Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling (the reader ebook txt) 📖

**This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutnberg Etext, Details Below**

Please take a look at the important information in this header. We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this.

**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**

**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**

These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations

Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and further information is included below. We need your donations.

Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling

January, 1994 [Etext #101]

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Hacker Crackdown by Sterling ******This file should be named hack11a.txt or hack11a.zip*****

Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, hack12.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hack11aa.txt

The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a new copy has at least one byte more or less.

Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value per text is nominally estimated at one dollar, then we produce 2 million dollars per hour this year we, will have to do four text files per month: thus upping our productivity from one million. The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, which is 10% of the expected number of computer users by the end of the year 2001.

We need your donations more than ever!

All donations should be made to “Project Gutenberg/IBC”, and are tax deductible to the extent allowable by law (“IBC” is Illinois Benedictine College). (Subscriptions to our paper newsletter go to IBC, too)

For these and other matters, please mail to:

Project Gutenberg P. O. Box 2782 Champaign, IL 61825

Internet: dircompg@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Bitnet: dircompg@uiucux1 CompuServe: >internet:dircompg@.ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Attmail: internet!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!dircompg

When all other email fails try our Michael S. Hart, Executive Director: hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (internet) hart@uiucvmd (bitnet)

We would prefer to send you this information by email (Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail).

******

If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: [Mac users, do NOT point and click…type]

ftp mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu login: anonymous password: your@login cd etext/etext90 though etext/etext94 or cd etext94 [for new books] [now in cd etext/etext93] or cd etext/articles dir [to see files] get or mget [to get files…set bin for zip files] GET 0INDEX.GUT for a list of books and GET NEW GUT for general information and MGET GUT* for newsletters.

**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** (Three Pages)

***START** SMALL PRINT! for COPYRIGHT PROTECTED ETEXTS *** TITLE AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE:

Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling COPYRIGHT 1992, by Bruce Sterling

This etext is distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at Illinois Benedictine College

(the “Project”) under the Project’s “Project Gutenberg” trademark and with the permission of the etext’s copyright owner.

LICENSE You can (and are encouraged!) to copy and distribute this Project Gutenberg-tm etext. Since, unlike many other of the Project’s etexts, it is copyright protected, and since the materials and methods you use will effect the Project’s reputation, your right to copy and distribute it is limited by the copyright laws and by the conditions of this “Small Print!” statement.

[A] ALL COPIES: The Project permits you to distribute copies of this etext electronically or on any machine readable medium now known or hereafter discovered so long as you:

(1) Honor the refund and replacement provisions of this “Small Print!” statement; and

(2) Pay a royalty to the Project of 20% of the net profits you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you don’t derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are payable to “Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois Benedictine College” within the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.

[B] EXACT AND MODIFIED COPIES: The copies you distribute must either be exact copies of this etext, including this Small Print statement, or can be in binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form (including any form resulting from word processing or hypertext software), so long as EITHER:

(1) The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does not contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR

(2) The etext is readily convertible by the reader at no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR

(3) You provide or agree to provide on request at no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in plain ASCII.

LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES This etext may contain a “Defect” in the form of incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other infringement, a defective or damaged disk, computer virus, or codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. But for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described below, the Project (and any other party you may receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees, and YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that time to the person you received it from. If you received it on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement copy. If you received it electronically, such person may choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to receive it electronically.

THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU “AS-IS”. NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you may have other legal rights.

INDEMNITY You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.

WHAT IF YOU WANT TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO? Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed in machine readable form. The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright licenses, and whatever else you can think of. Money should be paid to “Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois Benedictine College”.

This “Small Print!” by Charles B. Kramer, Attorney Internet (72600.2026@compuserve.com); TEL: (212-254-5093) SMALL PRINT! Ver.04.29.93 FOR COPYRIGHT PROTECTED ETEXTSEND*

This is a PRELIMINARY Project Gutenberg Etext of Hacker Crackdown. You may NOT repost this book until midnight, December 31, 1993. That is the deal we made with Bruce Sterling. This PRELIMINARY copy is for editing, comments, suggestions, corrections, etc. Please note the official release date is not even until January 31, 1994, and you should be sure to get a new copy after then, to insure you are getting all the corrections you all send in.

Bruce Sterling bruces@well.sf.ca.us

Literary Freeware: Not for Commercial Use

THE HACKER CRACKDOWN

Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier

by Bruce Sterling

CONTENTS

Preface to the Electronic Release of THE HACKER CRACKDOWN

Chronology of the Hacker Crackdown

Part 1: CRASHING THE SYSTEM A Brief History of Telephony Bell’s Golden Vaporware Universal Service Wild Boys and Wire Women The Electronic Communities The Ungentle Giant The Breakup In Defense of the System The Crash Post-Mortem / Landslides in Cyberspace

Part 2: THE DIGITAL UNDERGROUND Steal This Phone / Phreaking and Hacking The View From Under the Floorboards Boards: Core of the Underground Phile Phun The Rake’s Progress Strongholds of the Elite Sting Boards Hot Potatoes War on the Legion Terminus Phile 9-1-1 War Games Real Cyberpunk

Part 3: LAW AND ORDER Crooked Boards The World’s Biggest Hacker Bust Teach Them a Lesson The U.S. Secret Service The Secret Service Battles the Boodlers A Walk Downtown FCIC: The Cutting-Edge Mess Cyberspace Rangers FLETC: Training the Hacker-Trackers

Part 4: THE CIVIL LIBERTARIANS NuPrometheus + FBI = Grateful Dead Whole Earth + Computer Revolution = WELL Phiber Runs Underground and Acid Spikes the Well The Trial of Knight Lightning Shadowhawk Plummets to Earth Kyrie in the Confessional $79,499 A Scholar Investigates Computers, Freedom, and Privacy

Electronic Afterword to THE HACKER CRACKDOWN, Halloween 1993

Preface to the Electronic Release of THE HACKER CRACKDOWN

October 31, 1993—Austin, Texas

Hi, I’m Bruce Sterling, the author of this electronic book. Out in the traditional world of print, this book is still a part of the traditional commercial economy, because it happens to be widely available in paperback (for a while, at least).

Out in the world of print, THE HACKER CRACKDOWN is ISBN 0-553-08058-X, and is formally catalogued by the Library of Congress as “1. Computer crimes—United States. 2. Telephone— United States—Corrupt practices. 3. Programming (Electronic computers)—United States—Corrupt practices.” ‘Corrupt practices,’ I always get a kick out of that description. Librarians are very ingenious people.

If you go and buy the print version of THE HACKER CRACKDOWN, an action I encourage heartily, you may notice that in the front of the book, right under the copyright sign—“Copyright (C) 1992 by Bruce Sterling”—it has this