It was six years ago tonight that I heard a knock on my door, with
plainclothes detectives from the Washington County Sheriff's
Department announcing that they had a search warrant to seize all
computers and computer related equipment. Like this year, six years
ago I had been out the previous night at a Halloween party, not in the
least bit anticipating what was to happen the night following.

There are parts of me that want to forget that night, or deny that it
ever happened. But I cannot, both because I have a fairly burned-in
memory about the event, but also because I *should* not. My
presentations about what happened have changed the thoughts and
behavior of countless others who might have tripped over the same
unmarked zone as I did, ending up with a similar story to tell.

I'm sorry I walked into the line of fire. Had I known how my actions
would be interpreted, I certainly would have done something different.
I didn't hide anything, I just misunderstood how people would react,
and I was foolish for doing so.

The Oregon law, like so many other similar laws in other states and
abroad, make criminal what is at worst a misunderstanding. The laws
*must* be changed, or rendered impotent in the courts. I will not
waiver on this. I am praying for this, and working for this. I made
mistakes, I did wrong, but I didn't harm, or intend harm, and yet I
sit here today a triple felon, on probation, having given up a good
portion of 6 years in this battle. Not to mention a major portion of
my earnings over the same period of time.

Two weeks ago, Mark Morrisey and I met for the first time outside a
courtroom. We had lunch together, and talked of Smalltalk and Perl
and Object-Oriented Programming and Teaching, much as we would have
had none of the past six years transpired. I enjoyed our lunch. I
saw this brief meeting as a milestone, that perhaps one day I can get
back to business as usual. Mark is the kind of person I appreciated
as both a friend and co-worker when we worked together at Intel, and I
understood exactly why he had reported the activity he observed
directly to Intel security, although I wish he had just chatted with
me for a while instead. :)

But for now, I sit at my home office, under the direction of a list of
restrictions, such as not leaving the country, and not leaving the
state except for work purposes, and not working for anyone that
doesn't already know about my case, to continue until Sept 2000. I
also sit waiting for the word about the appeal as I described a few
months ago, to hear if the judges saw through the basics to get to the
heart of understanding that this is a constitutionally flawed law that
must be thrown out, with my case providing the prime example of how it
can be abused. I pray for that, because I don't wish my story on
anyone else, not even my worst enemy. I'm lucky, and prepared. I had
a lot of friends stand beside me when the worst was going on. I had
done a lot of mental preparation to be calm in the midst of crisis,
and this is one of the worst crises I could have imagined.

Those of you that stood with me, thank you for your support, and I
invite you to continue to help me through this to the end.

Those of you that were critical of me, thank you, and I invite you to
continue to challenge me to keep me honest.

As always, my #1 request is SPREAD THE WORD. Keep telling your
friends and co-workers about me. I would be very sad to hear that
someone went down the same way I did simply because they hadn't heard
of my case. Also, please let people know that THIS IS FAR FROM OVER.
I can't tell you how many times people have written me and asked "hey,
isn't that over by now?". Ugh.

Since shortly after my conviction some four and a half years ago, I've
been presenting a talk I call "Just Another Convicted Perl Hacker" to
any group willing to hear me. I'm delighted to announce that plans
are being made for me to present that talk to a most appropriate
audience: at the first "Joint Computer Security Conference", running
in parallel with SANS2000 in Orlando Florida next March. (I'm sorry
if this is a preannouncement, but I'm much better at seeking
forgiveness than asking permission. :) If you want to have me present
a JACPH at a group you attend, please let me know. I don't ask for
anything but some compensation for out-of-pocket expenses, if any.

Thanks for reading this.

--
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@...> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!

---
You are currently subscribed to fors-discuss as:
ListSaver-of-fors-discuss@...
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-fors-discuss-23114F@...