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                  >C O M P U T E R   U N D E R G R O U N D<
                                >D I G E S T<
              ***  Volume 3, Issue #3.24 (July 3, 1991)   **
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MODERATORS:   Jim Thomas / Gordon Meyer  (TK0JUT2@NIU.bitnet)
PHILEMEISTER: Bob Krause // VACATIONMEISTER: Bob Kusumoto
MEISTERMEISTER: Brendan Kehoe

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CONTENTS THIS ISSUE:
File 1: From the Mailbag  (Response to "Cyberpunk" definition)
File 2: Bill Vajk, Len Rose, Gene Spafford
File 3: Comsec Security Press Release
File 4: Comments on ComSec Data Security
File 5: Police Confiscations and Police Profit
File 6: House Crime Bill (1400) and its Threat to Modemers
File 7: Law Panel Recommends Computer Search Procedures
File 8: The CU in the News (data erasing; cellular fraud)
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Date: July 3, 1991
From: Various
Subject: From the Mailbag  (Response to "Cyberpunk" definition)

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***  CuD #3.24: File 1 of 8: From the Mailbag                   ***
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Date: Tue, 2 Jul 91 12:44:22 cdt
From:  <accidentally garbled by editors>
Subject: Brad Hicks and Cyber Definitions

I commend Brad Hicks for his generally concise set of definitions of
definitions of computer underground types which make it clear that
there are many different motivations and categories.  However, I would
modify his following definition:

> CYBERPUNK: (n)  A cyberpunk is to hackers/phreaks/crackers/crashers
> what a terrorist is to a serial killer; someone who insists that their
> crimes are in the public interest and for the common good, a
> computerized "freedom fighter" if you will.

In the works of Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, and others, cyberpunks
are not terrorists in the conventional sense of the term, and the
analogy to serial killers strikes me as a bit extreme. Cyberpunks are
characterized by their resistance to oppressive authority (which makes
them a form of freedom fighter), but the resistance tends to be highly
individualistic. I wonder if cyberpunks might be based on the
anti-hero model of westerns (Shane) or earlier science fiction in
which the marginal but basically decent outsider steps in to use
marginal skills to save the town, country, or civilization?

I hope Mr. Hicks' comments generate some needed discussion along these
lines.

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Date: Tue, 2 Jul 91 14:34:38 edt
From: wex@PWS.BULL.COM
Subject: Cyberpunks (response to Brad Hicks in Cu Digest, #3.23)

Hicks' gratuitous slap at cyberpunks tacked on to the end of his
definitions of hackers, crackers and phreaks should not be allowed to
pass.

He refers to cyberpunks as being more extreme forms of the above, with
an added dash of morality.  I'd love to know where he got this idea.

The cyberpunks I know are those who, as the word implies, have taken
the punk ethic of disrespect for authority (and often for self, even
to the point of nihilism) and applied it to the cyber world.
Cyberpunks are those who think that the street has its own uses for
technology (they're out there decoding the signals from Mattel
Powergloves).  They think that corporations are often a bigger threat
than governments, though they dis both - sometimes to the point of
breaking laws.

The only freedom these people are interested in is the freedom to be
left alone, both physically and, in the data world, to be left out of
the ubiquitous info files being accumulated on us all.

This combination often leads to a "fuck you, jack" attitude, not the
platitudinous ``freedom fighter'' ethos Hicks talks about.

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