On 13 Aug 2001, John R. Levine wrote:

I can't say I'm surprised. When he's not writing copy protection and password cracking code, he's also one of the world's leading authors of spamware, both programs to scrape e-mail addresses from web pages (http://www.mailutilities.com/aee/) and to spam direct from dialups, avoiding rate limits in the ISP's mail server (http://www.mailutilities.com/adr/).

While I agree that the DMCA is an asinine law, and it's doubly asinine to try to enforce it against non-resident foreigners, Skylarov is hardly the virtuous innocent that some press accounts suggest he is.

I cannot express how fed up I am with this type of tunnel-vision HYPOCRISY. The same folks who are screaming that writing public crypto code must be covered by the 1st because "it is good" are screaming that Sklyarov is now "bad" because he writes spamware. One idiot went so far as to call for Sklyarov's *execution* because he may have written the program that was once used to send UCE/UBE to the miscreant whiner! The is same belligerently assinine argument that the anti-gunners use: a gun is designed to kill, so we must do away with the right to own them. Yes, I am aware that this politically incorrect (but logically accurate) statement is likely to get me flamed from here to hell and back (I can just see the "SPAM SUPPORTER!" pseudo-flames now...). -- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org If Governments really want us to behave like civilized human beings, they should give serious consideration towards setting a better example: Ruling by force, rather than consensus; the unrestrained application of unjust laws (which the victim-populations were never allowed input on in the first place); the State policy of justice only for the rich and elected; the intentional abuse and occassionally destruction of entire populations merely to distract an already apathetic and numb electorate... This type of demogoguery must surely wipe out the fascist United States as surely as it wiped out the fascist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The views expressed here are mine, and NOT those of my employers, associates, or others. Besides, if it *were* the opinion of all of those people, I doubt there would be a problem to bitch about in the first place... --------------------------------------------------------------------