mvo@cbnscs.UUCP (04/15/87)
I just had a rather strange experience "chatting" with the sysop of an ST bulletin board and was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. First, I should describe my limited involvement with bulletin boards since it does relate to my experience. I do not actively particate on any bulletin board, I only log onto one if I am referred to it in order to download a program (I realize some may criticize this behavior). This means that about every other month I end up searching a few bulletin boards; usually listed in ST Applications. If I find the program I am looking for I will upload a program that is not on the board and download the program of interest. This evening, I logged onto a system that I had logged onto once before. While listing the directories, the sysop put me in "chat" mode. He - "Hello, do you have any GOOD PROGRAMS you would like to trade?" Me - "I have some good PD software from USENET" He - "Do you have anything else?" Me - "I have only purchased 5 or 6 programs for my ST" He - "Do you have anything else that you would be willing to trade?" Me - "What do you mean?" He - "I think you know what I mean" Me - "Sorry" At this point I was stumped. I wasn't sure if he was a pirate and wanted to find out if I was, or that he wanted to keep pirates off of his BBS. He broke off the chat mode and I continued to list the directories. After about a minute he put me back in chat mode. He - "You log into a lot of BBS's, are you a pirate or a narc?" Me - "Narc? I'm looking for a couple of programs I've heard about" I then explained the reason I probably have userids on several BBS's. Question - Do Sysops trade userid lists or was he just guessing? He then asked me if I have come across much pirated stuff. I told him that I haven't seen anything and asked him why he wanted to know. He explained that he writes software reviews but cannot afford to purchase the software. He then asked me if I had anything that I could upload to him so that he could review it. I told him "no" and went on to explain my position against software piracy. During my explanation I told him that I was a software developer myself and he again asked if I have any programs I would be willing to copy for him. At this point I was getting upset and again explained the legal rights of software developers and houses. Not getting anywhere, I ended the session. Has anyone else been solicited for pirated software while on a BBS? Am I being naive? I was very suprised by this sysop's blatant approach. Mark O'Riordan
trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (04/19/87)
After sysop'ing a board (stag @ 612-542-8980) for almost 2 years now, I can safely say that only about 5% or less of the people who dial into my ST board have actually had the nerve to ask about non-PD softare availability. I am sure there are boards that you can dial into that are heavily into piracy, but overall, I would guess that most boards are somewhat overloaded with PD software. I have a hard enough time dealing with the 30-40 megs of PD STuff that is available. And for the occasional person who insists on trying to 'trade' software, I have a special 'scare tactic' key that I can press (it sends a message to the user informing him/her that the user has violated their moral responsiblilities to using the board, pretends to trace the users' phone number and add it to a nation wide blacklist (complete with bells and pauses), and then does a permenant lockout of the user from the board. One thing people should be aware of is that while sysops don't exchange user lists (that would be an incredible waste of time), I am sure that some sysops out there probably are willing to take advantage of the fact that a LOT of people use the same password on different BBS's. I have noticed many illegal attempts to log onto my BBS by people who indicated that they weren't even near a computer at the time my BBS recorded the attempts (my BBS supports several security levels for access, etc). All I can recommend is changing your password every once in a while and keeping it slightly different for each BBS you get onto. -Todd Burkey ...ihnp4!meccts!zeke!stag!trb