CYBER RIGHTS NOW! / // /\ .^. / / //^\ \.^| |^.^./ / / |_: : : |/ / /^ ^ ^ \ \ /\ \_ | \ \ / /\ \ | \ \ // \ / . \ \ / | | \\ |CRN!| \ )ASCII by Bone( (Orig. Art by John Blair) Newsletter 1 ****PLEASE DISTRIBUTE**** /\/\/\/\ CONTENTS /\/\/\/\ Formal Apology to Dr. Staszkiewicz I. Introduction II. The CRN! Manifesto III. Bye Bye to Bone's Homepage VI. The Corruption in AOL V. AOL's Letters to People VI. AOL Contacts VII. An Opinion on AOL VIII. Disclaimer for your Homepage IX. Comments X. How To Join XI. Next Issue... \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ********************************************************** FORMAL Apology to Dr. Staszkiewicz by: Bone This is a formal apology to Mark J. Staszkiewicz. Dr. Staszkiewicz is the Provost of Indiana University of PA. I was misinformed when I stated in CRN! Newsletter .05 that Dr. Staszkiewicz was the deciding factor in the removal of AOHELL03.ZIP. In fact Dr. Staszkiewicz had no idea what was going on. I was told in fact that Dr. Staszkiewicz is actually a very nice guy, and didn't even care what was on the homepage. He was mainly upset about his information being posted. I only posted the information because it was readily available via the web anyway. I made a mistake and I will admit to it. I apologize to for any inconvience this may have caused to Dr. Staszkiewicz. I ask anyone who had intended on E-mailing Dr. Staszkiewicz to please do not do so. I have already sent Dr. Staszkiewicz an apology via E-mail. I am human and I do make mistakes. I will have to further investigate situations such as this if they ever do arise again. Again, I am sorry about this mistake. And hope that no harm will come to anyone. Yours, Sloan Seaman (a.k.a. Bone) ********************************************************** INTRODUCTION by: Bone Here we are on our first official issue of CRN! newsletter. It's only been a few weeks since an incident with America OnLine (AOL) prompted me to start CRN! and we are already on our first newsletter. We here at CRN! (mainly myself, Bone) are here to fight against groups, organizations, and corporations which are infringing on our "cyber rights". Though I am (basically) the only person writing the newsletter, I receive over 10 pieces of mail a day from different people agreeing with my point of view on "cyber rights" and willing to help out. Of course there have been people against CRN! but that is expected, and even welcomed. I formed CRN! to not just go after AOL and not be a personal vendetta. Nor was CRN! formed to totally remove corporations from the net. As stated earlier, it was formed to help people who are being "push around" on the net. The exact purpose of the newsletter is to inform people of what is happening in "cyberspace". We are going to have articles on cyber rights, comments about what CRN! is doing (both good and bad), lists of people to contact to either complain about the infringement of cyber rights, or to congratulate. If you have any questions regarding CRN!, e-mail me at: seaman@phobos.lib.iup.edu or check out the CRN! homepage at: http://www.lib.iup.edu/~seaman/index.html it is also possible to join CRN! on the homepage or via e-mail with the attached form (located at the end of this file). Well, hopefully CRN! will be around a while. I'd like it to be a force to reckon with and a voice of reality to the real world. Fighting for your rights somewhere out there, Bone ********************************************************** THE CRN! MANIFESTO by: Bone This is the rough draft of the CRN! manifesto. This is mainly the view or one person, but others have offered opinions. CRN! is a group formed to fight for the rights of the common user. CRN! believes that the current state of the net is getting worse. As more corporations and government agencies struggle to control the net, CRN! believes that the net should be as it has been. Free. CRN! believes that all non-copyrighted software has the right to exist on the net. This information should be free to store, transmit, and distribute. No one should be told what they can or cannot store, transmit, or distribute over the net unless it matches one of the following criteria: The information is copyrighted The information is pornographic and is being distributed to minors. CRN! does not defend the above because of existing laws outside of the net. We do believe that programs such as AOHELL, Virii, and other program in that area do have the right to exist on the net. Programs are just like guns. If you give someone a gun, it's not your fault if they use it. That was their choice. CRN! believes that everyone has a right to be on the net. CRN! only condones those corporations/agencies that try in any way to regulate what occurs on the net (outside of copyright infringement). CRN! does not believe in crashing, damaging, or breaking into systems that belong to companies that are against cyber rights. These acts are frowned upon by CRN!. ************************************************************ WHY MY HOMEPAGE WENT BYE BYE by: Bone Some of you may be wondering why my homepage “Bone’s H/P/C page o ‘rama” went the way of the dinosaurs. It’s kind of a long story but here goes. Around August 23rd America OnLine contacted the assistant provost of Indiana University of PA. AOL informed the assistant provost that the file AOHELL.ZIP resided on my homepage. They told the assistant provost that the file created false AOL accounts, allowed e-mail bombs to be created, and did a lot of other nasty things. It did a few of them, but all of them I do not know. The assistant provost called the campus library (where the machine resides) and informed the head of Information Systems to remove the file. The Sys Admin instead disabled the entire homepage (AUTHOR NOTE: the Sys Admin is a cool guy, trust me). When I was informed of the situation I removed the file as requested. The homepage was them moved back into it’s rightful position. I then created Cyber Rights Now! (CRN!) in the hopes of making sure peoples rights were upheld on the Internet. It was also created so corporations like AOL could not do what they had just done. The file AOHELL was not copyrighted, and therefor was legal on the Internet. Later that week I wrote the first CRN! Newsletter Issue .05. In this newsletter I stated that the Provost (not the assistant provost) had made the decision like a dictator to remove the file. At the time I was told it was the provost who had made the decision. I learned on 9/7 that it was in fact the assistant provost. Also in the newsletter I asked readers to send the provost E-mail informing him that they were against the removal of the file. It seems quite a lot of people told him how they felt. This is good but he didn’t do anything. A major screw up on my part. I have offered a formal apology to him. I do not know if he has accepted it. What I do know is that upon receiving all the E-mail he decided to see what the homepage was all about. Mainly he was upset about the E-mail (which is understandable) and he has decided to possibly (and I hope to god he doesn’t) put me up for academic peer review. Basically academic peer review is a board who meets and decides how to discipline you. They can even expel you. He did state he really didn’t care what was on the page, it was the e-mail address. My defense was that the campus phone book (with e-mail addresses) is available through the web. That is how I got the information. From what I have heard the provost is actually a really nice guy. I am hoping this is true and this situation can be worked out. Back to where the homepage went. The Sys Admin decided on the same day I received the E-mail from the provost (when it rains, it pours) to check who has been accessing my homepage. He found that some of the people who had been hitting my homepage were : CIA, FBI, possible MAFIA, and the NSA. This scared them just a bit (understandably). They immediately locked my account. I talked with them about it (they are very nice people actually) and they unlocked my account. They said I should try to move my homepage since it was on the library’s machine and not on the main campus machine. I could use the library’s machine for storage (they have over 9 gigs and only 8 users). I tar’d up my homepage and that is where it is now. I was later informed through the grapevine (I know a lot of people at IUP) that the Sys Admin of the main campus machine had possibly fueled/egged the provost on to trying to get me reviewed. The main campus machine Sys Admin and I have not always seen eye to eye. I used to E-mail quite often trying to improve the system (Currently a VAX/VMS that is configured in a way unknown even to god) by letting me install programs like more, less, fsp, and so on. I am currently sitting back hoping I don’t hear from the gentleman involved in peer reviews. The provost has not replied to my latest E-mail as of yet. I’ve talked to some people and it is possible that my homepage may be stored (minus the files) on www.iup.edu, and the files (accessed via links) on www.lib.iup.edu. This may be a way to keep the homepage alive. So has any good come of this? Actually, yes. IUP is now in the process of defining rules for homepage use and the like. This was needed. The school has a very vague policy towards computer on campus. Any bad come of this? Well let’s see: My homepage is down (the hack part) I may get thrown out of school I always suspected the FBI had a file on me....... I'’m not mister popular anymore..... That’s the story so far. 'I’ll keep you updated. AUTHOR NOTE: I ask of you to NOT send anyone E-mail regarding my situation until things have cooled down a bit. My rights were not infringed upon since I was on the library’s machine. If this had occurred on the VAX (where I pay for an account) things may have been different. ********************************************************************* THE CORRUPTION IN AOL by: John Doe As you all know, AOL is one of the most popular services available to the public. It has an easy to use interface and somewhat friendly staff to make people feel comfortable. Well all this is just a stupid disguise for the screwed up people behind the service. They are trying to govern the way the people on the Internet do things as well as the people that are on their service. One example of this is Bone's H/P/C page was shut down because he had AOHELL in his file area and AOL did not see this as appropriate. What makes this so crazy is that the program itself is not illegal and is free to be posted anywhere on the Internet that has the space for it. But the fact of the matter is not the program but AOL because they had forced the Sysadmin to shut down the page for a while. Another example that just makes this online service more corrupt is the way they do not shut down areas that are even worse then hacking related areas. Just logon to AOL and get to the list of member rooms and you'll see about 90% of them are pornographically or adult related. There are even rooms like Boy4man2use and other sick things. But AOL never pays attention to these although they find even one member room that is hacking related and they shut it down and record the names of the people in the room. They also record the names of people that enter private rooms like WAREZ or PHATE but don't shut down the rooms. But I think that AOL should either enforce all the rooms or just leave them alone. Recently there have been accusations against AOL because of a flaw in their software. Every time someone logged on there were a couple minutes added to the persons bill which over time, gave Steve Case a few million more dollars in his pocket. Now them not detecting this flaw in 2.5 million users in very unlikely. I believe that some employee of the company or someone implemented the flaw themself. But I do hope that they get sued or something to make them understand the fault. Today as I took a few minutes off of writing this to just check for any new info, Steve Case had put out his new monthly letter to the users. I will show a cliiping of it for you: [begining clipping] A LETTER FROM STEVE CASE, PRESIDENT & CEO OF AMERICA ONLINE September 7, 1995 Dear Members: I hope you've all had a great summer! Now it's back to school and (for those of you returning from a vacation) back to work time. We'll certainly be working harder than ever, to keep up with our continued rapid growth (this past weekend we passed the 3.5 million member mark!), to keep improving AOL to better meet your needs. The good news is that with 3.5 million members (and growing), we can continue to add more features and interesting content. The flip side is that with a population that big, there will most likely be disruptive people, as there are in any major city of that size. That brings me to the issues of safety and security. Security on the Internet and on online services is a topic that is frequently in the news, and Hollywood has even portrayed hackers in an upcoming movie. If you've read some of my previous letters, I've discussed our efforts to ensure that AOL is a safe online community -- not just for kids, but for members of all ages. Occasionally, there are people who break the rules, just as some do in the communities where we live. When this happens, we all need to take measures to protect our community and reduce the number of incidents that can occur. Specifically, there have been some cases where certain individuals are passing themselves off as employees or representatives of America Online, and then asking members at random for their passwords. Please know that this is not our policy -- under no circumstance will anyone from AOL ever ask you for your password (even if they say they're from the billing department and want your account information). Your password is a secret code that only you should have. Recently we've begun a program to remind members to periodically change their passwords. If you see the notice, it will come in the form of a "system" reminder -- again, no individual will contact you personally. In case you don't see the notice, take a moment during this session and change your password. We suggest you change it on a regular basis, too. (I change mine about four times a year.). Make sure yours has at least six alphanumeric characters (letters and/or numbers), and don't make it the same as or similar to your screen name! It's easy to change your password -- either go to the tool bar at the top of this screen and click on Personal Choices, or just use keyword PASSWORD. It'll take you all about 15 seconds to do. And parents, please conduct the same procedure with your children's passwords. (Use Keyword PARENTAL CONTROLS for other security measures you can take.) The other issue involves another small, but disturbing segment of the population -- hackers. These are individuals who search for opportunities to 'hack,' or disturb, computer system functions. Unfortunately, it happens everywhere, and authorities from around the world are spending a good deal of time and money to thwart these criminals. For a long time, we have had a team in place to deal with hacker incidents. So when we discover hackers on occasion, we aggressively take measures to head them off. As part of our ongoing security program, we have procedures in place to monitor systems and hacker activity, and to change systems as appropriate. In fact, our team recently installed new system software to fix some recent problems that were discovered. While we're trying to eradicate the hacking incidents, I'd like to ask you, as an AOL "cybercitizen," to report any unusual or improper behavior that you see immediately. If you're in a chat room, notify our Terms of Service advisory unit by using keyword GUIDEPAGER. Email, Instant Message, and Message Board violations should be reported to keyword TOS. (For those of you who are new to keywords, just click on the tool bar icon above that displays an arrow, or while holding down the control or command key on your keyboard, hit the letter "K" on your keyboard. Then type the keyword.) In summary, we all need to join together to ensure a secure and enjoyable online environment and community. We've added a lot of new services in the past month, so the rest of this month's letter will be focused on bringing you up to speed on the additions and to highlight special events. [end of clipping] First thing, they are starting to grow a lot faster so be warned that we may see more trouble from the service in the future. Second, they are first defining a "hacker" falsely. The real deffinition of a hacker is someone who is experienced in many areas of the computer field and wishes to know more by using his skills to learn things, but they say that all they define a hacker as is a person who causes havoc in their online service. They also compare them to the upcoming movie "Hackers" which is due out on September 15. Although I have not seen the movie myself, I have seen previews and read things about it to understand that it is nowhere near to what the real life of a hacker is. All AOL does is just disillusion their customers so they will trust and stay with the service and use the mask of the media which already gives people like us a bad name. Also mentioned in this letter is the fact they are bringing in security specialists to try and crack down on hackers, although the only thing they mention on the pronogrophy is to try to put parental controls on, they won't enforce it themself. But as I was saying, they are going to be just giving us a harder time in the anarchy of the Internet which makes us speak freely and distibute information without restrictions. An example of what they already did is brining down Bone's web page and that was just the beginning. Part of the security measures they have taken is monitoring rooms (which I mentioned earlier), immediate messages, and mail. I have tested this myself. Using AOHELL, the program which is what AOL defines as a "security risk" I fooled some people that have been on AOL for a while into giving me their passwords. Now considering that they talk about normal social and personal things, AOL probably won't watch them. I found this to be false. I connected to AOL on different accounts on my PC and laptop by my side and relayed e-mail and immediate messages about false information on evading an ANI system. After a few minutes of doing this, I got a message from an AOL official saying "identify yourself". This is proof that the online service does not allow even privacy to the users peronal affairs let alone not allowing people to speak freely and do what they want to do. This I think is the most corrupt part of this online service. They will go to any extent to have total control of their network and a large amount of the Internet themself. I hope that I shed some light on the truth about America Online and the people that run it. Because of the things I have done to obtain some of this information, I am remaining anonymous. Although if you wish to contact me about any comments or questions, please mail me at my anonymous e-mail address: John.Doe@sidewayz.com ********************************************************** AOL'S LETTERS TO PEOPLE by: Bone & Anonymous This is a copy of the letter I recieved that was sent to my university: >Dear Garrett Bozylinsky, > >It has been brought to our attention that a file entitled "AOHell" is >available on your server. This file allows users to email bomb other >Internet users, forge email headers, generate fake credit card >numbers, generate fraudulent America OnLine accounts, and >impersonate America OnLine Staff all at the click of a button. Due to >the malicious nature and possible illegality of this file, we would >appreciate any efforts you could take to remove it from your server. > >The file in question can be found using the following path. > >http://www.lib.iup.edu/~seaman/hack/files/misc/ > >Thank you, > >James Canfield >Terms of Service Staff >America OnLine, Inc. >703.448.8700 X3909 EDITOR'S NOTE: The file has been removed. This was due to the fact that the account that my homepage is on was given to me freely. I still have a copy of the file and am currently looking for a better place to store it. The letter below was send to a member of CRN!. This is the entire unedited letter: We represent The Internet Access Company, Inc. ("TIAC"). TIAC has received a demand letter from an attorney representing America OnLine, Inc. ("AOL"). In the letter, AOL alleges that your web site "http://www.tiac.net/users/triad/philes/other.html" contains a program called AOHell. AOL alleges that the program violates AOL copyrights and trademarks. AOL also alleges that AOHell is used to commit fraud on America On-line, fraud on banks and credit cards issuers and other serious acts. AOL has requested that TIAC terminate your AOHell page. TIAC is not in a position to judge the validity of the claims asserted by AOL. However, given the seriousness of the claims, TIAC has blocked access to your AOHell page to allow you the opportunity to either voluntarily remove the AOHell material or to resolve any dispute about your distribution of AOHell with AOL. The attorney at AOL who contacted TIAC is John D. Gardiner, Counsel, phone: (703) 918-2042. TIAC reminds you that all use of your TIAC account must be lawful. If you have any questions about lawful use of your account, you should consult your attorney. Please contact me if you have any questions about this letter. Sincerely, Thomas G. Gunning, P.C. TGG/jdc/as0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas G. Gunning, P.C. Phone: 617-345-1119 Peabody & Brown Fax: 617-345-1300 101 Federal Street Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1832 EMail: tgunning@peabodybrown.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************************************************** AOL CONTACTS by: Bone & B.I. Here is a small list of some of the people you can contact at AOL. If you don't write these people, AOL will continue to do what they wish. DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS! TOSAdvisor@aol.com This is AOL's terms of service advisor. Just one guy responsible for closing down "Hackers" James Canfield Terms of Service Staff America OnLine, Inc. 703.448.8700 X3909 SteveCase@aol.com AOL's president. ********************************************************** AN OPINION ON AOL by: B.I. This whole AOHell story continues to amaze me...check this shit out. From what I have seen, there is evidence supporting that the newest version of AOHell (3.0 beta 4) was either created by AOL or the AOL software detects it because AOHell supposedly sends a mail to AOL informing them that you are using AOHell. AOL administrators also don't understand that AOHell is not made purely for making fake accounts as I have used it myself. Basically AOHell originally was a pretty cool program. In the early copies there was no CC generators or any shit like that. AOHell let AOL users do things like download software will talking in chat rooms (AOL 2.5 lets you do this now) and scroll macros in chat rooms. It did do many annoying things and many AOL officials gave real bullshit stories about AOHell and how it was a virus. That is why your story REALLY struck a chord with me. I myself have seen AOL's crazy responses to "hacker" programs etc.. by AOL. A good example of AOL's stupidity would be the Hackers Member room. AOL closed this room down repeatedly when there were NO illegal activities and such even taking place there. The funny thing about that is that is that AOL is crawling with Porno and weird bestiality rooms. Its not uncommon to see rooms like "anal sex" "Gayteengifs" and "little boy sex" on AOL. AOL does nothing about these but closes down Hackers! ********************************************************** DISCLAIMER FOR YOUR HOMEPAGE by: Bone & Triad The following was a disclaimer sent to me by a CRN! member. He stated that it could help protect your homepage. If any lawyers read this and feel like doing some research, please do. 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use Not withstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phono records or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. ********************************************************** COMMENTS/OPINIONS *WARNING: THESE ARE UNEDITED.* *SWEARING DOES OCCUR* " I want to join this group. Most of the real d00ds here in the 803 sc3n3 are sick and tired of being mislabeled as "hackers" and shit because we know about computers. Granted we do sometimes what is called "hacking" (societal definition), we are tired of the bullshit. A friend in 513 just got raided a couple of days ago because the goddamned phedz didn't like the fact that he had hpacv shit on there as well as tone loc (there were on warez to bust him on). Ever since the OKC disaster, the Internet has come under scrutiny because the fertilizer bomb instructions were found on it. The gov't has been allocating fucking tons of money to state and local law enforcement agencies to develop special "computer crime" divisions. These assholes have no clue as to what they're doing, but they have a damn badge, so they can go crazy and shit. enough already..I want to help you bring this organization forward and free the Internet from the hands of money- grabbing corporations. I can post to many other sites as well as good BBSs if you would like. just specify which. later" -------------------------------------- " Hello. I have been to your web page a number of times and liked what you had. I thought it was crazy when they had your web page shut down. I know a lot about them and view them as one of the most corrupt Online providers there is. I got a hold of AOHELL when a friend let me use his account (I have real Internet access, I just wanted to check out a keyword that was only on AOL) and I used it to make fake accounts. I discovered a number of things through the use of it. When I read alt.2600 I just ignored stuff on AOL cause all the people on it were not true hackers like you and me. But I saw how screwd up it was by my use of it. The system allows porn traders and child molesters to roam around freely. 90% of the memeber rooms are adult related and have things like boy4man2rape and such which is sickening. What is more surprising is how they pay no attention to these rooms but they immediately shut down hacking rooms or warez rooms made available to the public. They monitor the private ones which people enter not knowing AOL is watching. I know they are because I once tested how they monitor things when I connected to computers to AOL on fake accounts and relayed false info on evading an ANI system. After a few minutes an AOL official came out and said "Identify yourself". This proved my theory that they do watch everything but will not bother to rid of all the pronographic material and child molesters roaming all over. " -------------------------------------- " I totally aggree with your point of view. The net should stay free. commercial organizations like AOL, Compushit and others, I believe, don't really have a rightful place on the net period. Now, the server you have you're account on offers something back to the net, It may be as little as a WWW server where others can go and look at the users home pages, but at least it's there, if it's like mine, it probably also at least a mirror FTP site for something. AOl and others offer nothing back. They allow they're users to go in and totally f*ck up newsgroups (at a totally ridiculous cost to the users), FTP stuff, WWW browse (all at bullshit costs), but offer NOTHING back. If you're not on AOL, you can't get any files from them, got no pages to even browse. And after hearing of you're little incident, that just goes to far." -------------------------------------- " Thanks. With all of the guys out there who say that they are active, but never do anything, somebodys got to do something. You did something. Keep doing it and assholes like AOL will realize that THEY DO NOT OWN THE INTERNET, and to keep there butts out of cybercitizens home pages. Your account, your homepage. They cant go to your house and wreck your car because they dont like the paint job, they cant wreck your homepage cause they dont like the files. If I ever set up an inet site, I am gonna get a degree in law first. Bye!" -------------------------------------- " >...I see to many posers (or l.a. stylers if you are from the old school) ^^ >A fate determined by those with money. (gasp!! and to imagine that somebody would want to control how their own money was used!! heresy!) >Though I really expect a lame responce to the rant & rave above... ^^^^^^^^ OK, Here it is... 1. I've got Money, it's GREAT!! 2. Get a life/job, maybe then you'll wise up, 3. Learn to spell big words like "response", 4. Learn the proper use of the word "to". The world is odd enough without illiterate extremists boo-hooing because they can't have their way with other people's money/equipment. The way to make a difference is to get to a position where control can be exerted. Rants about "Cyber Rights" (found in the Cyber Constitution, no doubt) do little more than waste bandwidth and make you look foolish. BTW, if you're not a "poser" or "l.a. styler" yourself (which leads to the observation: most people I've heard use the term "Old School" think the 60's are ancient history, and would'nt know OLD if it bit them on the ass), you should be able to figure out where this came from. (I'll give you a hint: I'm not jbmyers.) Have a nice day. ;^) Bill Gates" EDITORS NOTE: This was in response to the original header I had placed upon entering my homepage after the AOL incident. Granted I can't spell well. But I am probably older than this gentleman, and I do know how to use port 25 to write fake e-mail. But, everyone is allowed their opinions. It's one of the great things about America. On yes. I do have a good job. ********************************************************** HOW TO JOIN Want to join CRN!? It's easy! Mail your E-mail address to: seaman@phobos.lib.iup.edu We don't need your name or anything! Comments are welcome! NOTE: All comments sent to CRN! become property of CRN!. *********************************************************** NEXT ISSUE... Some of the things that will be in the next Issue: The Return of Bone's H/P/C page o 'rama AOL's Method of AOHELL repression that's just the start! ------------ EOF