Re: Another BBS Seizure in Hartford

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Someone has forwarded this info:

> The Hartford Courant on August 5, 1993 (page b-4) stated that a 21 year
> old computer BBS operator was arrested for maintaining a computer
> bulletin board that had a bomb making recipe.
> 
> Michael Elansky was charged by the West Hartford police with inciting
> injury to persons or property - a felony charge - and risk of injury
> to a minor.
> 
> He was held in lieu of $500,000 bond (in CT the bond for a person accused
> of murder is normally $100,000)
> 
> Det. Capt. James Gustafson said the case was "sealed" and no information
> could be released.
> 
> Michal Elansky's father said information from the Anarchists Cook Book
> (Available from Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306,

I find this hard to believe...not saying it isn't true, but it's hard
for me to believe that the cause was just material from the
long-available, long-discredited "Anarchists Cookbook"...I bought my
copy in 1972-3 and it's still widely available (Loompanics, Paladin,
the "Anubus Warpus" store in Santa Cruz, etc.).

I hope the EFF gets involved in this one, as there shouldn't be a
double standard, with printed material (books, magazines) held to a
different legal standard than bulletin boards and networks are. (The
copyright violation issues are another--and much lesser--matter.)

If something is legal in written form--and nearly everything should
be, of course--then the electronic form should be treated identically.


-Tim May


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Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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