ow
data to one another at high speed through the public telephone network.
UUCP is a radically decentralized, not-for-profit network of UNIX
computers. There are tens of thousands of these UNIX machines. Some
are small, but many are powerful and also link to other networks. UUCP
has certain arcane links to major networks such as JANET, EasyNet,
BITNET, JUNET, VNET, DASnet, PeaceNet and FidoNet, as well as the
gigantic Internet. (The so-called "Internet" is not actually a network
itself, but rather an "internetwork" connections standard that allows
several globe-spanning computer networks to communicate with one
another. Readers fascinated by the weird and intricate tangles of
modern computer networks may enjoy John S. Quarterman's authoritative
719-page explication, The Matrix, Digital Press, 1990.)

A skilled user of Terminus' UNIX machine could send and receive
electronic mail from almost any major computer network in the world.
Netsys was not called a "board" per se, but rather a "node." "Nodes"
were larger, faster, and more sophisticated than mere "boards," and for
hackers, to hang out on internationally-connected "nodes" was quite the
step up from merely hanging out on local "boards."

Terminus's Netsys node in Maryland had a number of direct links to
other, similar UUCP nodes, run by people who shared his interests and
at least something of his free-wheeling attitude. One of these nodes
was Jolnet, owned by Richard Andrews, who, like Terminus, was an
independent UNIX consultant. Jolnet also ran UNIX, and could be
contacted at high speed by mainframe machines from all over the world.
Jolnet was quite a sophisticated piece of work, technically speaking,
but it was still run by an individual, as a private, not-for-profit
hobby. Jolnet was mostly used by other UNIX programmers--for mail,
storage, and access to networks. Jolnet supplied access network access
to about two hundred people, as well as a local junior college.

Among its various features and services, Jolnet also carried Phrack
magazine.

For reasons of his own, Richard Andrews had become suspicious of a new
user called "Robert Johnson." Richard Andrews took it upon himself to
have a look at what "Robert Johnson" was storing in Jolnet. And
Andrews found the E911 Document.

"Robert Johnson" was the Prophet from the Legion of Doom, and the E911
Document was illicitly copied data from Prophet's raid on the BellSouth
computers.

The E911 Doc