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Schwartz conviction

According to the Oregonian, Randal Schwartz was convicted of
three counts of computer crime (I don't know the correct legal
words, so I'm punting). Randal was a consultant at Intel (and
a number of other firms), and had hacked around various computers
and networks. Apparently, Intel got tired of trying to stop him
from screwing around, running "crack" on their supercomputers,
finding ways around various protection schemes, and being an
arrogant jerk. So they took him to court, and he's been convicted.
He now owes Intel $60,000 and might spend some time in jail.

I do not know Randal, and I've never worked for Intel. All that
I known has been from the Oregonian (scary, if you think about it)
and from a few friends of mine who do know Randal, and from the
newsposts I've seen from Randal or about him.

But it seems to me this is a pretty big event in our little
community. One of own has just landed in the slammer and may lose
his house. And it seems to me that there has been an incredible
lack of discussion on this event. And I happen to think there
are many questions which should be asked, and this forum is a
great place to ask those questions.

Do people really think Randal deserves this conviction? 

Does this put the fear of god in other consultants? Any Intel
consultants dare offer their opinions? 

It seems likely Randal's situation is not unique - most of us like
to see how fast cpu's can go, and Intel's are among the fastest.
Perhaps there is community of speed freaks at Intel and Cray who
get their jollies doing exactly what Randal was doing. Will y'all
change your ways?

Anybody else think the NSA/CIA/Spooks United _potentially_ could
have had influence in this case, since Randal was clearly a rogue
seeing exactly what could be done with Crack? Or at least that
Intel has to show they are in firm control of the users of their
supercomputers, and what better way than to hold a public lynching
of a jerk consultant? (Why didn't Intel just fire him?? Surely there
were others in Intel running Crack just to see what's possible)

If Randal was such a "god", how come he was only getting $45 an hour,
as reported by the newspaper? Consulting shops get more than that,
don't they?  I usually get about that, and I'm certainly no god.

How does this affect our community? Will people think twice about
working for Intel, or do people recognize this as a very unique
situation?

Please understand I'm just wondering and posing a few questions that
have come to mind. I'm no conspiracy nut, and I don't think Intel
is an evil empire (some of my best friends have worked for Intel...!). 
It just seems to me this is a big event that
has received very little attention in this forum.

andrew burke
consultant since 1986, 
unix hacker since 1983,
surfer since 1982,
shoe wearer since 1963 (under protest!),
bicyclist till the day I die.
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