Free Speech in Cyberspace, Komputer, More Hacking
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Note: This file was created by printing Word for Windowsdocument files to an ASCII file, using a Generic/Plain Textprinter driver. Line breaks and some formattingcharacteristics weren't preserved very well in thisconversion.The author can be reached at the following email address:rberry@vnet.ibm.comFREE SPEECH IN CYBERSPACE FREE SPEECH IN CYBERSPACE FREE SPEECH IN CYBERSPACEThe First Amendment and the Computer Hacker The First Amendment and the Computer Hacker The First Amendment and the Computer HackerControversies of 1990 Controversies of 1990 Controversies of 1990by by byROBERT R. BERRY ROBERT R. BERRY ROBERT R. BERRYA Thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of therequirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Schoolof Journalism and Mass Communication.Chapel Hill1991Approved by:Cathy L. Packer, AdvisorRuth Walden, ReaderJohn Semonche, ReaderCopyright (c) 1991 by Robert R. BerryTable of ContentsChapter 1. New Questions for a New Medium..................1Chapter 2. The Net........................................28Chapter 3. Hackerphobia...................................52Chapter 4. Operation Sun Devil............................79Chapter 5. Conclusions...................................115Bibliography.............................................128CHAPTER ONE: CHAPTER ONE: CHAPTER ONE:New Questions for a New Medium New Questions for a New Medium New Questions for a New MediumIntroduction Introduction IntroductionIn the spring of 1990, a 20-year-old student at theUniversity of Missouri in Columbia was prosecuted in afederal court because of something he published. Theinformation he published was true, it was of public concern,and it had come to him through legal channels. Nonetheless,the government charged that his publication was part of aconspiracy to commit fraud and that his information-gathering activities and publication amounted to interstatetransportation of stolen property.Shouldn't the First Amendment have protected CraigNeidorf from prosecution? Unfortunately, the answer to thatquestion is unclear because of the technology he used todeliver his message. Neidorf's publication was electronic.He created it as text on his computer and distributed itover a network to other computer users who read it on theirvideo screens. It went from author to audience without everexisting in tangible form. And the information whosepublication led to his prosecution -- a document describinga telephone system -- came to him through the same channels.For the first time, a federal court confronted thisquestion: How does the First Amendment apply to computer-based communication?Craig Neidorf's prosecution was only one part of acrackdown on computer crime that in 1990 aroused widespreadconcern over civil liberties and computer use. In anothercase, Steve Jackson Games, a small publishing company inAustin, Texas, found itself nearly put out of business whenthe Secret Service raided its premises and confiscated itscomputers -- all because the agency suspected it might findcontraband information on the computers.1Was the government casting its net too broadly in itscampaign against computer crime, infringing on free speechin the process? The events of 1990 demonstrated better thanany before the confused and uncertain state of the law as itapplied to computer-based communication.The Problems of a New Medium The Problems of a New Medium The Problems of a New MediumAdvances in computer technology over the past decade havemade computers available to a vast number of people andirrevocably changed the way most work is done in thiscountry. The United States Department of Commerce estimatedin 1988 that as many as 38 million personal computers wouldbe installed by 1991, with 28 percent of all Americanhouseholds computer-equipped.2 But computers have proved tobe more than tools for word processing and math;increasingly, the computer is a communication tool.1See, e.g., Costikyan, "Closing the Net," Reason, Jan. 1991,at 22; Kapor, "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace," ScientificAmerican, Sept. 1991, at 116.2National Technical Information Service, U.S. Dept. ofCommerce, NTIA Information Services Report (1988), at 27.2Today, anyone with a computer and a modem3 -- and anestimated 19 million modems are currently installed4 --possesses the means to communicate with thousands of othercomputer users. Available services include hundreds ofcommercial online information services such as CompuServeand Prodigy.5 These services provide electronic access tomajor news services such as USA Today, Dow Jones and theAssociated Press. They also provide their own news, advicecolumns, movie and music reviews, and hundreds of otherfeatures online. Syndicated columns from writers such asDave Barry and Mike Royko are available by electronicsubscription for users who have electronic mail addresses onany of the major national computer networks.6 And aprobably uncountable number of amateur newsletters andmagazines produced by individuals are distributedelectronically via computer networks to small lists ofsubscribers. Electronic bulletin boards7 number as many as3A modem is a device used to translate digital computer datainto electrical signals capable of transmission overtelephone lines.4NTIA Report, supra note 2, at 29.5One directory lists 718 online informations servicesworldwide. Cuadra/Elsevier, Directory of Online Databases(vol. 12, nos. 1 and 2 (Jan. 1991)).6Online advertisement from ClariNet, a service thatdistributes syndicated publications electronically (April9, 1991).7Bulletin boards are "computer systems that function ascentralized information sources and message switchingsystems for a particular interest group. Users dial up the3100,000.8 Available to an increasing number of people atconstantly shrinking expense, the computer and modem may bethe 1990s equivalent of the mimeographed handbill.Clearly, "the press" no longer requires ink or paper.Some of these publications9 are direct electronic analoguesof magazines, newspapers, newsletters and pamphlets, whileothers are entirely new forms; but none need ever exist onpaper. A new medium of mass communication, distinct fromprint but sharing many of its essential characteristics, isspreading, and as computers become ever more accessible, itscontinued spread is inevitable.Because these forms of communication may be well on theirway to becoming the dominant ones, it is important that thelaw be ready to accommodate them. But the existing modelsof media law are inadequate to the task. Today's systemdivides technologies of communication into essentially threetiers of First Amendment protection.10 Most protected aretraditional print media, newspapers and magazines, whichbulletin board, review and leave messages for other users...
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