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For the past week or so we've seen a ton of buzz about some political
mudslingers "revealing" the "secret" identity
of a rather well known cracking scene figure from the old days,
Strider/Fairlight.
The geek-driven ad-click-revenue-hungry websites have jumped on this like crazy, while the real
and respectable media fortunately seems to be staying on the conservative side for now
(no pun intended). Just to bring in some context, from a person who has gone
through a lot of similar so-called-secret information thanks to
a certain historical hobby project,
let me clarify two things many of you seem to be confused about:
There is no story. The "posing with porn stars" bit should've tipped
you on this one, but what we're seeing is just an old fashioned smear campaign with
absolutely zero news value. By all accounts, this guy left the scene way back
in the early 90s to focus on his real life, much like hundreds of others before and after
him. If he actually did perform criminal activities, they'd be so ancient the statute of
limitations would've passed 10 times by now - if such acts were even considered illegal
in Sweden some 15-20 years ago. Besides, I don't recall reading anything about this person
ever even being accused of any copyright violation, let alone convicted.
Even with some interesting PO Boxes and BBS:es in the Arab Emirates and some money
unquestionably changing hands, the scene was a lot more innocent in the late 80s and
early 90s when people like the FLT founders were active. We're talking about a hobby of
some geeky teenagers here, not organized crime. I'd be willing to bet large sums on the
fact that a large percentage of politicians active in both major US parties have engaged
in similar, if not worse activities in their rebellious teen years.
There is no big "revelation". Seriously. All information "exposed"
here can be found using a few simple Google searches and other publicly available material.
Anyone could do it. Of course you need a political agenda to motivate you actually
go hunting down people in such a silly way. While archiving old Amiga scene material, I've
stumbled upon dozens upon dozens of real life identities behind scene people of the 80s and 90s, on
both the legal and illegal side. In process I have also found out about the embarassing teenage shenanigans of
numerous people currently in very public positions. The fact that these kids weren't too careful of
hiding their identities back then might give you a hint on how serious their activities actually were.
However, the potential for childish stunts like the one in question has kept me from ever mentioning these connections publicly in
my database. Want me to expose
the juicy bits? Fuck off and do your own "research". The material is available
all over the place.
Move along, nothing to see here.
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