spaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford) (09/11/90)
To those of you have written me to calmly exchange information on the
topics in this group, thank you. Keep in touch.
To those of you who have delighted in misreading my postings and
including me in personal attacks, misread this as some kind of victory
and find another victim.
I'm outta this newsgroup. I thought it might be a forum to discuss
*both* sides of the issues, but it has not turned out that way. I have
many better things to do with my time, and I don't relish the
continuing abuse, especially when the abusers aren't even reading what
I post. And, in the grand scheme of things, it is doubtful that the
noise in this group will have any long-lasting effects where it really
counts, especially with such low tolerance for alternative viewpoints.
The last straw was some mailed abuse from Mike Godwin, accuing me of
being a liar (among other things) because I had not seen something he
alleges he posted. Obviously a student of the principle of reasonable
doubt, Mr. Godwin is. A fine lawyer-to-be and person to defend the
rights of others. If his posted version matches his mailed version,
it provides even more evidence of what I meant when I said we have to
define responsible use of networks and systems. If not, you haven't
missed anything witty.
I had hoped to learn something about the legal nuances between
definitions of the press and free speech, get some feedback on how law
enforcement personnel could better execute search warrants, get some
ideas for my classes and my upcoming textbook, and some other info.
Obviously, this is not the forum for that. I'm not sure what kind of
forum it is, but it certainly isn't one I wish to be associated with
any longer.
Time for the "u" key. Bye.
--
Gene Spafford
NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center,
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spafmnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin) (09/12/90)
I disagree with many of the representations Spafford makes in his good-bye posting. But rather than take him to task for them, I want to apologize for calling him a liar in e-mail. As he correctly pointed out, it is not inconceivable that he could have missed my answers to his legal questions as the result of propagation problems. In article <11651@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf@uther.cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes: >The last straw was some mailed abuse from Mike Godwin, accuing me of >being a liar (among other things) because I had not seen something he >alleges he posted. Obviously a student of the principle of reasonable >doubt, Mr. Godwin is. A fine lawyer-to-be and person to defend the >rights of others. If his posted version matches his mailed version, >it provides even more evidence of what I meant when I said we have to >define responsible use of networks and systems. If not, you haven't >missed anything witty. Although I was wrong to accuse Spafford of lying, I mention in my defense that I did grow a little irritated when I kept posting replies to his messages to which he responded (or seemed to respond) by saying he wanted to know what an "expert" thought. It seems unlikely to me that Spafford himself is enough of an expert to pronounce judgment on my legal kknowledge and skills (at one point he seemed to think that I hadn't finished law school) as he does in the quoted passage above. Finally, I find it ironic to see Spafford invoke "reasonable doubt" on his own behalf when he invariably dismisses the likelihood of "reasonable doubt" when he talks about the current hacker cases. Again, I apologize to Spafford. I was angry. I still *am* appalled at what I cannot help but regard as his lack of concern for the genuine legal and Constitutional issues raised by the hacker prosecutions. But I was mistaken to conclude that, just because he had adopted a particularly repellent viewpoint, he had lied as well. --Mike Mike Godwin, UT Law School |"If the doors of perception were cleansed mnemonic@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | every thing would appear to man as it is, (512) 346-4190 | infinite." | --Blake