Steve Gilmore
Jan. 15th, 2005 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljpliceaseThe year is 1997. The treacherous Lecturians have conquered the student residential network. But, from secret staging grounds from two of the campus dorms, the students prepare to SYN flood Steve Gilmore's PC.
White Dactyl The ResComp chronicles
So this obsession with the toothbrush picture of mine has more layers than an onion. I was re-reading the article Mitch Gitman wrote about ResComp back in 1997 and noticed it quotes Steve Gilmore's e-mail threat to crack down on software piracy and pornography. I greped for the e-mail in question using the text in the article and sure enough, I found it in my mail archive. [ side note: before there was the verb to google, there was the verb to grep. I never even thought about that because it seems like to grep has been around forever, but of course it has not. Even relatively pedestrian verbs, such as to search or to find have not. ]
From rescomp@W3.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Jan 14 23:01:44 2005
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 11:12:25 -0700
From: Residence Life <rescomp@w3.arizona.edu>
To: RESNETINFO@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Sharing... ***PLEASE READ***
A recent review of the ResComp network has pointed to a couple of problems
that users need to resolve immediately.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING AS IT IS THE ONLY WARNING THAT WILL BE ISSUED.
FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN DISCIPLINARY ACTION AND POSSIBLE
PROSECUTION.
The ability to share access to one's computer, folders, files and/or
printer is something that we support and want to continue to support in
the future. Unfortunately, that ability is currently being abused by a
number of users. In some cases, this might be unintentional, so we want
to provide all users this opportunity to understand the problem and to
take steps to resolve it.
Problem 1:
A number of computers on the network are currently set up to share access
to copyrighted software. THIS IS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAWS.
Given that, it is also a violation of ResComp Network Acceptable Use
Policies, Residence Life Community Standards and the University's Student
Code of Conduct.
When you purchase a piece of software, you do not then "own" that
software. All you own is a "license" to "use" that software. That
"license" allows you to load that software on ONE computer and to use it
from that ONE computer. Unless you purchased a "network" version of the
software with a license for multiple users, your license only allows for
the presence and use of that software on ONE computer. Sharing access to
that single-user copy of a piece of software over a network is a violation
of the law. Copying that software to multiple computers is a violation of
the law. Copying/using that software by someone who is not the owner of
the license is a violation of the law. We could go on and on here.
Bottom line here is if you didn't buy the software, if you don't have the
original media on which the software was provided, if you haven't been
granted specific permission by the software publisher to use the software,
if you are not a registered user (with the publisher) of the software...,
then you may not legally use the software.
If you did not purchase a multi-user, network version of the software, you
may not "share" it on the network (putting it behind a password and
sharing it with only a few people is still a violation). If you do have a
multi-user, network license for a piece of software and you wish to share
access to it, you will need to register with ResComp as a "Server" and you
will need to provide documentation and proof of your ownership of a
multi-user license as well as documentation and proof that you have set up
that software to control access to no more than the number of licenses you
have been granted.
Examples of software we have seen "shared":
The entire string of Adobe products (Photoshop, Pagemaker, Illustrator...)
The Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Access, Excell...)
The Corel Office Suite (WordPerfect, QuattroPro, Paradox...)
Other Microsoft products
Doom & Quake (yes, folks, these are copyrighted...each user in the game is
required to have their own licensed copy of the software).
...
Problem 2:
A number of users are openly sharing access to pornographic pictures,
images and movies on their computer. While the presence of those images
on someone's computer is not a violation of any specific policies, "openly
sharing" access to them is. The problem has several dimensions:
First, many of those images, etc. are copyrighted. Unless you have
specific permission from the publisher, you do not have the right to share
access to them. (See above).
Second, it is a violation of federal law to provide open access to that
material to minors (anyone under the age of 18) without fairly elaborate
methods of ensuring that minors will not/cannot access it. There are
students and residents on this campus who are under the age of 18, so, by
law, anyone granting access to that type of material must provide the
appropriate warnings/disclaimers and the opportunity to choose not to
access the material prior to getting to it.
Third, it is a violation of our community standards to display this type
of material in a public/common access area. In the same way that
residents are not permitted to display a Playboy centerfold on the outside
of their room door (the hallway is a public/common access area), similar
material may not be displayed openly on the network. To continue with the
same example, residents are welcome to display that centerfold on the wall
of their room (a private area). In the same way, a user may share access
to this type of material on their computer with specific individuals whom
they identify (specific does NOT mean "everyone"). The material should be
in a folder that is password protected and the user may share that
password with the "specific" individuals. The password is not to be
shared "publically."
Actions required:
All ResComp users are to ensure that the sharing of ANY copyrighted
material on their computers is disabled. This includes copyrighted
material being shared with others via password protection.
Any user with pornographic images, pictures, movies, etc. on their
computer are to ensure that if that material is being shared on the
network, it is password protected and that the password is not being
shared in a way that anyone/everyone on the network has access to it.
These steps need to be taken immediately.
We are asking for your cooperation in this matter to ensure that we will
be able to continue to support the current network configuration that
allows sharing access to various computers and their files/folders. If
you have questions about how to accomplish what we have asked, please
contact the ResComp staff. If you are unsure about whether your computer
is currently set up to share access to things noted above, please contact
the ResComp staff.
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
Steve Gilmore
____________________________________________________________________________
* Residential Computing (ResComp) Network Managers: Jeremy Pinson *
* Kelly LeFevre *
* Network Administrator: Steve Gilmore *
* Office: La Paz #L104 *
* E-mail: rescomp@arizona.edu *
* http://w3.arizona.edu/~rescomp *
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ file: 050115/gilmore1.txt ]
"What" "I" "find" "amusing" "about" "this" "e-mail" "is" "the" "words" "which" "Gilmore" "decided" "to" "put" "into" "double" "quotation" "marks". Whew! That's enough of that; beginning to sound like William Shatner. Take this sentence for example:
All you own is a "license" to "use" that software.
Steve Gilmore The ResComp chronicles
What is remotely confusing or foreign about the words "license" and "use"?
Some prankster then spoofed this e-mail in response to Gilmore's rant:
From rescomp@W3.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Jan 14 23:01:49 2005 Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 12:43:36 -0700 From: rescomp@W3.ARIZONA.EDU To: RESNETINFO@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Free the Warez on the network...Take all paswords down...
[ file: 050115/gilmore2.txt ]
Let me just say that spoofing e-mail is the lowest form of hacker expression. It was a little funny though. But anyway, it was a really sad comment on the state of affairs on the ResComp LAN that the mailing list was unsecured and apparently not moderated correctly. Gilmore was totally out of his depth. Tyler was called into his office once for using a port scanner. Actually they didn't call him into his office, they just turned the ports off in his room and Tyler had to do some digging to even find out why. The point is that when Tyler finally talked to him, it became quite clear that Gilmore had no idea what was going on at all; this is apparently why he didn't see disabling his port as an unreasonable escalation. If I recall, there was no specific ban on port scanners in the ResComp user agreement, although I base this statement in part on the fact that ResComp had difficulty dealing with spoofed e-mail let alone understanding the simplicities of port scanners.
From rescomp@W3.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Jan 14 23:01:55 2005 Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 13:35:25 -0700 From: Residence Life <rescomp@w3.arizona.edu> To: RESNETINFO@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: the WAREZ message.... The second message you received from rescomp is a spoof. Someone spoofed their identity to get a message on the list. We are currently tracing the source of that message. Please ignore the message and any other messages that you see that are in any way inconsistent with the content of the first message regarding ResComp's policy regarding sharing. Steve Gilmore ____________________________________________________________________________ * Residential Computing (ResComp) Network Managers: Jeremy Pinson * * Kelly LeFevre * * Network Administrator: Steve Gilmore * * Office: La Paz #L104 * * E-mail: rescomp@arizona.edu * * http://w3.arizona.edu/~rescomp * ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- ---------- >From: rescomp@W3.ARIZONA.EDU Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 1997 12:43 PM To: RESNETINFO@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Free the Warez on the network...Take all paswords down...
[ file: 050115/gilmore3.txt ]
I wonder if they ever worked out who sent that spoofed e-mail.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
I don't think we ever did...
Date: 2005-10-27 07:18 pm (UTC)No, I don't think we did ever work out who sent the spoofed email. We were too busy answering questions like "do I have to have this cable plugged into my computer to access the network?".
Kelly LeFevre