his is where I belong ... ' "I know everyone
here ... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never
hear from them again ... I know you all ... ( ... )

"This is our world now ... the world of the electron and the switch,
the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing
without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by
profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore ... and
you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge ... and you call us
criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without
religious bias ... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs,
you wage wars, you murder, cheat and lie to us and try to make us
believe that it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

"Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look
like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will
never forgive me for."

#

There have been underground boards almost as long as there have been
boards. One of the first was 8BBS, which became a stronghold of the
West Coast phone-phreak elite. After going on-line in March 1980, 8BBS
sponsored "Susan Thunder," and "Tuc," and, most notoriously, "the
Condor." "The Condor" bore the singular distinction of becoming the
most vilified American phreak and hacker ever. Angry underground
associates, fed up with Condor's peevish behavior, turned him in to
police, along with a heaping double-helping of outrageous hacker
legendry. As a result, Condor was kept in solitary confinement for
seven months, for fear that he might start World War Three by
triggering missile silos from the prison payphone. (Having served his
time, Condor is now walking around loose; WWIII has thus far
conspicuously failed to occur.)

The sysop of 8BBS was an ardent free-speech enthusiast who simply felt
that ANY attempt to restrict the expression of his users was
unconstitutional and immoral. Swarms of the technically curious
entered 8BBS and emerged as phreaks and hackers, until, in 1982, a
friendly 8BBS alumnus passed the sysop a new modem which had been
purchased by credit-card fraud. Police took this opportunity to seize
the entire board and remove what they considered an attractive nuisance.

Plovernet was a powerful East Coast pirate board that operated in both
New York and Florida. Owned and operated by teenage hacker