Today cryptography, tomorrow ??

AP 4/8/94: A federal grand jury indicted an MIT student Thursday on
charges he ran a computer bulletin board that allowed people to copy 
more than $1 million worth of copyrighted software for free.  [...]
   
The bulletin board, named Cynosure, allowed people on MIT's computer 
network to copy business and entertainment software, the indictment 
said.  [...]
  
Internet users also were able to illegally copy the software, Stern 
said.[..]
   
Many of the Cynosure users hid their identities by using an 
Internet address in Finland that provided an anonymous forwarding 
service for the pirated programs, according to the indictment.  

.... Like to include more but ..uh.. "fair use" and all that ....

Wonder how come he didn't encrypt?

> Many of the Cynosure users hid their identities by using an 
> Internet address in Finland that provided an anonymous forwarding 
> service for the pirated programs, according to the indictment.  

Does this mean we will soon be seeing Julf in chains on the evening news
with his coat over his head? 

After all, the United States long ago awarded itself kidnapping 
priveleges against anyone it claims has violated US law, with no concern 
for the laws of the country in which the person resides.  Just ask Manuel 
Noriega.

-- 
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.3a Public Key available    $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $

nobody@shell.portal.com wrote:

> Many of the Cynosure users hid their identities by using an
> Internet address in Finland that provided an anonymous forwarding
> service for the pirated programs, according to the indictment.  

Although mentioned in the indictment, appearantly Julf's server really
played no part in the software piracy distribution.  Cynosure was an FSP
server run on an unattended workstation at MIT (which David LaMacchia
did not own and did not have permission to use as an FSP server).  It
was not a mail server, and there is no mention of any pirated software
being sent through anon.penet.fi.  Instead, the feds just wanted to use
the indictment as a soap box to badmouth Julf's anon-server.

The indictment is on http://the-tech.mit.edu

They list some twenty charges against LaMacchia.  Interestingly, one of
the charges was that LaMacchia created an anonymous mail pool for PGP
messages on his FSP server.

It looks like the government folks have found themselves a test case
with which to make a statement against piracy, and, more importantly, to
try to criminalize PGP and the anonymous remailers.  This is bad news. :(