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142 lines
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HTML
142 lines
6.9 KiB
HTML
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<TITLE>T E X T F I L E S</TITLE>
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<B>JOHN CHIRILLO AND THE TEXTFILES.CON</B><P>
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I think everyone has some sort of situation that happens in the normal course of
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human civilization or existence that drives them over the edge. Maybe they can't
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even put into words the reason why they go so internally whacky when they come
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up against it, but they do. Examples that come to mind include seeing a parent
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hit their child in public, or maybe someone flicking a lit cigarette out of their
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car window. It's not your place, you're not directly affected by it, but the
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red light goes on and you grip what you're carrying a little tighter, and maybe
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you find yourself getting angry at some unrelated thing (or person) just to blow
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off steam.
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<P>
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For me, nothing makes me more irrationally angry than seeing someone trying to
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make a buck out of pimping the BBS textfiles of the 1980's, and presenting them
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in some sort of light that makes it sound like THEY did the work, and THEY made
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the effort. I see websites that have 20, maybe 40 textfiles, all of which I have,
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and they pepper the pages with banners, popups, credit card requests, you name
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it. It's just so sad; I'm not the only site with thousands of textfiles up, mostly
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in pristine condition, and here these little jerks set up toll booths to give
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people a sad subset of all the wonderous stuff out there.
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<P>
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I feel the same way, by the way, when I see someone try to sell a $40 "utility"
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that does something built into the system. I've seen people selling programs
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that do such basic things as batch FTP transfers, searching through files for
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text, or making duplicate backups of a directory, and charging amazing prices
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for them. It doesn't matter to me that no one actually BUYS the products; it's
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that they're even TRYING to do so. Principle, not rationality.
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<P>
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Imagine, then, my surprise when I happened to see a book at my local bookstore
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called "The Hack Attacks Encyclopedia" by John Chirillo. The tagline for the book
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says "A Complete History of Hacks, Cracks, Phreaks, and Spies over Time". I think
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it was the word "Phreaks" that drew me to it; the term is well over 30 years old,
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certainly out of favor in today's world, where the phone system has lost a lot of
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its magic and other terms have overtaken the name for that subculture. That and
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the word "History" seemed to say to me that this was some sort of retrospective
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on hacking and phreaking culture, and that was definitely something to check into.
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After all, I've been spending a lot of time on those subjects.
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<P>
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The <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471055891">book</A> looks
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damned impressive from the outside; it's 960 pages! Surely, this must be the most
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complete discussion of the hacking and phreaking subculture ever published! The
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cover, a sunset-colored affair with barbed wire and neat lettering, tells you
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it'll have a more up-to-date sensibility. Everything said this would be my next
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purchase.
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<P>
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My heart sank as I read through the book.
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<P>
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The vast, vast, VAST (over two-thirds) majority of the book consists of
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the first paragraph of BBS textfiles, with a line telling you the filename
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included on the CD that comes with the book. In some cases, Chirillo deigns
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to visit upon you a single-line description, but many don't even have that.
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So now, imagine this: page after page of filenames, then descriptions, then
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the first paragraph, of files located on a CD that's in the back of a book.
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What a horrible waste! There's a computer "glossary" in the back which looks
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suspiciously like similar documents available on the web, although I can't
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be sure. Also, there are a few tiny chapters giving general descriptions of
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the hacker and phreaking subculture. If you were to remove the filenames
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and descriptions and paragraphs, I doubt this book could get past 100 pages,
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if that.
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<P>
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But it gets worse, so much worse.
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<P>
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You see, many of these files came through me. No, I didn't write them,
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and no, I didn't sell them myself or something, but I DID put in my unique
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nomenclature for the files (.phk for phreak files, .hac for hack, etc.)
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And I did choose many of these filenames. Whether he got these files from
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my site or whether he got them from a site who got them from me, the fact
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remains that these are not files which are secretly lost; they're right
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from the current collection of textfiles now available for free.
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<P>
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And that burns me so much, because the retail price on this book is
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<B>SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS</B>. Yes, that's right, $63.99 for a book that consists
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almost entirely of copied textfiles from websites with reprints of the
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first paragraph of each textfile. How dare he. How low can a person go.
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Do you see what I mean about irrational anger?
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<P>
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If you look at the
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<A RHEF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471055891">Amazon</B>
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page for this book, you'll see, incredibly, that this $65 book of mostly
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reprinted textfiles has over TWENTY FIVE-STAR REVIEWS, making its average
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rating five stars. Most of the ratings came in within a three-day period.
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Now, I'm never one to accuse anyone of vote stuffing, but some of the
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reviews are beyond belief. It's nice to have friends.
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<P>
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Why should you care? Why does this matter? Well, as someone who wrote
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textfiles in the past, I know I would be very sad if someone was taking
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my writing and trying to yank massive (non-production-cost) profit out
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of it. I doubt I'd sue, but I'd be pretty inclined to contact the publisher
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<A HREF="http://www.wiley.com/">Wiley and Sons</A> and ask them why your files
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were put onto a book that's
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<A HREF="http://www.wiley.com/cda/product/0,,0471055891,00.html">sold on
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their website.</A> Maybe you should request your file be removed. Maybe
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you should wonder why your work is being used to sell such an expensive
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book.
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<P>
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Where do I get off, do you ask? Well, textfiles.com has never charged for
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the files on the site, and I do my best to make these files available to
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you in compressed archives, so you can take as much of the site as possible
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for free. I want these files apread far and wide; I want them saved. I
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don't convert the files into HTML, I don't make them couched in ads, I
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don't have popups or banners or anything like that. I DEFINITELY don't
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"brand" the files with my own logos or text. I lose money on this site.
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And I don't mind at all.
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<P>
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The big test, of course, was when I loaded the textfiles from the CD onto
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my textfiles.com workshop machine and ran checks of them against the current
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collection. Well, guess what. I'm getting 90 percent matches, many times
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getting the same NAME AND SIZE OF THE FILES. Many of these files were named
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by me either years ago or rather recently. There's very little doubt that
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these files passed through my hands before Mr. Chirillo grabbed them. And
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that makes me so sad, so angry.
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<P>
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But I appreciate you took the time to listen.
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<P>
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<I>Jason Scott<BR>
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January 31, 2002
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</I>
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