436 DEAR HACKER

436 DEAR HACKER

ripped off by dropping money into an otherwise dead phone. Our neighborhood is now almost free of these evil phones and C.O.P. will not rest until all COCOTs are out of commission.

Dan Denver, CO

This isn’t quite the way to go about it. All COCOTs are not necessarily bad. To assume they are is to write off an entire branch of technology because of a few bad experiences. Rip-offs should be eliminated. But COCOTs can actually do some good if they improve upon the service already available. It’s up to us to see that they do.

Dear 2600:

I have recently read the two articles about the E911 case that were published in the Spring 1990 edition of your magazine. First of all,

I want to thank you for bringing things like these into the open. The federal government is always trying to keep their misconduct (which occurs all too often) under their hats, and it’s great to see that people still have the guts to stand up to it.

I have also been feeling the effects of these “crackdowns” here in the Twin Cities. Many a BBS have disappeared (along with their op- erators). Many more have been looked into, but allowed to remain. Almost every BBS in the state now posts a warning message about the “privacy” of email. I feel sorry for one BBS in particular: Hotline. It was clearly known to everyone that this BBS was completely legiti- mate. Yet, recently, they were the subject of a federal investigation. Apparently they had a set of users that were referred to as “privileged users”. Someone who was uninformed and didn’t take the time to look into things further assumed that the “privileged users” were hack- ers and received access to some secret part of the BBS. Actually, a “privileged user” is someone who contributes money to the BBS and receives privileges such as more online time, extra downloads, etc. The operators have since changed the status to “contributors” rather than “privileged users” to avoid future confusion. It is hard to believe that this anti-hacker paranoia has grown to such proportions that people

A C U LT U R E O F R E B E L S

even get harassed for merely contributing money to a BBS that they like. In any case, I’m glad to see that this board, as well as many oth- ers, has survived the attacks and has the pride, determination, caring, and guts to remain in operation.

Finally, since my interest in cases such as these has grown recently,

I would like to know what else is going on. Here in the Twin Cities,

I have been waging a battle of my own: against censorship. I am concerned about how successful the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) has been in limiting the rights of musicians to say what they feel. Also, I feel that hackers are not doing anything that would cause harm to anyone, and should also be guaranteed the right to the First Amendment. I would like to receive more information about your magazine and how I may subscribe to it. I want to assure you that I am not a federal agent, nor do I have any contacts with the federal government. I am not interested in busting you or your magazine, but simply in learning more about what is going on.

The Spectre St. Paul, MN

It wouldn’t matter if you were. We provide the same information to anyone who’s interested. We hope to see hacker bulletin boards recover from what has been a crippling blow. There are a great deal that are truly underground now. The need for public hacker boards has never been greater. Anyone who has questions about this should contact us.

Dear 2600: