jpm@BNL.ARPA (09/01/84)
The Los Angeles city attorney has filed criminal charages against the Sysop of the Mog-Ur BBS because of credit card numbers posted on his system. You may recall that his system was previously confiscated by police and then later returned. At the time the machine was returned the city attorney said they were not going to file charges for lack of evidence. It seems great pressure was brought on top levels of the city attorney's office so they decided to go back on their agreement not to prosecute. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for late next week at which time we should know more about what is going on. I will keep the net informed as I get news. John McNamee ..!decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl!jpm jpm@Bnl.Arpa "Use a modem, Go to jail"
mikey@trsvax.UUCP (09/06/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-1306400:trsvax:53400040:000:828 trsvax!mikey Sep 6 13:05:00 1984 I don't know if this is the same case or not, but one of the articles I read on BBS systems and their being nabbed stated that one operator had a section of his board titled pirate or something of along that line. Now the operator can plead ignorance and I would be all for giving the benifit of the doubt (It IS better to let 10 guilty go free than punish 1 innocent) but if there is an enticement of a pirate section to the board, I'd be really pissed if it was my sprint number that was given out. In the Delorean case the government was guilty of entrapment, I think that a BBS sysop should be just as guilty if he promotes the collection of data for distribution. This is NOT the same as touchy info showing up in a public menu. mikey at trsvax How can anyone even think that these ideas are those of my employer!
mikey@trsvax.UUCP (09/10/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-1306400:trsvax:53400041:000:1056 trsvax!mikey Sep 10 12:15:00 1984 A little follow up info. I'm sorry if my reply was taken out of context in reference to the BBS system in CA with the legal troubles. However, I still stand by my feelings about operators that knowingly give out Sprint, MCI, and USTel numbers and have special sections of their boards devoted to databases of these numbers. I dug a little farther into the organic memory banks and the article that I mentioned was refering to a state law in Wisconson( I think, it may have been Michigan or Minnisota) that specifically prohibits the sale or use of any "modem finding programs" that are used to locate unpublished BBSs. Just like the kid used in "War Games". The blurb about the BBS was part of that article, but not the main topic. Personally, in the CA case, I don't feel that there is any valid charges against the operator unless it can be proved that he knew the numbers were there, he knew what they were, and he intentionally left them posted. I think that if there is a private section of the board is not the issue. mikey at trsvax.