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- From: jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz)
- Subject: Re: [UPI] "FBI probes computer child porn at Cornell"
- Message-ID: <By6zIy.M3n@mtholyoke.edu>
- Sender: news@mtholyoke.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: Mount Holyoke College
- References: <9211211820.AA14627@crocus.cit.cornell.edu> <1992Nov21.184453.4548@eff.org> <Nov.22.20.51.11.1992.20989@inferno.rutgers.edu>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 23:20:57 GMT
- Lines: 50
-
- In article <Nov.22.20.51.11.1992.20989@inferno.rutgers.edu>
- gaynor@inferno.rutgers.edu (Silver) writes (In response to a UPI
- article reposted by Carl Kadie):
-
- >Washington DC! Listen up! Give the FBI more important things to do!
-
- I agree with this sentiment in principle. However, I am extremely
- happy that the FBI is investigating the poster of the articles in
- question, and not trying to shut down Cornell's Netnews facilities or
- confiscating their equipment. In short, I think the FBI is acting
- responsibly (compared to much the recent history of electronic law
- enforcement), and I applaud them.
-
- >> Netnews
- >That's "Usenet" or "UseNet", not "Netnews".
-
- No. First of all USENET is capitalized "USENET" or "Usenet", not "UseNet",
- secondly, Altnet *is* *not* Usenet... Usenet is the set consisting of the
- "big seven" hierarchies, news, comp, rec, soc, sci, misc, talk. The set of
- all hierarchies, including Usenet, Altnet, Gnusnet, Clarinet, and many that
- have explicit name other than their hierarchy name may be most appropriately
- referred to as "Netnews". So the UPI article was right and you're wrong.
-
- >> In 1988, graduate student Robert Morris Jr. was convicted and fined $10,000
- >> for launching a computer ``worm,'' which also destroys software but differs
- >> from a virus in that it is self-perpetuating.
- >THE PERSECUTION OF MORRIS WAS UNJUSTIFIED (and I _hate_ using all-caps for
- >emphasis). It was his graduate project in computer risks and security. Given
- >the worm's tenacity, the likelihood of its accidental release is high enough to
- >believe that its release _was_ accidental. Regardless, it did nothing more
- >than propagate itself. Many consider his worm a good thing.
-
- Before pronouncing your ignorance to the world, why don't you read up
- on the actual history of what happened? Quite a bit has been written,
- both about the technical nature of the worm and about Morris's
- motivation in writing it. 1) The worm was not a "graduate project",
- and in fact was in way directly related to his graduate course work.
- 2) The worm did something much more than propagate itself... it
- crashed machines. It did so by replicating uncontrollably due several
- bugs. Even if one assumes no harmful intentions on Morris's part,
- releasing the worm in this untested, buggy state was an extremely
- irresponsible (and arrogant) act which I personally deplore. (I'll
- add here that I do think the prosecution came down on the kid way
- harder than was appropriate, however.)
-
- --
- Jurgen Botz | Internet: JBotz@mtholyoke.edu
- Academic Systems Consultant | Bitnet: JBotz@mhc.bitnet
- Mount Holyoke College | Voice: (US) 413-538-2375 (daytime)
- South Hadley, MA, USA | Snail Mail: J. Botz, 01075-0629
-