Another BBS Seizure in Hartford

Date: 08-03-93 (22:35)             Number: 1089
From: KENNETH PAVLAK               Refer#: NONE
To: ALL                           Recvd: NO
Subj: Sysop held on $500,000 Bail    Conf: (24) F-Law&Dis
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The Hartford Courant on August 5, 1993 (page b-4) stated that a 21 year
old computer BBS operator was arrested for maintaining a computer
bulletin board that had a bomb making recipe.

Michael Elansky was charged by the West Hartford police with inciting
injury to persons or property - a felony charge - and risk of injury
to a minor.

He was held in lieu of $500,000 bond (in CT the bond for a person accused
of murder is normally $100,000)

Det. Capt. James Gustafson said the case was "sealed" and no information
could be released.

Michal Elansky's father said information from the Anarchists Cook Book
(Available from Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306,
phone 303-443-7250) was on the bbs placed there by person or persons
unknown; it was impossible for his son to keep track of due to the
number of calls to his bbs.

And so, Big Brother now says that passing along information will get
a person 21 years old locked up on a half a million dollars bail, while
accused murderers get out on  100,000 dollars.  The newspaper did not
say if the computer or the files from it were taken.

Can the people who were on that bbs look forward to a "Visit" from
the servants of Big Brother?

Will they be arrested if they downloaded VERBOTEN information?  Will
there be MASS ARRESTS of people who have knowledge that is no longer
permitted?

Time will tell

=== GEcho 1.00

* SPEED 1.30 >01< * Remember, god works in meaningless ways.

Does this mean I can be arrested for mentioning the fact that dry ice
and water put into an empty 2-liter bottle of Coke makes a nice explosion?

-- Ray Cromwell        |    Engineering is the implementation of science;    --
-- EE/Math Student     |       politics is the implementation of faith.      --
-- rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu  |                         - Zetetic Commentaries      --

According to Ray:
>   Does this mean I can be arrested for mentioning the fact that dry ice
> and water put into an empty 2-liter bottle of Coke makes a nice explosion?

Or how about saying, "You can kill someone by running them over with a car."

This is pathetic.
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Someone has forwarded this info:

> The Hartford Courant on August 5, 1993 (page b-4) stated that a 21 year
> old computer BBS operator was arrested for maintaining a computer
> bulletin board that had a bomb making recipe.
> 
> Michael Elansky was charged by the West Hartford police with inciting
> injury to persons or property - a felony charge - and risk of injury
> to a minor.
> 
> He was held in lieu of $500,000 bond (in CT the bond for a person accused
> of murder is normally $100,000)
> 
> Det. Capt. James Gustafson said the case was "sealed" and no information
> could be released.
> 
> Michal Elansky's father said information from the Anarchists Cook Book
> (Available from Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306,

I find this hard to believe...not saying it isn't true, but it's hard
for me to believe that the cause was just material from the
long-available, long-discredited "Anarchists Cookbook"...I bought my
copy in 1972-3 and it's still widely available (Loompanics, Paladin,
the "Anubus Warpus" store in Santa Cruz, etc.).

I hope the EFF gets involved in this one, as there shouldn't be a
double standard, with printed material (books, magazines) held to a
different legal standard than bulletin boards and networks are. (The
copyright violation issues are another--and much lesser--matter.)

If something is legal in written form--and nearly everything should
be, of course--then the electronic form should be treated identically.


-Tim May


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