ranson@crcge1.UUCP (D. Ranson CNET) (07/10/87)
I am posting this for Joerg Langowski of MacTutor fame. This article
about a French hacker dealings with major software companies will
appear in the August issue of MacTutor. If you wish to comment on
this, either write to MacTutor or post to this net. I will forward
your answers on French BBSs. If you want to post this article on
other nets (Delphi and BITNET at leats should have it already),
you have the author and contributors' authorization to do it.
Daniel RANSON
...!seismo!mcvax!inria!cnetlu!ranson
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This is a digest of an article that is going to appear in the
August issue of MacTutor. It is about a lawsuit against a software
hacker that has just taken place in France and had a very unfortunate
outcome. It reflects somewhat the attitude of some software companies
against their consumers and supporters and is important enough
that I think it should be on as many networks as possible.
The whole story, as I said, with comments from our publisher, David Smith,
and hopefully others (like the parties involved) will be in MacTutor 8/87.
J. Langowski
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Cracking down on a hacker - a story sad but true
Some time ago, three people were caught in France to distribute a
catalog of pirated software. Classical case of stealing software.
The unfortunate fact was that there was a fourth person involved.
The cracking was the work of one of the pioneers of Mac hacking in France,
Nourallah Goulamhoussen, who was doing what
many of us took pride in doing that time: taking deep looks into
other's programs, finding out about their nuts and bolts, and, of
course, understanding and doing away with those crazy copy
protection schemes. He took a pseudonym - Faraglace - that he put
into startup screens of cracked programs. He even
put his real name in there!
Very soon after that, he started on developing more serious things
and proved to be an extremely talented programmer. However, his
'early sins' had gotten out of his hands...
and two months ago, he was cited before the same court that
the other three were to appear at.
Yesterday (July 8), the trial has taken place.
The parties involved were:
- A.C.I., the developer and distributor of the database system 4th
Dimension / Silver Surfer,
- Microsoft France,
- Microsoft U.S.,
- Apple Computer France,
- Apple Computer U.S.
against
- Jean-Pierre Champion,
- Nelson Teixera,
- Antoine Roume,
and
- Nourallah Goulamhoussen.
The first three were charged of having illegally copied and sold
quite a number of different programs, including MacWrite and
MacPaint (which every Mac owner got for free anyway at that time).
Nourallah has been charged of illegally copying some of those
programs (4th Dimension, Excel, MacTell, in summary those whose
protection had been hard to crack) and making those copies available
to the three others. Nothing is said about whether he knew whether
those copies had been circulated.
Jean-Benedict de Saussure gave an account of it on our CalvaCom bulletin
board. I translate part of his postings...
[JBS speaking, originally in French]
Faraglace...is part of that generation who discovered the real
'micro inside the Mac'... those people whose first machine was the Mac,
being completely without resources.
There was undoubtedly some kind of macho atmosphere, everybody
wanting to show off his capabilities to the others...
among the hackers of that time, the capability of deprotecting
was the summit of the juvenile pride which animated them.
...
Faraglace was a solitary explorer, but brilliant. He was not a
member of any famous group at the time of the Apple II, and now was
naive enough to want some admiration for his work.
What naivety and innocence incited him to sign his works, putting
his name on the startup screens? Envious, naturally, of the
celebrity of the others, of the glory connected with the prestigious
names of earlier times, he wanted to leave his traces.
... Madame DD [Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, the director of ACI,
who distributes Silver Surfer / 4th Dimension - JL] declared that
"from my point of view, those people are nothing but flunked-out
developers, evil individuals...any turkey who spends enough of his time
will eventually deprotect a product". So I had spent all those
'unnecessary' nights on those things without even understanding, I
was the biggest turkey of'em all! The complete, hopeless idiot! I
think that was the day when that lady had herself accounted a nice
quantity of hatred and disgust. If that was what she'd been after,
that's disturbing. She simply showed her incompetence in the field,
and it would have been amusing to ask her in public what her own
capabilities were, and to ask her to choose the right title for
herself after the chips were down.
Reality is completely different, and those who tried know it. The
level of complexity of copy protection systems that has been
achieved in France is astonishing, and only some rare specialists
can do and undo it. Rumor has it that Madame DD had a list of those
guys compiled by her company to send them threatening letters...just
in case...
Flunked-out developers, you say...that's funny. Recent history shows
that on the contrary the most brilliant crackers have become
successful developers.
Apple's Role
...certainly causes many of the problems. That Apple helps to pursue
those crooks who sell illegal copies, or those who use software
which they didn't buy, makes full sense. But that the consequence of
this would be to crack down on a guy whose main fault is to have
been intelligent enough to arrive at a level which others had never
reached, that is hard to swallow.
...does this indicate the tendency to do away - once and for ever -
with the hacker and amateur image of the beginnings?
Deny the origins to better seduce Big Blue's clients?
The facts
The judgment has been delivered July 8 1987, before the
31st Penal Court of Paris.
The claimed damages were 2,350,000 Francs ($390,000), 1,000,000 of
which were for ACI and Silver Surfer / 4th Dimension as a
compensation for damages occurred by copying of the brand name and
damaging the brand image.
Even though no proof of commercial benefit could be given against
Nourallah, it seems that the lawyer of the civil parties went after
him as the cracker without whom all this couldn't have happened.
[I'll continue in my own words. JL]
July 8, 1987, the verdict has been delivered.
20,000F ($3,300) fine; 500,000F ($83,000) in damages to the civil
parties. Because he now is a convicted criminal, he'll never be able to
work in his profession as a pharmacist; so almost no way of repaying
the damages. 'Better' than a life sentence...
The summary here is that Microsoft (France and US), Apple, and ACI
seem to have chosen to constitute an example on an individual who
didn't have the resources to defend himself.
This case will go to the appeals court, of course. We'll hope we can
help this guy to be better prepared and defended that time. We are
paying a 'shareware lawyer'... Meanwhile, quite a few of us have
decided to give up using the software of certain companies,
especially since there are often cheaper, unprotected programs that
do a better job.
We are installing an account to collect money to help Nourallah's
defense. You'll soon read on this network where to send your check,
if you think this is important.
To show the attitude of certain software companies towards their
customers, here are some quotes from the director of ACI:
[Marylene Delbourg-Delphis speaking, originally in French:]
"Oh, sure, some would like a backup of the key disk just in case...
Only the probability that the user destroys his key disk is almost zero
and, in 9 out of 10 times, such demands come from dishonest people
who want two disks for the price of one"
"Honest people don't raise a fuzz; it's the crooks that have themselves
being talked about"
"Nothing forces us to replace a program. If you crash your car or your
Mac, the manufacturer won't replace it, even if they are absolutely
necessary for your work. You spill coffee on a book, you're not going
to ask the publisher to send you a new one, but you do it if it's been
a program. Why should software be treated separately?"
Last word by JBS
[translation by JL] "...what I denounce is that those pirates are
put into the same bag with Faraglace, who didn't sell, but who was
just a self-taught Mac expert, a newcomer who became one of the most
famous crackers in a few months. He sold nothing! And, surprise,
it's especially him who they're after. Because, they say, he made
the copying possible...
I want the following persons to be tried before the same court:
- Mr. Finder, because of whom the copy of Switcher had been possible,
- Mr. Copy II Mac, who facilitated the copy of Excel [and his
younger brother, Copy II Mac Hard Disk, who even removed the copy
protection completely - JL],
- Mr. HD Util, who offered, even sold, the patch to MS Word,
- Mr. Mac Zap Patcher, who uncovered the secret of the Multiplan
patch, and delivered it against hard cash."
Nothing more to say.
JL
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