Page 10      Diablo Blue      December, 2000

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pensive. Many people who frequent the computer security newsgroups at news.grc.com (Gibson Research, makers of SpinRite) have banded together in a grass-roots organization to help Keith. Within a few days of the filing of the lawsuit against Keith, a legal defense fund was chartered in the state of New York to help Keith with his expenses in fighting the suit. Then seven heavy servers and over 100 mirror sites around the world were set up to publicize this situation. Other people donated their time to searching the web for information about LockDown 2000 to support Keith's case. Others donated money to the legal defense fund. Go here to see the whole story: www.pchelpers.org.
As a long-time computer user, I know better than to believe the claims printed on the box of software or in flashy advertisements. Instead, I look to independent reviews by magazines and people I trust. If this libel suit results in a victory for LockDown 2000, it will also result in the loss of unbiased reviews for you and me. What independent reviewer would be foolish enough to give any software a bad review, when that could result in a long, expensive lawsuit? Unfortunately, the lawsuit is already having adverse effects. Fred Langa, software reviewer and former BYTE editor, has said he will not review LockDown 2000 because of its litigious attitude. See his remarks here: www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-11-13.htm.
Thank you for your attention to this rather long article. If you are concerned about computer security and having access to independent software reviews, please tell your friends about this. We have to stick together and stand up for our rights.

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2)    Hyper-Hyperlinked:  You have an incredible urge to click all underlined words when reading the newspaper. -- Jackson Hewett
3)    The New Agoraphobia:  You haven't been outside in days because you work at home, all your friends are on ICQ, you can order all your food online, you've just downloaded a copy of The Matrix, and you're waiting for your eBay auction to end. -- Jason Thomas
4)    To Market, to Market:  Your dog's Web site has an IPO. -- Dan Kohansby
5)    Ping-Pong Machine:  The message on your telephone answering machine is something like, "Hi, you've reached the address of www.JoeSmith.net; please leave your IP address, and I'll ping you as soon as I can." -- Rex Johnson
6)    The Writing's on the Wall:  All of your hand-written notes and letters are written in Graffiti hand-strokes. -- Marcus J. Albers
7)    Do You Deliver?  You think nothing of spending ten hours searching the Net for the perfect desktop icon, but going five steps down the street for food is too much bother. -- Beth Slick
8)    Parental Control:  When your five-year-old daughter asks a question, you tell her to go "Ask Jeeves." -- Chantelle Conti
9)    World Untraveler:  You have enough frequent flyer miles on your credit card to go around the world 11 times, but you haven't left your apartment in two years. -- Kevin McCarthy
10)    You're Reading This! Even worse:  You're going to forward it to someone else. -- Herb Schwabe