[Users] A Serious Miscarriage of Justice...

[Robert Cummings]

Hi.

I logged into the zone just in time to catch the end of all this 
when Doug V banned the other user in question (phantom500 I 
believe it was, or something like that).  I looked back in QN 
History and in my opinion, both of you were violating the Terms 
Of Service to exchanging tips on the best way to hack the 
computer of another user who was logged in at the time.  Hacking 
is not only against the TOS, it is also illegal and the TOS 
clearly states (in section 6 I believe) that discussing illegal 
activity on the Zone BBS is not allowed.  I have just returned 
from a 2 week ban for the discussion of illegal activity (i'm not 
going into details about my ban, it's done now and life goes on).  
But from what I saw in QN History, both of you were violating the 
TOS.  No offense Tyler, but i'm gonna have to agree with Doug V 
on this one.  I'll log into the zone now and have another look at 
QN History so I can get more information about this.

Robert AKA The Professional

PS.  I cannot comment on the code you sent out as i'm not a 
programmer myself, but you were still discussing illegal 
activity, so even if the code was harmless, it was still a 
violation of the TOS in my opinion.

> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tyler" <twkav at kc.rr.com
>To: <users at zonebbs.com
>Date sent: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:18:44 -0600
>Subject: [Users] A Serious Miscarriage of Justice...

>Hello all,

>I feel that a serious miscarriage of justice was committed 
yesterday
>(Thursday, December 24, 2009) on the Zone.  I had written some 
innocuous
>(harmless) code in C (which I will reprint below), and this 
prompted an
>investigation by Doug V, who came to the conclusion that, in his 
words, I
>had been "suggesting ways . . .  to hack [another user]'s 
account." The code
>I had written has nothing whatsoever to do with hacking.  Doug 
subsequently
>banned me for two weeks for my (apparent) wrongdoing.  I appealed 
the
>decision to the administration, and have yet to get a response.  
Another user
>was banned about thirty minutes before me on the same count.  
Here is the
>code, more or less.  Tell me, people: Is this, or is this not, 
considered
>"hacking another user's account?" My opinion is that it is not.

>---Start of Code---

>int main(int argc, char **argv[]){
>for (int i=1; i<=(sizeof(byte)*sizeof(ulong64)*209); i++)
>malloc((i*sizeof(ulong64)+sizeof(int64)*512));
>}

>---End of Code---

>This is simply a block of memory-allocation code (which, btw, 
won't work
>because malloc needs a variable to store its result in), which I 
directed at
>the user whose account Doug said I was suggesting ways to hack.  
Honestly, I
>feel that our CL's, before banning people, need to know *what* 
exactly they
>are dealing with (be it computer programming, speaking foreign 
languages,
>etc), and they need to do a thorough investigation to figure out 
exactly
>what harm, or lack thereof, could come from the questionable 
content posted
>in quicknotes or other media.
>Do you think that Doug was right in banning me for this? Why or 
why not?

>Thanks for your attention.
>Tyler (a.k.a.  twkav on the Zone)