Pirate's Manifesto VII - Released 7 July 1994 - TODAYS TOPIC : The first Canadian PIRATE sysop to ever be charged with Copyright Infringement !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRELUDE : Well this is certainly news worthy. Many folks would assume that surely somewhere, someplace in that great country to the North that we call Canada, that someone would have been busted long before now for software piracy. But this is truly the first sysop ever charged for software piracy. I was going to save Pirate's Manifesto VI for another topic when this fell into my lap and I figured that it needed maximum spreading to all the educated and intelligent folks who have been reading these little diatribes of elite information. Here is why this is so interesting : All previous bust in Canada were always targeted against porno type bulletin boards ( which sometimes happened to have some copyrighted files on their system ). The only other strictly copyright related bust I can recall was when Montreal's North 90 was raided several years ago and the charges were dropped for lack of evidence because the police officers forgot to take the bulletin boards 'servers' for evidence ( Doh ! They were kept in another room and the cops only took the terminals with the modems - double Doh! ) But the funny thing about this historical event is - " Who the hell was the 'Shadow' BBS and exactly how lame was it to not come to my attention long before now ? Hey I am the worlds most elite pirate right. So how come I never heard of this dump in the 604 phone exchange. How come none of the truly world class bulletin boards in the 604 exchange were not busted ? These are questions that always bother me when I read news reports of bust in an area code. But enough of my shit. Let us get on with reading this article and see what happened to this poor dumb shit whose board was infiltrated by snoops and spies from CAAST and the RCMP - triple DOH! ARTICLE BEGINS : TITLE : Bulletin Board Sysop Charged with Software Theft MAGAZINE : Computing Canada ISSUE : Volume 20 Number 14 DATE OF ISSUE : July 6 1994 AUTHOR : Monta Kerr The system operator of a Vancouver-based electronic bulletin board system (BBS) has been charged with illegally copying software. Lee Thomas Adams of Burnaby, British Columbia, operated an alleged pirate BBS known as Shadow. He was charged with 16 counts of copy right infringement after a several-month-long investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, assisted by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST), in Vancouver. Adams is charged with copying software products from Borland Intl, Symantec Corp, IBM Corp, Lotus Developement Corp and WordPerfect. At press time, Stephen DeWitt, general manager of Toronto based Symantec Canada, said the vendors had not yet decided if they would go ahead with a criminal prosecution or settle out of court. "Our goal is not necessarily to bring down the heavy hand of the law" he said. "But certainly if people are breaking the law..., we're certainly going to take a pretty agressive stance as far as that's concerned". The Canadian subsidiaries of Symantec, Lotus and Word Perfect are all members of CAAST, an organization working to prevent the unauthorized copying of software. CAAST reports that software pirates cost the industry about $ 12.8 billion (US) every year. DeWitt said piracy can have a greater effect on Canadian subsidiaries than on their US parents. "Certainly Symantec as an organization is trying to provide services and products that are appropriate to the Canadian marketplace" he said, adding that Symantec Canada loses an estimated $1 million per year because of software theft. The loss of revenues as a result of piracy... impedes our ability to structure our organization in a way to better support Canadian customers. He said "underground" BBS's, distributing unauthorized copies of software, are not the only offenders. Some corporate users, home users and resellers also commit software theft, many without even realizing it is a crime. CAAST accepts reports of or questions about piracy through its Anti-Piracy Hotline at 1-800-263-9700 OBSERVATIONS : ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well this unknown dude certainly was an unlucky shit having those scum known as spies skulking about on his bulletin board for 'a couple of months' I would assume at this point all the kewl boards in the 604 phone exchange are shitting their pants wondering which of them is going to be next. After all, the snoops weren't just on that one bulletin board looking for the products represented by that lame ass organization calls CAAST. Those snoops would have been looking for other leads to follow up on in their quest for busting 'dem low down pirates'. So I guess dumb ol' CAAST won't be stopping there and we can expect to hear them gloat more and more about their successes at gaining access to pirate bulletin boards - followed by the raids of their enforcers - better known as the RCMP. So who are these snoops that spend time infiltrating bulletin boards trying to find evidence to support a search warrant. Well if you were a regular reader of Pirates Manifesto, issue 1, you would know that these flunkies are none other than Pinkerton's and Wakenhuts Security. Yes, none other than those 'cheaper by a dozen' rental goofs. You may recall that we warned the world of the deal worked out by CAAST in Canada, SPA in the United States, and FAST in the UK, to employ the services of Pinkerton's and Wackenhut to infiltrate and bust pirate bulletin boards. Enough of our gloating. Just be warned that Pinkertons and Wackenhuts are the new investigative arm of those three anti-piracy organizations. CONCLUSIONS : Let me conclude with the following observations that might come as a shock to some sysops out there who in sheer ignorance of the law think that if they put some kind of anti-entrapment statement on the front of their BBS they that will not be charged. WRONG. In fact that very anti- entrapment screen on the front of your BBS might be the most valuable hint you are giving to the spies that yours is a BBS that is hiding something. But if you don't believe me... that is kewl. You will find out later just how useless that anti-entrapment screen was when your time to go to court comes up. That anti-entrapment screen is about as stupid as holding a cross in front of yourself to ward off vampires. Get real and ditch it. It stands out like a phucking neon light flashing in the dark " Bust me... bust me... bust me..." Now what about those dumbo's who think that using the 'software library' scam is going to help them beat a copyright infringement charge. WRONG. That scam is just about as dumb as my previous example. The courts will simply laugh in your face and spit in your eye as they seize all your assets. Think about it for a moment - what does a PUBLIC library have to do with a PRIVATE bulletin board. Get the hint - PUBLIC - PRIVATE. That is the significant difference between a library and a pirate BBS and that is what the court will rule when they convict you of running a PIRATE bulletin board and not a PUBLIC SOFTWARE LIBRARY - quad DOH! LAST BUT NOT LEAST... AND MOST NASTY !!! Lastly, let us say a few words about the DORKS who have been compiling huge phone list of all the pirate bulletin boards in an Area Code and then sending them out onto the bulletin boards. Congratulations you fucking two bit losers. In your attempt to be 'kewl' you have handed the police, Pinkerton's, Wackenhut, the RCMP, the Secret Service, Bell, and every anti-pirate asshole the phone numbers and rankings of the elite bulletin boards. Think what you have done you dick brains. Who the phucks payroll are these dickwads on. Are they really so fucking mindless as to not think the cops and good guys were not going to get their hands on those phone list. Phuuuuckkk you guys must have the combined IQ's of a snail. Permit me to suggest that a FIREBOMB be gently hurled through the phucking windows of those dickwads who released that LEGENDS.ONT and named off all the 416 and 905 bulletin boards. You dick wads really did a great favour by giving their phone numbers to every dickwad who read your shitty little grab for fame. Maybe your next grab for fame will be as a headline in the newspaper as the largest house fire this century. Assholes. Please use what phucking little brains you have next time before you attempt to be kewl by exposing all the 416 and 905 bulletin boards to the cops. DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB !!! For those who are not familiar with what i am bitching about, let me just show you the final comments these dickwads placed on their telephone directory of every bulletin board in the 416 and 905 : And I quote : (( Yes they listed over 350 phone numbers and ratings of boards in the 416 and 905 - but at least we are not as stupid as them to repeat that complete list and all those vulnerable phone numbers )) -------------- TEXT TAKEN FROM LEGENDS.ONT -- DATED 7-6-94 ---------- TOTAL ISSUE: 350 BBS ENTRIES! In the 416/905 Area Code 30-40 New Pirate Boards go up every month. In-order to keep the Underground informed of new systems, this publication will provide new system information every month. The 416/905 area code is larger than the 718 and 210 Area Codes, which originated the Pirate Scene. This FILE will be spread throughout Underground Systems and will attract quality users for the systems above. Any comments/Board Additions/Board Removals/BBS INFO can be left to us in the BBS Adds Echo, of NAPE_NET, OOF_NET, WOA_NET, RAD_NET, CAN/AM_NET INTERPOOL_NET, PHELONY_NET, VALIANT_NET, SYN_NET, INFI_NET Remember we're watching According to your comments, we appreciate the current support. We're sorry that we didn't get all the boards out there, and thanxs to you callers we've been able to include many more systems. And to those that told us their systems should be up in the MAJOR PIRATE SITES, the selection is based on User Voting/Comments on Several Local Boards. Its June now, 6 months in the Running, and we're going strong! Special Thanxs to The Software Polluter, and Leoman for their numerous additions to this month's issue. !LEGENDS! ___ | _/|\ /| Thx FLiGHT Fer Couriering! Think You Could Fly?? |+ - |_\ || FLiGHT! -------------------- END OF THEIR PHUCKING LAME TEXT -------------- Kindly kill these dumb fuckers if you find them and nuke them off any bulletin board they might surface on !!! Yours truly - TC - ( you know i never give away my handle in these things ) Feel free to reach me on Mirage if you can get on there... I live to get your feedback and see these things published in the disk mags.