(Fwd) Update: A risky download?

From: Tom _-at-_ Abacurial.com
To: oclug (at) lists.oclug.on.ca, No DMCA in Canada <canada-dmca-opponents (at) flora.org>
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 08:49:06 -0500

Next, they'll be accusing MS of stealing computer cycles with their "idle" 
process.

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 11 Dec 2001 17:00:01 -0600
Subject:        	Update: A risky download?
To:             	Tom@Abacurial.com
From:           	NW on Peer-to-Peer <Peer-to-Peer@bdcimail.com>
Send reply to:  	Peer-to-Peer Help <NWReplies@bellevue.com>
...
Today's focus: Update: A risky download?

By Ann Harrison 

Back in October, I reported the strange and disturbing story of 
David McOwen, a former systems administrator at DeKalb 
Technical College in Georgia, who lost his job after installing 
a Distributed.net screensaver on the college's computers in 
1999. 

Some researchers and scientists have been using Distributed.net 
to solve large computing problems by creating distributed 
networks that can aggregate unused computer cycle time. It's a 
volunteer endeavor based on technology that other companies 
have successfully commercialized.

Prosecutors claimed that the Distributed.net application cost 
the state of Georgia, which runs the school, $415,951.49 in 
bandwidth charges. This calculation is based on dubiously 
inflated bandwidth charges for unused machines during a slow 
period in December. 

But the State of Georgia has now proceeded with an indictment 
and has handed down eight felony counts, one count of computer 
theft, and seven counts of computer trespass. Each count 
carries a possible one-year prison term to a maximum 120 years. 
Each count also carries $50,000 fine plus the original $415,000 
or so in restitution and damages. The state is now seeking 
$815,000 from McOwen.  

That's a tall order for a man who says he was terminated from 
his last job at Cingular Wireless which feared bad publicity 
after an online news service named McOwen's place of 
employment. Poor guy, you're probably thinking, it couldn't get 
much worse than that. 

Well, you're wrong. McOwen wrote to say that on the very day 
that his account was published here in October, his journey 
through sys-admin hell brought him to the DeKalb County Jail 
where he was held -after- posting a $5,000 Bond. This is the 
jail run by former DeKalb Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, who was 
recently charged with two other men for allegedly assassinating 
Sheriff-Elect Derwin Brown 11 months ago. Brown had promised to 
clean up alleged corruption in the sheriff's department. 
Charming place, DeKalb county. Remind me never to go there. 

McOwen is currently out of jail. But his case could set a 
spectacularly bad precedent for users of distributed networks 
and destroy a man whose only "crime" was sharing unused cycle 
time. His trial starts on Dec. 10. Information on where to send 
McOwen a Christmas gift for his defense fund can found at 
http://www.freemcowen.com

______________________________________________________________
To contact Ann Harrison:

Ann Harrison is a technology reporter in San Francisco. She can 
be reached at mailto:ah@well.com.
...
RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

A risky download? 
Network World Peer-to-Peer Newsletter, 10/10/01
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/fileshare/2001/01047619.html

Distributed.net
http://www.distributed.net/

Archive of the Peer-to-Peer newsletter:
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/fileshare/index.html
...
------- End of forwarded message -------

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