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Text File | 1993-05-10 | 23KB | 494 lines

Update and Corrections to The IAAD Report on Software Piracy entitled Small Developers, Big Business How Pirate BBSs Impact on the Entire Atari Community by D.A. Brumleve, President Independent Association of Atari Developers We want to thank the many people who have taken the time to write or call with their support for the IAAD. It is most gratifying to know that so many folks have appreciated our efforts. We have received numerous additional tips and have passed these on to the appropriate agencies. Others have contacted us about errors in our report, and we'd like to address some of those matters in this update. A good starting point would be this statement in the report regarding the Grave Diggers Tomb BBS: For example, according to a CrossNet Conference Node Listing, a Local Area Private Elite Conference with a lead node at the Outer Region links with three other BBSs in Colorado, including RingWorld (node 643), The Grave Diggers Tomb (node 186), and BILINE BBS (node 423). As indicated, this information was derived from the following CrossNet Conference Node Listing posted on the lead node: * * * CrossNet Conference Node Listing - as of 10/23/92 at 10:25 PM * * * Conference: "Local Area Private Net" (11469) Generated From "Lead" Node: 469 - > The Outer Region's # 469 < No previous Node List generated by this "lead". 186 - Grave Diggers Tomb 423 - BILINE BBS 469 - > The Outer Region's # 469 < 643 - The Ringworld The sysop of the Grave Diggers Tomb has contacted us concerning an error in this listing. He reports that his BBS is not a participant and that he has asked the sysop of the lead node to remove his BBS from the Node List. The IAAD regrets having perpetuated this error. In his eleventh blue-boxed call to my number in the days following the release of our report, Zaphod Beeblebrox, sysop of the Eagles Nest BBS in Sweden, objected to the inclusion of the following quotation: ~ Rats Nest always had some of the best stuff around... ~ --Zaphod Beeblebrox on Fawlty Towers BBS Zaphod felt that the presentation of his quotation out of context was misleading, and I apologize if anyone was misled. This item was taken from a thread about the Rats Nest entitled: "Rats Nest -- Anyone knows why it's down???" We had contacted the Rats Nest sysop about our findings on his board some time ago, and the BBS was down for over a week following our discussion with him. Rats Nest and Fawlty Towers had many callers in common, so it's not surprising that activities on one board might be discussed on another. Zaphod told me that, when he'd referred to the "best stuff" in that thread, he didn't _mean_ commercial products. I admit I can't read minds any better than the next guy. _I_ thought he was referring to the elite files on the Rats Nest, and so _did_ the next guy in the thread. The Parsec had responded to Zaphod's remark by saying: Message: = ST Elite = #98 of 100 [3 Lines] ||>> // Sent On: April 20, 1993 at 2:21am ||\\ \\ Sent By: The Parsec - Buy a TT! \\// Sent To: Zaphod Beeblebrox - The Last Blueboxer!!! ST Replies: None Subject: Rats Nest - Anyone knows why it's down??? Yeah i called yesterday night and just now....no warez.... I wonder what the sitch is! --The Parsec on Fawlty Towers BBS We didn't print The Parsec's reply in our report. We also didn't print the post by Zaphod which began the thread: Message: = ST Elite = #89 of 100 [11 Lines] ||>> // Sent On: April 18, 1993 at 12:32am ||\\ \\ Sent By: Zaphod Beeblebrox - The Last Blueboxer!!! \\// Sent To: The Piper - SysOp of Fawlty Towers! ST Replies: 1 Subject: Rats Nest - Anyone knows why it's down??? Hey Piper, have you got any idea why Rats Nest is down??? I heard some story about that somebody tried to nail [sysop's name] for having pirated files on the board, but that is all I got to hear, the next day Rats Nest didn't answer anymore. If you do know anything about this, please let me know, as I am getting a bit worried about what is happening to [sysop's name]. And if they have busted his board, then we should all be a great deal more carefull [sic]...... I do hope that he is not busted, but rather took the board down for a while just to be on the safe side... Greetz, Zaphod Beeblebrox of ICS and Control Team. Eagles Nest BBS +46-18-XXXXXX - 285 Mb/14400 HST Dual - 24 Hours. --Zaphod Beeblebrox on Fawlty Towers BBS And we didn't print a suggestion for the Rats Nest offered by The Wonderer: Message: = ST Elite = #94 of 100 [12 Lines] ||>> // Sent On: April 19, 1993 at 11:10am ||\\ \\ Sent By: The Wonderer - who else did you expect \\// Sent To: The Parsec - Buy a TT! ST Replies: None Subject: Rats Nest - Anyone knows why it's down??? ...[reprint of previous post omitted for brevity] He could take down all the files instead of going down if that were the problem. I think it may be a little more serious than that maybe. --The Wonderer on Fawlty Towers BBS Given the context of the thread in which Zaphod's "best stuff" remark occurred, I hope Zaphod will understand why we interpreted the comment as we did. For the record, Zaphod would like it to be known that he most definitely did not mean commercial software. It's only fair that we present his side more comprehensively here. I hope his intent is clear to everyone now. It's not quite a correction, as our report does not say otherwise, but Zaphod would like it to be known that he uses a genuine hardware bluebox. He has authored a piece of software which allows users to simulate phone tones with their computers, but he doesn't use this software himself. It was from the documentation for Zaphod's Multi-Frequency Dialer, in fact, that we got the misguided impression that The Shire BBS was in Chile. Zaphod had given a Chilean exchange for that board. We found a citation on a BBS for the Shire with a location in NY, so we called it. When an elderly woman answered, we assumed that Zaphod had known what he was talking about when he'd given the Chilean exchange. PAK, sysop of STampede, has told us that the Shire _was_ in NY but has been down for a year. I hope this clears that one up. The following sentence in our report brought considerable criticism: The Pompey Pirates cracking ring, headquartered on the Paris BBS in New York City, reportedly has just one cracker, who goes by the name of Alien, working routinely on the ST, while cracking rings like ICS include many ST enthusiasts. PAK objected that the Pompey Pirates cracking ring dropped the ST six months ago and that it is/was not headquartered on the Paris BBS in NYC. We stand corrected: The Paris BBS is headquarters of the SNEAKERS "spy" ring. A mixup occurred here, and we had to do some back-tracking to discover the source of our error. Please bear with me as I retrace these steps below: The Pompey Pirates cracking ring was advertised as headquarted on the Anti-Gravity II BBS on December 11 1992, as follows: 1 ~~~ CALL TODAY!! MENTION THIS AD FOR QUICK VALIDATION!! ~~~ 3 2 ________ _ __ _______ _____ 0 2 / ____ /\/ \ / /\/__ __/\/_ _/\ 0 2 / /___/ / / \ / / /\_/ /\_\/\/ /\\/ ____ 0 2 / ____ / / /\ \/ / / / / / _/ /_/ /___/\ 0 2 /_/\__/_/ /__/ /\ _/ / /_/ / /____/\ \___\/ 0 2 \_\/ \_\/\__\/ \_\/ \_\/ \____\/ 0 1 + ANTI-GRAVITY II BBS + 3 408-XXX-XXXX 2 + ATARI ST- PC ELITE + 0 408-XXX-XXXX 2 ______ ______ _____ __ __ 0 2 / ____/\______ / __ /\__ __/\_ _\ _______/\ \/ /\ 0 2 / /___ \/\ __ \ / /_/ / /\ \ /\_\//\ \/ /__ __/\ \ \/ / 0 2 / /_/ /\ \ \ \/ / / __ / /\ \ \/ / / \_\ \_\_/ /\_\/\_\ / 0 2 /_____/ / \ \ \_/_/\/_/ / \ \/ / / /\____\/ / / /_/ / 0 2 \_____\/ \ \_\__\_\/\_\/ \__/ / \/____/_/ / \_\/ 0 2 \/_/__/ \_\/ \_\/ 0 Pompey 1 380 MEGS ONLINE - 14,400 BAUD HST! 3 Pompey Pirates 2 SysOp: GRAVITAR Co-SysOp: SPARKY 0 Pirates The West Coast Connection 2 If you never call, you'll never know what you're missing.... 0 --Sparky on F-Net, The Tavern Elite Conference According to the following post, our report associated the cracker Alien correctly with the Pompey Pirates cracking ring, but wrongly with the Paris BBS: Conf : Pompay [sic] Pirates Msg# : 27/37 Lines: 7 Read: 9 Sent : Jan 17, 1993 at 6:39 PM To : All From : Genie Pompey Pirates at Fnet Node 622, The GOLD NUGGET BBS Subj : What's new As of the end of January the Pompey Pirates should be cracking games on the ST again. We had a short break (forced on to [sic] us), but can now continue - original suppies [sic] permitting. I am sure you all are aware that the Alien has been keeping the St scene going single handedly for quite some time now, but you may see someone elses [sic] name on the Pompey St cracks from now on. Well that about covers it, if you have any questions etc. you can always get hold of me or Sparky on this board. --Genie Pompey Pirates on the F-Net, Pompey Pirates Conference Dogs, the self-described sysop of the Paris BBS, has taken issue with several items in our report: Conf : ST Report Msg# : 11526/11526 Lines: Extended Read: 2 Sent : May 02, 1993 at 1:24 AM To : Thomas Kolakowski From : Dogs at Fnet Node 669, Dateline: Atari Subj : Re: <11515> IAAD PIRACY REPORT ...[reprint of previous post omitted for brevity] Very true..there is only ONE PaRiS BBS...it went up just two months ago...and it is certainly NOT pirate. They accuse us (I am the SysOp) of being a Pompey Pirates United States support bulletin board. I researched this. The Pompey pirates were a minor cracking group that went out of business in 1989. Hmmm....there's one discrepency. No. 2: Nobody from the IAAD ever logged onto the board. That's odd. No 3: There is a quote of our board saying "You have answered a security validation question incorrectly". Even if you omit every question on the new user questionare, never does it say the quote accused by the IAAD. No 4: They list a listing of known pirate users. Well, they accuse PaRiS of being pirate. Why the hell didn't they include my handle on the list of know [sic] pirates then huh? THis is quite odd. I don't buy it for a second. --Dogs on the F-Net, ST Report Conference Dogs certainly has a lot of questions, and I'll do what I can to address them here: (1) The first item, our report's erroneous association of his board with the Pompey Pirates cracking ring, has already been discussed above and will be discussed further below. (2) Dogs is mistaken when he asserts that no one from the IAAD has visited his BBS. (3) The quotation from his BBS in our report was not taken from his new user questionnaire. (4) Our listing of aliases used on pirate boards is not intended to be comprehensive, but merely representative. The mixup regarding the affiliation of the Paris BBS with the wrong ring occurred when Dogs happened to post the following announcement in the Pompey Pirates F-Net Conference; in our notes, the conference and the cracking ring by the same name became confused. Since Dogs asserts that there is only one Paris BBS in his post above, it would appear that he is referring to that very same BBS in the message below. We'll present it here in its entirety: Conf : Pompay [sic] Pirates Msg# : 34/37 Lines: Extended Read: 8 Sent : Mar 13, 1993 at 11:47 PM To : All From : Dogs at Fnet Node 489, STeal Your Face BBS 1:107/489 Subj : New ST/PC/Sneakers/Lynx BBS! Not yer avg board!!! A brand new BBS just opened on March 1st 1993...it's called the PARIS BBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Conveniently located in the heart of NYC, Paris really promises to be something special, not your average BBS! And guess what!? It supports ATARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, a new BBS in NYC that supports ATARI and IBM! All models from ST to Falcon! Call today! It really is going to be great. That's what all the Beta testers say. PARIS......The city of the rich, the city of the elegant, the beautiful, and the ELITE........and YOU! Call Today! PARIS BBS! Atari support! 212-XXX-XXXX!!!! 212-XXX-XXXX!!! (Strictly PD/Shareware) (yeah right...ELITENESS!) Great msg bases too! Paris is also the official HQ and distributor of SNEAKERS and their products. Call for details! Tell them you saw this ad on STeal Your Face for extra access! >By the way...PARIS supports Lynx too! Download the file in the ST and PC Text file areas entitled "PaRiS_Ad.TXT" for further info!! BTW - For those that don't know, SNEAKERS is a nationally acclaimed organization that does all kinds of break ins [sic] and spy operations and distributes various materials like Magic Dollars and other phreaking materials. PaRiS is the official HQ and exclusive distributor of their products! Call for details. (PS The movie was named after the group, not vice versa) BTW 2 - As of this writing, PaRiS is just starting to work out plans to join Phi-Net, a network of elite boardz all across the country! --Dogs on the F-Net, Pompey Pirates Conference The IAAD regrets the error. The Canadian Clockwork Orange has objected that I spelled his name with a small "w". Please note the spelling of his name in the header of the message which lodges this complaint: Message: = ELITE TALK = #385 of 4oo [51 Lines] ||>> // Sent On: April 26, 1993 at 4:44am ||\\ \\ Sent By: Clockwork Orange \\// Sent To: All ST Replies: 1 Subject: Pirates ...[main text of post omitted for brevity] ClockWork Orange/ICS <- the 'W' is capitalised!!! --Clockwork Orange on STampede BBS Many folks have asked about the fate of the BBSs featured in our report. Some of these boards no longer answer. Two are reported to have gone strictly public domain. Some elite conferences are now local-only. Some sysops feel confident that they've eliminated the "snitch", while others don't trust any of their callers. Some BBSs are changing their names and numbers. Some have adopted strategies which limit their callers to the most trusted or most prolific uploaders. For many, the full impact of the report and the investigation has yet to be realized. One result is clear: These BBSs are no longer constantly busy. Individual reactions from pirates have varied just as much. Our mail has ranged from true confessions to macho threats to elaborate excuses to flat denials. Some have curtailed or ceased their piracy activity. Others have changed their aliases or passwords. Some callers have asked sysops to delete their accounts. Some have announced plans to move on to other platforms. There is an encouraging rumor of a boycott of IAAD members' warez. Our list of aliases which are used by callers on pirate boards has raised the most hackles. It is certainly true that there are some duplicate or near-duplicate aliases out there. We know, for example, that there are at least two Zaphod Beeblebroxes in the ST modeming world. While we found Zaphod Beeblebrox of Sweden on nearly every board we called, we never found the Zaphod Beeblebrox of the United States on any pirate board's user list. Our example aliases were drawn from user lists on pirate-only BBSs and from elite message bases. Please note that the same alias isn't used twice on the same board; BBS software won't allow a new user to sign on with an existing caller's alias. An example of a complaint of this kind is provided by NorStar, sysop of PayBax BBS: Conf : Atari 16/32 bit Conference Msg# : 18963/18963 Lines: 13 Read: 2 Sent : Apr 29, 1993 at 8:44 PM To : Roadkill From : NorStar at Fnet Node 307, PayBax BBS node 307 Subj : Re: <18959> Piracy/Dorthy [sic] Brumleve ...[reprint of previous post omitted for brevity] She also mentioned "Norstar" in her pirate list. I've gone by the handle "NorStar" for over five years, and if she's accusing ME of being a pirate I'd certainly like a word with her!! And she listed my BBS because I have an X-rated file area (that she calls "pornography"!). My two year old has always found her programs to be mundane and lacking in depth, and so that is how I take her accusations. --NorStar on the F-Net, Atari 16/32 bit Conference NorStar's BBS was indeed listed in our report, but _not_ because of its X-rated file area. As the report clearly indicates, PayBax was listed solely because of its participation in the Upper Echelon F-Net Conference. In fact, it was from posts in this conference, like the one below, that we lifted NorStar's handle for our alias list: Conf : Upper Echelon Msg# : 315/315 Lines: 8 Read: 6 Sent : Apr 14, 1993 at 5:06 PM To : Strike Eagle From : NorStar at Fnet Node 307, PayBax BBS node 307 Subj : Re: <313> falcon ya-right In reply to: > I have seen the Atari Works program working on the > Falcon and I had some time with it ..... I would like > to have more thime to check it out.... > It look [sic] fairily decent. Why don't you try it out? It's here for D/L at PayBax BBS, as well as many other FINE BBS's! --NorStar on the F-Net, Upper Echelon Conference Not all pirate BBS users found our report mundane and lacking in depth. The Shamus praised our report on STampede, saying: "Well ... the guy who wrote this is very familiar and intimate with the ST scene!" In fact, the very severity of the reaction from the pirates' side is strong testimony to the accuracy of our report. Zaphod Beeblebrox (the one in Sweden) has said that he and his pirate friends are preparing a textphile to counter the misinformation in the IAAD's report. That would be a refreshing change from the retaliatory tactics attempted so far. Some pirates have been discussing harrassment strategies openly in their message threads. Shortly after the release of our report, a young man impersonating a telephone operator attempted to convince me to give him my calling card number! When this failed, he called back and warned me not to mess with pirates. One particularly clumsy form of harrassment has had pirates logging on to BBSs as _me_ and attempting to impersonate me in their posts. Zaphod posted our entire report in a series of messages on the Elite Underground F-Net Conference. He followed it with this message: Conf : Elite Underground Msg# : 1823/1843 Lines: 7 Read: 15 Sent : Apr 26, 1993 at 9:13 AM To : ALL From : Zaphod Beeblebrox at Fnet Node 469, >>The Outer Region # 469<< Subj : Nuke the IAAD!!! If you've read the last seven letters from me I guess you'd came [sic] to the same conclusion as I have: We must do something about the IAAD before they do something about us. So, what about it dudes, it's our favourite boards they're out to get...... Greetz, Zaphod Beeblebrox of ICS and Control Team. Eagles Nest BBS +46-18-XXXXXX - 285 Mb/14400 HST Dual - 24 Hours. --Zaphod Beeblebrox on the F-Net, Elite Underground Conference Believing that their aliases provide them anonymity, some have posted self-incriminating messages in an attempt to harrass us. I think Belgarion's post is one of the few which can be reproduced here: ___ / /| / / | /_ < | WHY USE A AK 47 ? [sic] | | \ | TOO EXPENSIVE ! | | \| | | | I PREFER A GUILLOTINE !! | | //| | |/O/| COME ON GUYS,I'LL CUT YOUR HEAR ! [sic] |_|// |___________________________ /| | / /| / | | / // <__| |/___________________________// |__| |___________________________|/I I = I I I I I I I I I I I --Belgarion on STampede Our report was not intended to perpetuate falsehoods nor to cast innocent parties in an unfavorable light. It was and is intended to demonstrate to the Atari community the devastating impact of pirate activity. I hope this sets the record straight. I sincerely would not want to give anyone the wrong impression about these people. D.A. Brumleve President, IAAD ------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1993 by D.A. Brumleve The author reserves all rights regarding this document, with the following exceptions: The distribution of this document is understandably tied to the distribution of the original file which it updates and corrects. The author hereby grants permission to place this file on any BBS where the original report can be found. Likewise, online magazines and other media have the same permission regarding the reprinting of this file as was granted in their use of the original report.