Russian Programmer Not Eager to be Celebrity

[measl at mfn.org]

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 at 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...
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