Re: earlier posting of users' passwords and credit card numbers

[steinber () SLINKY CS NYU EDU (Joseph Steinberg)]

On Mon, 10 Oct 1994, Derik Jarne x353-2490 wrote:

> > Then WE!, US! ME! YOU! should find out WHO is sending and start pulling 
> > fingernails. Maybe the FBI would be interested in this sort of #$%#^% @^%@& !!!!
>
> > > The FBI has power only in the USA -- the Inernet is global -- if someone 
> > > from Iran posts a credit card number of a US account -- do you really 
> > > think abything can happen to the poster?
> > > REMEBER THE INTERNET IS **NOT** SUBJECT TO US LAW EXCEPT INSIDE THE USA!!!!
>
>
> Under your concept a foreigner in the USA cannot be held accountable
> for acts of crime so long as they originate in some other country.
> Like a letter bomb. 
>
> No, I think that the FBI would be interested in this, or should be!!
>
> As far as I know it did originate in the USA. 
>
> Do you know something we do not?
I have no idea what the issue being discussed is -- i.e., I did not 
receive any passwords, etc. ( I delete most bugtraq mail w/o reading it 
-- i read only specific stuff -- i.e., SUNOS stuff).

But your comparison is simply WRONG.

The comparison would be that a foreigner cannot be punished by the USA 
fordoing an action in a foreign country that MAY OR MAY NOT BE ILLEGAL 
there -- and then other people propogate the info he released into the USA.

E.g., it is legal to distribute certain encryption algorithms in Europe, 
while in the USA it is not. Well, someone posted one such algorithm onto 
the net last month -- he did it in Europe. HE DID NOT COMMITT A CRIME. He 
had the legal right in his country to post the message to his computer in 
his country. If anyone did anything wrong -- it was the sys admins in the 
USA who allowed the message onto their systems.... but what do you want 
-- sys admins to tread every message that comes onto their systems???

The same is true for US COpyright laws, Pornography laws, and encryption 
laws... The laws in each of these areas is more linient in many countries 
around the world -- and people in these countries have the right to post 
material onto the net that is illegal to possess or distribute in the USA...

JS
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