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STARK NAKED
The Journal of Stark County Telecom
Support BBS: The Dragon's Lair BBS
Running Renegade Beta 216-966-8970
August 1, 1992 Volume #1, Issue #2
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[ Akron Bulletin Board Closed by Authorities ]
The Akron bulletin board, Akron Anamoly (run by Mark
Lehrer) is no more. After a police sting operation, the BBS
was closed because of "obscene" files online. The Anamoly,
which was known for its vast Fidonet message bases and OS/2
support, was closed after a parent complained to police
because of the "dirty" GIFs that were available for download.
The following pieces include capture buffers from Akron boards
discussing the incident as well as the actual news story
concerning it.
This article is reprinted from the Cleveland [Ohio, USA] Plain Dealer,
Tuesday, July 21, 1992, Page B3 (?).
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POLICE PULL PLUG ON COMPUTER IN MORALS STING
Munroe Falls Police Chief Steve Stahl knows computers are big with kids
these days, byt he never thought he'd see the day when a healthy
15-year-old boy would choose a floppy disk over a playboy centerfold.
But now that Stahl's seen some of the floppy disks popular with
local youths, he understands the facscination.
"Give me any kid, I know what he's going to donwload," Stahl said.
In May, Munroe Falls police received a complaint fromn a resident
who feared that a local computerized community byulletin board containing
sexually explicit material might be accessible to children.
Stahl said the resident showed him files called "Alison" and
"Amber," both of which featured naked women. Stahl told the concerned
resident, "Oh well, geez, I can see how that would be upsetting."
For the past two months, police conducted an investigation and
sting using a local 15 year old boy. After the youth was able to hook into
the bulletin board, police arrested Mark Lehrer, 22, owner and operator of
Akron Anomaly, a 1000-member bulletin board. Police also seized all of
Lehrer's computer equipment.
Lehrer is accused of distributing graphic sexual material via a
computer modem from his parent's home in Munore Falls. Lehrer, whose
father is chairman of the village's charter review commission, has been
charged in Cuyahoga Falls municipal court with one count each of
disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possession of computer [probably
was originally "criminal" -mst] tools
-- in this case, his computer.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for today. The case will
probably be turned over to a Summit County grand jury.
Lehrer did not return a phone call yesterday.
Stahl said this will be the first case in Northeast Ohio and one
of the first in the state in which an adult is accused of distributing
graphic sexual materials to juveniles via a computer.
"There's not a whole lot of case law on this kind of thing," he
said, adding most material comes from books, magazines, or movies.
According to Stahl, members of Akron Anomaly paid $15 to $30 a year
to link into Lehrer's bulletin board. For that fee, they had access to
games like chess, basketball, and euchre, compouter programming
instructions, and a series of "gif" -- "graphic interface files" [should be
"'graphic information files'" -mst] -- that
feature pictures from James Bond to Captain Kirk to Scooby Doo.
Some are labeled specifically for adults and are not supposed to be
accessible to those under age 18, while many others are contained in a
general file. However, when police seized Lehrer's records they found that
even the "clean" files contained images not entirely wholesome.
"One was Bugs Bunny eating a carrot, one was Bart Simpson riding a
skate board and one was called (a slang term for oral sex) [probably "blow
job" -- drc], and that was in the clean file," Stahl said.
Stahl said many files not listed in the adult category contained
pictures of naked women and of naked women engaged in sexual acts. One
file allegedly shows a nude image of Christina Applegate, who plays Peg on
the television show "Married With Children."
"Parents are happy their kids are upstairs using their computers.
One parent we talked to was thrilled they weren't finding Playboy magazine.
Well, I've got news for them, this is a rude awakening," Stahl said.
In addition to the graphic interface images, juveniles were able to
access adult movies, which are transmitted on color monitors.
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A brief editorial comment: this sucks.
Any comments, please send e-mail, as I don't monitor this group.
David
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= THIS MESSAGE IS FROM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
| David R. Cohen or Tracey L. Ridgeway |
| bx953@cleveland.freenet.edu |
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Msg # 171 of 184 Date: Fri 7-24-92, 8:43
From: TERMINATOR Read: 11 times [1 Reply]
To: THE ASSASSIN
Subject: Re: Anomaly
The Munroe Falls police cooperating with FTC federal trade commision.Sent
the 15 year old on to the system to find such files.
I agree with Mark's lawyer its just a small town police station trying to
gain publicity,and may cause problems for other bbs systems.
Through the grape vine I have heard bulliten board system may be requiring a
license by the city here in the near future,giving them a chance to do
periodical checks of the system at any given time,I think this is unfair and
maybe some of the bulliten boards should go underground to avoid the attack
by the city,this would be for private members only.
Terminator
Msg # 177 of 184 Date: Sat 7-25-92, 15:44
From: METAL STORM
To: All
Subject: Akron Anomoly
We as BBS user's and some as Sysops should ban together to support this
kind of invasion. I DO NOT agree with such setups as to using a 15 year old
child to find a little bit of incriminating evidence to shut down a BBS that
was not causing any harm to begin with. The Sysop by Federal Regulation is
NOT RESPONSIBLE for the content of his BBS from which users upload this kind
of material. Also the actual theme of The Akron Anomoly BBS was not that of
an X-Rated board. I myself do not download this kind of material because I
feel that it is a little off colored, but I do not aggree with this type of
action. BBS systems all over Akron are in serious threat because of the raid
on AA BBS, and we should all send letters.
ACT NOW. or you may not be chatting like this in the future. I will post
some address real soon on this message area and others soon.
Metal Storm...
Msg # 178 of 184 Date: Sat 7-25-92, 23:17
From: ALATNA Read: 9 times [1 Reply]
To: METAL STORM
Subject: Re: Akron Anomoly
I'm all for it. I run a Cleveland BBS and have been in that community for a
while, they've also much threat. Also, if they were hit, there are many
things that could be found there, ranging from satanism (yes, Cleveland DOES
have at least ONE board like that) to Drug Dealing. Maybe some of those
boards should be shut down, but, I believe people have a right to chose and
if they chose to communicate about this stuff online, they shouldn't be
afraid to do so.
Msg # 180 of 184 Date: Sun 7-26-92, 4:42
From: METAL STORM Read: 9 times
To: ALATNA
Subject: Re: Akron Anomoly
Well, I feel that using your phone for voice or for data is virtually the
same. Having someone put restrictions on a BBS is like putting restrictions
on your voice conversation with your friend. If the contents of your BBS
were being broadcast so all could see and here then I could see some concern
in that, but online BBS systems do not fall into that category. I do agree
that some of those BBS systems you mentioned should be down because I do not
support anything that is ilegal or immoral but I do have to mention that it
is still basically a phone conversation and should be dealt with as one.
Metal Storm...
Msg # 182 of 184 Date: Sun 7-26-92, 18:31
From: THE ASSASSIN Read: 3 times
To: METAL STORM
Subject: Re: Akron Anomoly
I was chatting with a sysop that knows Mark (the Sysop of Anomaly) and he
said that Mark had been warned several times. He also said that distribution
of pornographic materials to minors is wrong. No ifs, ands, or buts about
it. It is unfortunate that Mark got in trouble, but he should have been more
careful. And you are sadly mistaken. A sysops responsibility is too the
BOARD, and the ARE responsible for what is uploaded and downloaded, since
they can be put in jail for it. You can now go to prison and be fined
severely for having commercial software on a bbs. If the sysop does not
regulate their files, then they should not have a files section in the first
place.
The Assassin
[ ... ]
Information concerning a sysop effort to put pressure on law
enforcement officials will be featured in further issues of
Stark Naked. Also featured will be specific FCC regulations
concerning adult access for minors, how to protect yourself,
etc. Stay tuned to Stark Naked for further developments on
this story.
[ Stark Modem Meeting a "Success" ]
The Modem Meeting that Swells was held on Sunday, July 26th,
at the Country Manor on West Tusc at 7:30pm. Attendance was
much better than expected with a few surprises. Among the
various users that showed up early included Varicose Brain,
the Sorcerer, Spew Queen, Anarchy, Semidri, Beef Jerky,
Sentinel, the Magister, Sidewinder, Ceasaro, Strider and
Iron Eagle. Later on, the JEW Krew came down from Akron to
visit, bringing Ziltron, The Human Computer and Rattlehead.
A surprise visit by Elminster and Nightstalker added to the
"enjoyment" of the evening. Of course, where Elminster goes
... the Lion's Pride goes. Rampant Lion, the Joker, Silicon
Mage and Gunslinger showed up with surprisingly few words
for Elminster. Their focus appeared to be on Sentinel, who
was also known for a short while as the Lion Tamer.
The course of events eventually led to a verbal argument
between Sentinel and TLP, which ended rather peacefully.
Rampant Lion, who was toting a cam-corder (apparently for
a future demo) was heard saying to Sentinel, "Hey, man, I
was just joking around with you," as he was going to his
car.
The evening came to a startling close around 10:30pm when
the Sorcerer received a phone call from Country Manor, who
wanted the money for his bill! Supposedly, the bills were
switched and the Sorcerer ended up paying for someone else's
meal.
For the most part, a good time was had by all and hopefully,
future modem meetings will be as much of a success.
[ Canton Connection Censors Newsletter ]
An Editorial by the Sorcerer
I hope that what you read in this newsletter is useful
and informative to you. I know that in the research I've
done both for this issue and future issues, I have
learned quite a lot about what is going on around me.
Unfortunately, certain sysops in the Stark area do not
share the same enthusiasm that I do.
When Stark Naked Issue #1 first came out, I posted it on
the Canton Connection. I received a note (which I thought)
was nasty from Larry, the sysop at Canton Connection. He
said that he didn't want my "modem wars" on his bulletin
board and that I am just making myself look "small." So I
posted a message telling people that the newsletter was in
existence and was available on other bulletin boards. That
message, too, was deleted. Finally, I just posted a
message asking people to send me private e-mail concerning
something that I was not allowed to post publicly about. I
was under the misconception that private e-mail on Canton
Connection was just that -- private.
Sunday morning when I logged onto Canton Connection, I
was answering numerous e-mail that I had received
concerning the newsletter. In the middle of one of my
replies I was knocked off the bulletin board. Dismissing
it as line trouble or something akin to that, I called
back to find that my ID no longer worked. I was puzzled,
because I didn't think that private e-mail was something
interfered with on Canton Connection. After repeated
attempts of logging on as new, I asked Larry to call me
voice. He did and told me that I was no longer welcome on
Canton Connection. He also said that he wished to talk
to my parents about harrassment charges. However, I told
him that my parents were not home and that I could handle
these situations by myself. He insisted that because I was
a minor I couldn't ... but I did.
So now I'm stuck off Canton Connection. I can't say it is
that much of a loss to me, though. However, it certainly
does say something for the direction of telecommunications
in this area. It used to be that the free exchange of
information was the key to bulletin boarding. Now it seems
like the only free exchange is that which is approved by
sysops who feel they should decide what their users can
read and can't read. Larry did say one thing: he pays the
bills for Canton Connection. And he's right. He does pay
the bills and it is his board. But the day that sysops
start ignoring user suggestions and start censoring is the
day that I'm happy not to be part of that system.
I'd like to thank the users that came to my defense on
that system. I've talked to a few of you. The rest of
you ... if you are concerned about the course of events
that is taking place here ... perhaps you should speak to
the sysops of Canton Connection and get their side of the
story as well.
As for me, I am very disappointed. But, oh well. I'm just
a minor.
[ In future issues of Stark Naked ... ]
In upcoming issues of Stark Naked, we'll be taking a more
in-depth look at the Akron Anamoly incident and how it
affects bulletin boards everywhere, we'll explore Unix and
Internet, we'll be looking at Renegade BBS and its features,
and we'll be talking more about the first anniversary of
the Dragon's Lair BBS. Until then ... speak freely among
yourselves!