Bay area BBS bust--fyi

[hkhenson@cup.portal.com]

Eric, please put me back on the list.  Keith
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About two years ago I helped a guy from Milpitias (just north of San 
Jose) deal with a BBS bust at what he described as a "light" porn BBS. 
The San Jose cops realized shortly that they had really goofed by not 
considering the ECPA and related laws in their search&seizure.  The 
result was that they gave his system back after five weeks, and stated 
in a written release that this guy's activities were within the scope 
of the law.  The BBS is called Amateur Action, and the sysop's name is 
Richard Thomas (408-263-1079). 

A few minutes ago Richard (who I have yet to meet in person) called. A 
search warrant was being served at that very moment by the US Postal 
Inspectors, who (with the help of San Jose cops) were packing up his 
equipment and carting it out--again. Richard managed to get one of 
these inspectors on the phone with me.  This inspector seemed to be 
rather knowledgeable of such things as the ECPA, 2000aa, and the Steve 
Jackson case.  He was completely unconcerned!  He piously stated that 
it was their intent to bring the system back to Richard within a "few 
days" and, as a result of the short interruption of user access, and 
their good intent "not to look at private email," they were completely 
safe from the provisions of the ECPA.  This postal inspector gave his 
name as David Dirmeyes, from Tennesse (does this sound like Bible Belt 
prosecution for pron?) and gave me the name of the US Attorney he was 
working under, one Dan Newson with a phone of 901-544-4231 in TN 
(though he stated that the phone # would be of no use because Dan was 
at a conference for a week).  

For what it is worth, the postal people were using the San Jose cops 
on the bust because they did not have the expertise themselves to move 
the system and make copies.  According to the investigator, they did 
not know that they could get a court order to have a backup of the 
system made on the spot.  It may be that Richard is the target, he 
said there was a mystery package which came today in the mail today 
(which his son brought in and his wife opened, but he had not gotten 
around to seeing what it was) which seemed to the center of the postal 
inspector's concerns.  (In spite of not meeting him, I suspect Richard 
may be the kind of smart alec who attracts the attention of cops.) 

I don't know if this is something of marginal concern to those of us 
concerned with government abuse of people's computers and 
communications or a major concern.  I intend to find out more 
tomorrow, but if the ECPA is applicable, this guy had about 3500 
users, over 2k pieces of protected email on his system, plus (I think) 
agreements with his uses for him to represent them in an ECPA related 
legal action--two million dollars if I am multiplying right tonight.  
(My "Warning to Law Enforcement Agents" was part of his signup 
screens.) 


Keith Henson
408-972-1132 
hkhenson@cup.portal.com