Remembrance of Prosecutions Past

I received the following email from Aaron Blosser today, after he saw the article about David McOwen's legal difficulties. Seems Blosser faced similar problems three years ago -- installing software on his employers' machines in an attempt to solve a scientific problem.

Hi,

Someone on the "Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search" (GIMPS) saw this article by you and sent it to me.

Why would someone think this article would interest me? Good question...

Over 3 years ago in 1998, I had a VERY similar experience with the baby bell US WEST (now Qwest).

There were alot of articles written about my case because, unlike the poor fellow you wrote about, mine was being investigated as a federal crime since I accessed computers in several states and also because phone company computers are considered special, just like a bank or government system. So when the FBI served a search warrant on me 4 months after the incident occured, it naturally made some news.

Rather then relate the entire story, I'd merely point you to some of the online articles about it so you can read at your own leisure.

There is some hope for David McCowen, and I wish I had an email address or phone number so I could call and let him know he's not alone, but the hope comes from the fact that it's been 3 years for me and I have never been charged, arrested or anything (other than the search warrant). The case is still technically open, I suppose, and the FBI is still holding my equipment worth $15,000. Well, probably worth about $5000 now, after all this time.

If you're interested at all in more information, there have been numerous developments that occurred since the articles on my case were written, and numerous details that were not included that are a very interesting insight into the state of the FBI's computer crimes division.

I suppose a good start is to visit http://www.tipjar.com/blosser/ which has the full text of the search warrant and links to a few articles. There's an interesting story by Bill Machrone in PC Magazine... http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,406514,00.html

Basically, a Yahoo search on my name turns up lots of stuff. I'm most curious about the ones in German since I have no idea what they're saying about me. :)

Thanks for listening to me,
Aaron Blosser

Do you have a similar story? Or an opinion about installing software on your employers' machines?