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- From: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
- Subject: Are you looking for Amiga pirate ftp sites? Read this!
-
- Earlier this week, somebody posted in comp.sys.amiga.games and asked
- if there are any ftp sites where pirated, commercial Amiga software can be
- obtained. Hmmm. In response, I posted a description of the pirate FTP site
- "etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf" which I said contained commercial games.
-
- Now, everybody take a CAREFUL look at the name of that ftp site.
- Does it look... perhaps... suspicious? I thought so, but obviously some
- people didn't look closely. I was sure that the domain name "kcuf" was
- unusual enough to attract attention, and that people would read the hostname
- backwards and realize that this was a joke. But NOOOOOO... people believed
- it!!
-
- I would like to thank all the pirates who wrote to me and asked for
- more information, especially those who said "I can't seem to contact this
- machine -- my computer says 'unknown host.' Can you help?" Thanks for a
- good laugh, folks! I can't believe you took this seriously. I mean, one
- guy DID read the hostname backwards, said "Hey, that's cute", but STILL
- asked me for the IP number of the machine so he could connect to it!!
-
- OK folks... when you post a question about illegal activities, and
- somebody answers by saying:
-
- (1) There is a machine whose name backwards spells out "fuck off
- you pirate"; AND,
-
- (2) You have to log in using the name "DAEHKCID" (read it
- backwards); AND,
-
- (3) He claims that the machine is run by a group called
- "Software Crackers United METHODISTS" (yeah, right); AND,
-
- (4) Information can be found in a file called "README.SCUM"; AND,
-
- (5) The poster is widely known for his jokes in c.s.a.advocacy,
-
- then you MIGHT want to think for a minute before believing it. :-)
-
- Sheesh. There are no limits to human stupidity, but I wanted to see
- how far these people would go. So to everyone who wrote for "more
- information", here is what I sent them:
-
- They wrote:
- >[Help, I cannot reach the machine, etc.]
-
- I responded:
- | That's strange. My computer has no problem at all reaching it.
- |(See Below.) I'm afraid I don't know the IP number, so I suggest you send
- |e-mail to your systems administrator asking specifically about the machine
- |etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf. He/she has probably heard of it; it's pretty famous on
- |the Internet.
- |
- |$ ftp etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf
- |Connected to etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf.
- |220 etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf FTP server (Ultrix Version 4.1 Tue May 8 07:03:17 EDT 1990) ready.
- |Name (etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf): DAEHKCID
- |331 Password required for DAEHKCID.
- |Password:
- |230 User DAEHKCID logged in.
- |ftp> cd /pub/amiga/games/commercial
- |250 CWD command successful.
- |ftp> get Civilization.lha
- |200 PORT command successful.
- |150 Opening data connection for Civilization.lha (128.119.40.121,2331) (835969 bytes).
- |226 Transfer complete.
- |local: Civilization.lha remote: Civilization.lha
- |836879 bytes received in 81.3 seconds
- |ftp> quit
- |$
- | Good luck! Please let me know what you find out.
- |
- | Dan
-
-
- Some of the pirates believed this reply, too! They wrote back for
- help when they STILL couldn't reach the machine! So for these people, I
- told them that the IP number was 12.84.987.16 (or something similar) which
- is an illegal Internet address. But "etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf" has illegal
- software on it, so it's only fair. :-) I'm sure these people tried it
- anyway, got "network is unreachable" error messages, and wondered what the
- problem was. Heh.
-
- Anyway, to teach these people a lesson, I have reported all of their
- names and e-mail addresses to the anti-piracy organization, the Software
- Publisher's Association ("SPA") at 800-388-PIR8.
-
- WAIT, before you flame me. The previous sentence is a JOKE. I DID
- NOT report anybody to the SPA. I am KIDDING. But I wanted to give these
- pirates a little scare and teach them three things:
-
- o USENET is not the place to ask about "pirate ftp sites."
- o Don't believe stories like mine so easily!
- o Admitting you are a pirate to a total stranger might be a
- bad idea.
-
- Followups are directed to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, since this has nothing
- to do with games. Please respect the "Followup-To" line.
-
- Dan
-
- //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
- | Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center |
- | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu |
- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
- ---
- Copyright 1992 by Daniel J. Barrett. All rights reserved.
- This article may be freely distributed as long as it is distributed in its
- entirety. It may not be included in any publication without the written
- permission of the author. So nyaaah.
-