Identity

[Charles Bell]

On Wed, 25 Jan 1995 nobody at rahul.net wrote:

> sorr at eznet.net wrote:
> 
> > To whomever:
> >   I'm a reporter at the daily newspapers in Rochester, N.Y., researching a 
> > story on the recent spate of IP-spoof hack events. Supposedly a toad.com 
> > address was used by a person who broke into the San Diego supercomputer center 
> > a month ago. What's toad.com? I got your name from a web search that found an 
> > old communique.
> >   Can you be any help? I'm simply trying to reconstruct what happened.
> > Steve Orr
> > Gannett Rochester Newspapers
> 
> Fuck Gannett.
> 
I'm afraid that  `nobody' is imperfect.

This reporter, who probably knows little about the Internet or any of the 
issues under discussion except what he has read in the press, has posted 
a presumably sincere request for information.  He is  *asking* to learn 
-- at the precise moment when serious threats to our freedom of 
expression are mounting in force -- and you answer by spitting in his face.
Believe me, those who wish to shut us down and shut us up will be happy 
to talk to him.

And, nobody, the article he writes will help to shape the popular 
conception of what this net is all about; and that conception, in the 
end, will determine its fate.

So I hope that someone else on this list will favor him with a politer 
and more informative answer to his question.

Charles Bell