bei%dogface@cs.utexas.edu (Bob Izenberg) (02/05/91)
Mike Marotta posted the following article to alt.cosuard.
[ article from alt.cosuard ]
GRID News. ISSN 1054-9315. vol 2 nu 5. February 2, 1991.
World GRID Association, P. O. Box 15061, Lansing, MI 48901 USA
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Justice on the Electronic Frontier:
Lawyers Should be Hanged High for a Fist Full of DRAM Chips
-- by Mike Marotta
As the author of a book on codes and ciphers, I have an interest in
security. As a writer, I am jealous of my First Amendment rights. I
recently came across "Uncovering the Mystery of Shadowhawk," by
William J. Cook in the May, 1990, issue of SECURITY MANAGEMENT. In
that article, as in his prosecution of the hacker, William J. Cook
cites the "theft" of the source code for the EMACS editor from an
AT&T computer. The code is valued at $10,000.
But EMACS is free! In the Steven Levy book, HACKERS: HEROES OF
THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION, it says on page 416 that Richard Stallman
created EMACS and that he gives it away on the condition that the
recipient also give it -- and ANY IMPROVEMENTS -- free. Now,
considering what lawyers charge, isn't it a CRIME that when they
don't do their homework, YOU (not they) goto jail?
[ end of article from alt.cosuard ]
How can someone so bad with numbers ever hope to understand a computer?
Or its user?
-- Bob
P.S. Q. How can you tell when a Chicago prosecutor is lying?
A. They're using a calculator!
Ask Craig Neidorf how funny he thinks that joke is.johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (02/06/91)
In article <HcZVw1w164w@dogface> bei%dogface@cs.utexas.edu (Bob Izenberg) writes: >Mike Marotta posted the following article to alt.cosuard. > ..., William J. Cook cites the "theft" of the source code for the EMACS > editor from an AT&T computer. The code is valued at $10,000. > But EMACS is free! There are many implementations of Emacs. Stallman's GNU Emacs, which is most common these days, is indeed free, but there have been proprietary versions such as Unipress and CCA Emacs. AT&T might actually have been telling the truth. -- John R. Levine, IECC, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {ima|spdcc|world}!iecc!johnl " #(ps,#(rs))' " - L. P. Deutsch and C. N. Mooers
nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley) (02/06/91)
> But EMACS is free! In the Steven Levy book, HACKERS: HEROES OF
Contrary to popular believe, GNUEmacs is not the only versioin. Unipress
sells one, and there's CCA Emacs, I believe Prime has a version and also
there is/was Montgomery Emacs out of Bell Labs. All of those independent
versions presumbably have some trade value.
--
Alfalfa Software, Inc. | Poste: The EMail for Unix
nazgul@alfalfa.com | Send Anything... Anywhere
617/646-7703 (voice/fax) | info@alfalfa.com
I'm not sure which upsets me more; that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.bei%dogface@cs.utexas.edu (Bob Izenberg) (02/07/91)
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes: > AT&T might actually have been > telling the truth. That is definitely possible. If anyone has seen the article, did it say whose emacs it was? In answering a note from Gene Spafford, I copped to a degree of cynicism that this was properly considered. After all, who's to say that investigators aren't aquiring a healthy skepticism about the claims of the complainant company? For the investigatively inclined: In Craig Neidorf's abortive trial, BellSouth reps... you know the rest. Did BellSouth ever get a slap on the wrist for their misrepresentations? -- Bob