hacker crackdown

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THE HACKER CRACKDOWN

Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier

CONTENTS

Preface to the Electronic Release of *The Hacker

Crackdown*

Chronology of the Hacker Crackdown

Introduction

Part 1: CRASHING THE SYSTEM

A Brief History of Telephony / Bell's Golden Vaporware /

Universal Service / Wild Boys and Wire Women / The

Electronic Communities / The Ungentle Giant / The

Breakup / In Defense of the System / The Crash Post-

Mortem / Landslides in Cyberspace

Part 2: THE DIGITAL UNDERGROUND

Steal This Phone / Phreaking and Hacking / The View

>From Under the Floorboards / Boards: Core of the

Underground / Phile Phun / The Rake's Progress /

Strongholds of the Elite / Sting Boards / Hot Potatoes /

War on the Legion / Terminus / Phile 9-1-1 / War Games

/ Real Cyberpunk

Part 3: LAW AND ORDER

Crooked Boards / The World's Biggest Hacker Bust /

Teach Them a Lesson / The U.S. Secret Service / The

Secret Service Battles the Boodlers / A Walk Downtown /

FCIC: The Cutting-Edge Mess / Cyberspace Rangers /

FLETC: Training the Hacker-Trackers

Part 4: THE CIVIL LIBERTARIANS

NuPrometheus + FBI = Grateful Dead / Whole Earth +

Computer Revolution = WELL / Phiber Runs

Underground and Acid Spikes the Well / The Trial of

Knight Lightning / Shadowhawk Plummets to Earth /

Kyrie in the Confessional / $79,499 / A Scholar

Investigates / Computers, Freedom, and Privacy

Electronic Afterword to *The Hacker Crackdown,*

New Years' Day 1994

Preface to the Electronic Release of *The Hacker

Crackdown*

January 1, 1994 -- Austin, Texas

Hi, I'm Bruce Sterling, the author of this

electronic book.

Out in the traditional world of print, *The

Hacker Crackdown* is ISBN 0-553-08058-X, and is

formally catalogued by the Library of Congress as "1.

Computer crimes -- United States. 2. Telephone --

United States -- Corrupt practices. 3. Programming

(Electronic computers) -- United States -- Corrupt

practices." 'Corrupt practices,' I always get a kick out

of that description. Librarians are very ingenious

people.

The paperback is ISBN 0-553-56370-X. If you go

and buy a print version of *The Hacker Crackdown,*

an action I encourage heartily, you may notice that

in the front of the book, beneath the copyright

notice -- "Copyright (C) 1992 by Bruce Sterling" -- it

has this little block of printed legal boilerplate from

the publisher. It says, and I quote:

"No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information address: Bantam Books."

This is a pretty good disclaimer, as such

disclaimers go. I collect intellectual-property

disclaimers, and I've seen dozens of them, and this

one is at least pretty straightforward.

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