most fifteen-year-olds who've downloaded
a code-scanning program from a pirate board. There's no real need to
seize everything in sight. It doesn't require an entire computer
system and ten thousand disks to prove a case in court.

What if the computer is the instrumentality of a crime? someone
demanded.

Godwin admitted quietly that the doctrine of seizing the
instrumentality of a crime was pretty well established in the American
legal system.

The meeting broke up. Godwin and Kapor had to leave. Kapor was
testifying next morning before the Massachusetts Department Of Public
Utility, about ISDN narrowband wide-area networking.

As soon as they were gone, Thackeray seemed elated. She had taken a
great risk with this. Her colleagues had not, in fact, torn Kapor and
Godwin's heads off. She was very proud of them, and told them so.

"Did you hear what Godwin said about INSTRUMENTALITY OF A CRIME?" she
exulted, to nobody in particular. "Wow, that means MITCH ISN'T GOING
TO SUE ME."

#

America's computer police are an interesting group. As a social
phenomenon they are far more interesting, and far more important, than
teenage phone phreaks and computer hackers. First, they're older and
wiser; not dizzy hobbyists with leaky morals, but seasoned adult
professionals with all the responsibilities of public service. And,
unlike hackers, they possess not merely TECHNICAL power alone, but
heavy-duty legal and social authority.

And, very interestingly, they are just as much at sea in cyberspace as
everyone else. They are not happy about this. Police are
authoritarian by nature, and prefer to obey rules and precedents.
(Even those police who secretly enjoy a fast ride in rough territory
will soberly disclaim any "cowboy" attitude.) But in cyberspace there
ARE no rules and precedents. They are groundbreaking pioneers,
Cyberspace Rangers, whether they like it or not.

In my opinion, any teenager enthralled by computers, fascinated by the
ins and outs of computer security, and attracted by the lure of
specialized forms of knowledge and power, would do well to forget all
about "hacking" and set his (or her) sights on becoming a fed. Feds
can trump hackers at almost every single thing hackers do, including
gathering intelligence, undercover disguise, trashing, phone-tapping,
building dossiers, networking, and infiltrating computer
systems--CRIMINAL computer systems. Secret Service agents know more
about phre