested Mark
Lehrer, 22, owner and operator of Akron Anomaly, a 1,000 member bulletin
board."  And the police also seized all of Lehrer's computer--apparently
on the ground that it was "criminal tools."
        [From talking to the reporter and Lehrer's lawyer, I found out
that Lehrer was indicted today "of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles
and possession of criminal tools,"  with the criminal tools being the
computer.]
        It seems that Lehrer's bulletin board included some gif files
containing pictures of James Bond and Captain Kirk and subjects like that,
which could be downloaded by subscribers.  There were also some gif files that
were supposed to be accessible only by adults over the age of 18.  The article
reports, however, that: "when police seized Lehrer's records they found that
even the `clean' files contained images that were not entirely wholesome."
[Lehrer's attorney told me that these were files that had been uploaded to the
bulletin board and had not yet been seen by Lehrer.]
        The article then quotes the Munroe Falls Police Chief as saying
of these "not entirely wholesome files":  "One was Bugs Bunny eating a
carrot, one was Bart Simpson riding a skateboard and one was called (a
slang term for oral sex), and that was in the clean file."  There were
apparently also some pictures of naked women and of "naked women engaging
in sexual acts" that were not in the adult category.
        According to the article, the Police Chief also said that "it's
possible that some of the games and movies are being accessed in
violation of copy right laws."
        And then there is a final direct quote from the Police Chief: "I'm not
saying it's obscene because I'm not getting into that battle, but it's
certainly not appropriate for kids, especially without parental permission."

Peter D. Junger, Case Western Reserve University Law School, Cleveland, OH
Internet:  [e-mail] -- Bitnet:  JUNGER@CWRU

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|Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
|Path: neoucom.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!bx953
|From: [e-mail] (David R. Cohen)
|Subject: Local Bulletin Board Gets Busted
|Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
|Sender: [e-mail]
|Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns2.ins.cwru.edu
|Reply-To: [e-mail] (David R. Cohen)
|Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
|Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 21:30:52 GMT
|Lines:       77


Not knowing where to post the following ... but knowing that it should be
posted somewhere ... I asked the Star Trek newsgroup where to post this.
Someone replied that it should be posted here.

This article is reprinted from the Cleveland [Ohio, USA] Plain Dealer,
Tuesday, July 21, 1992, Page B3 (?).

***********************************************************************

POLICE PULL PLUG ON COMPUTER IN MORALS STING

Munroe Falls Police Chief Steve Stahl knows computers are big with kids
these days, byt he never thought he'd see the day when a healthy
15-year-old boy would choose a floppy disk over a playboy centerfold.
    But now that Stahl's seen some of the floppy disks popular with
local youths, he understands the facscination.
    "Give me any kid, I know what he's going to donwload," Stahl said.
    In May, Munroe Falls police received a complaint fromn a resident
who feared that a local computerized community byulletin board containing
sexually explicit material might be accessible to children.
    Stahl said the resident showed him files called "Alison" and
"Amber," both of which featured naked women.  Stahl told the concerned
resident, "Oh well, geez, I can see how that would be upsetting."
    For the past two months, police conducted an investigation and
sting using a local 15 year old boy.  After the youth was able to hook into
the bulletin board, police arrested Mark Lehrer, 22, owner and operator of
Akron Anomaly, a 1000-member bulletin board.  Police also seized all of
Lehrer's computer equipment.
    Lehrer is accused of distributing graphic sexual material via a
computer modem from his parent's home in Munore Falls.  Lehrer, whose
father is chairman of the village's charter review commission, has been
charged in Cuyahoga Falls municipal court with one count each of
disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possession of computer tools
-- in this case, his computer.
    A preliminary hearing is scheduled for today.  The case will
probably be turned over to a Summit County grand jury.
    Lehrer did not return a phone call yesterday.
    Stahl said this will be the first case in Northeast Ohio and one
of the first in the state in which an adult is accused of distributing
graphic sexual materials to juveniles via a computer.
    "There's not a whole lot of case law on this kind of thing," he
said, adding most material comes from books, magazines, or movies.
    According to Stahl, members of Akron Anomaly paid $15 to $30 a year
to link into Lehrer's bulletin board.  For that fee, they had access to
games like chess, basketball, and euchre, compouter programming
instructions, and a series of "gif" -- "graphic interface files" -- that
feature pictures from James Bond to Captain Kirk to Scooby Doo.
    Some are labeled specifically for adults and are not supposed to be
accessible to those under age 18, while many others are contained in a
general file.  However, when police seized Lehrer's records they found that
even the "clean" files contained images not entirely wholesome.
    "One was Bugs Bunny eating a carrot, one was Bart Simpson riding a
skate board and one was called (a slang term for oral sex) [probably "blow
job" -- drc], and that was in the clean file," Stahl said.
    Stahl said many files not listed in the adult category contained
pictures of naked women and of naked women engaged in sexual acts.  One
file allegedly shows a nude image of Christina Applegate, who plays Peg on
the television show "Married With Children."
    "Parents are happy their kids are upstairs using their computers.
One parent we talked to was thrilled they weren't finding Playboy magazine.
Well, I've got news for them, this is a rude awakening," Stahl said.
    In addition to the graphic interface images, juveniles were able to
access adult movies, which are transmitted on color monitors.

************************************************************************

A brief editorial comment: this sucks.
Any comments, please send e-mail, as I don't monitor this group.

David
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= THIS MESSAGE IS FROM  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|             David R. Cohen or Tracey L. Ridgeway              |
|                  [e-mail]                  |
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--
Richard E. Depew                          [e-mail] (work)
NEOUCOM, Rootstown, OH.                   [e-mail] (home)
uunet!aablue!{neoucom,redpoll}!red      "Dyslexics of the world, untie!"