15 years in PRISON for running RC5? That's what David McOwen is facing at the hands of Georgia State bureaucrats!
Please take the time to read through this material and use the links provided at the bottom.
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IMPORTANT UPDATE: This whole mess just gets worse. The state of Georgia has now added a SECOND felony charge bringing the total possible prison sentence to 30 years! Just to salt the wound, this also adds another $100,000.00 in fines the already outrageous money they are seeking!
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT UPDATE: Based on the fact that the ZDNet article specifically mentioned David's place of employment, they have summarily terminated him from his job! He is now not only staring at mounting legal bills and the possibility of prison, he has no income. How much can one family endure?
This story is so outrageous, so incredible and so utterly ridiculous that, at first blush, one might be inclined to dismiss it as just another internet hoax. After all, why would a state government seek over four hundred thousand dollars and 15 years in prison simply for running RC5? Why would they seek to destroy the life of a man and his family over something so innocuous?
Tragically, this is NOT a hoax. It is REAL.
This is a classic example of a bureaucracy out of control. A story of politicians and civil servants attempting to justify their existence by making an example of an everyday Joe. All the while, the REAL criminals go free and laugh at the system. The implications of this case are frightening for all who care about our freedoms; for all who believe in the premise that government is there to serve the people, and not the other way around.
For those who aren't up to speed, a brief synopsis: In 1999, David McOwen was a system configurator in the Georgia school system. During the course of his work, he installed the RC5 client on multiple computers in that system. Did he have permission? We don't know at this point, but that is not even the REAL issue.
The RC5 client is part of a worldwide contest sponsored by RSA, the developers and owners of the code. It sits quietly in the background doing it's thing, interferes with nothing, and is as harmless as a screensaver.
After about six months, he was dismissed from his job, without question or warning, and was never given the opportunity to remove the clients from the machines. (This is an important factor to bear in mind).
Eighteen months after the fact, the state of Georgia has charged him with a FELONY, that carries a prison term of up to 15 YEARS. In addition, they are seeking damages of over $400,000.00. How did they arrive at that ludicrous figure? They are claiming that the distributed.net client cost them 59 cents per SECOND. Their stupidity would be laughable were it not for the tragic consequences to this man's life.
These charges are based on a very poorly written, and broad-based anti-hacking statute that is so sloppy, you could conceivably be facing the same government onslaught for doing nothing more then receiving a personal eMail on your work system. This type of action is NOT what this law is all about. It was not the intent. But, these politicos have seized on this an an opportunity to try and prove to an easily misled public that they are somehow protecting us from the evil hackers of the world.
David is certainly no evil hacker. He is a hard-working, law abiding family man staring at the complete devastation of everything he has, or will ever have. Right now, he and his family are living in terror because of a small group of ne'er do well officials out to make a name for themselves.
For David's sake, and our OWN, we must do what we can to help!
PLEASE, if you do nothing else today, at least use the links provided below to get involved in this. It could be any one of us that they come after next. THANK YOU!
