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Article Written For Crisnews By:
Sara Gordon


Dear Michael;

I'm really concerned about the recent 'outbreak' of legislation in the wild.
I'm seeing variants popping up all over, and it's disturbing. So, for this 
reason I am sending you this article. This article should not be seen as an
endorsement of CRIS in any way.

This article has nothing to do with CRIS, but it has a lot to do with
the things that are happening on the nets; things that people have to
realize are really happening. A year ago when discussions about laws
were happening on fido, people insisted this kind of thing could never
happen. Well, it can, and it does, and it's not going to stop. People
have to be aware of what is going on.

There are a lot of complex sociological issues, regarding the various
aspects of underground cultures and subcultures, that play into all of
this. And, there are a lot of other factors as well. However, at this
point, I'd just like your readers to read this file and judge for
themselves whether or not we should be concerned about "freedoms". Along
with freedoms come responsibilities. We can save that for later :)

Sara

- -----
And Liberty, Injustice for All.....


Terrorist Explosives Handbook; Improvised Explosives; CIA Explosives for
Sabotage. These are all publications available through Delta Press, Ltd.
Legally.

In August, this year, Mike Elansky, sysop of a BBS, was arrested and charged
with violation of a section of criminal code stating "A person is guilty
of inciting injury to persons or property when.....he advocates,
encourages, justifies, praises, incites or solicits....any assault
upon...the police force of this or any other state..."

Why? Elansky had an anarchy file on his BBS. His bail was set at $500,000.
Average bail for a murderer in Connecticut is $100,000.

What was in this file?

      ! Note to
      Law-enforcement type people: !  !  This file is
      intended to promote    !  ! general havoc and
      *ANARCHY*, and     !  ! since your going to be the
      first     !  ! assholes up against the wall.. there
      !  ! isnt a damn thing you can do about   !  ! it,
      pigs!                            !


I asked Veggie (author of this file) for his impressions of this
incident. Here is what he had to say:

(quotes used with his permission)

"Let me start out with a description of the events so far, as explained to me
by Mike Elansky, in phone calls from Jail. On August 2nd Mike was scheduled
to go to court in Hartford to have some charges against him dropped. He knew
that he was being investigated for some reason, and as far as I can make out
he knew that there was a warrant out on him. This warrant specified a $25,000
bond. Mike and his parents had arranged for a Real Estate Bond for the $25,000, 
and Mike had encrypted his computers and given them to a friend, to protect 
them from confiscation, and he sort of knew that there was the possibility of 
his arrest after his court appearance on the 2nd. And, in fact, he was arrested by 
the Hartford Police at the courthouse. His Lawyer was present at his arrest. 
BUT, he was turned over to the West Hartford Police, who held the warrant on 
him, supposedly to just be "booked". His lawyer was told this, and went back to 
do whatever it is lawyers do when they're not doing cases, but meanwhile Mike
discovered that he was being "rushed through" the 'booking' procedure. He 
didn't think anything strange of it at the time, but as he says "it all makes 
sense to me now". He was rushed over to the courthouse and Arraigned less than
three hours after his arrest. He was not allowed to contact his lawyer to 
notify him of the change in arraignment dates, and so his lawyer was not 
present at his arraignment. The prosecutor requested that the bail be raised to
$500,000 and the judge agreed.
 
Mike has been in jail since August 2nd. He suffers from severe athsma, and has
had to be taken to the hospital several times since then. (*note* He has
also been assaulted twice and has witnessed a hanging).
 
But I digress. Let's see. According to Mike, the local police have "had it in
for him" for a long time. No, he's not a saint, but he's not the devil they
have been trying to portray him as either. As Mike read the Hartford Courant
article to me over the phone, he addressed each of the charges against him
that it lists... the only one that he admits to is the Credit-Card Fraud one, 
but as he put it, he was "Young and stupid." The Handgun charge was actually 
a BB Gun. The previous Explosives charge were FIREWORKS. (illegal and somewhat
dangerous, Yes, but hardly a  pipebomb). Also, all those previous charges 
against him were dropped (except the Credit Card one). 
 
Mike Elansky was arrested and imprisoned for nothing more then possessing
information that is publicly and legally available in many libraries and most
bookstores. This case is just one more example of the law enforcement 
community's refusal to recognize that Electronic Publication has the same first
amendment rights as hardcopy works.

The only thing that might be considered harmful to police
officers at all were the two facetious "disclaimers" I put at
the beginning. But those disclaimers are quite obviously a parody and a spoof,
and I find it hard to believe anyone could actually take them seriously.

The prosecutor is trying to hold Elansky responsible for knowing every
bit of every file on his board. They are unwilling to recognize that is
a next to impossible task. Mike ran a 1.8 GIGABYTE board. That is about
1,800,000,000 characters. To expect him to know  every file on his board is
comparable to expecting a librarian to know every word out of every book
in their Library. Impossible.

Indeed, Mike had never read the file before, and was not even aware of it's
presence on his board until the Police told him about it. He was never asked to
remove the file, he was simply arrested. The Police are attempting to make an
example of Mike Elansky. Trying to set a precedent for restriction of our
first amendment rights. That this is happening is truly tragic, and it is sad
to see a chunk of Mike's life go by stuck in jail for an imaginary
crime."

I don't know Mike. I know Veggie. This whole thing is -INSANE- and is
just another example of how afraid people are of technology. There is no
big difference between the files on a BBS and books in a library that
say the same things. Books you can buy.

There have been new developments. Elansky has admitted to two violations of
probation as part of a plea agreement that includes up to three years in 
prison. He will now not be prosecuted for distribution of the anarchy files.
Could he have been? Well, probably. I mean, he was charged, so he could
be prosecuted. His lawyer probably made what he thought was the best
decision for his own personal situation. Does this mean that if he had
been prosecuted, he would have been convicted? And what does this mean
to all of us?










 
 


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