Progress
The summer of 1998 was one of the most productive times we've seen in a while. And from the looks of it, it's just the start of yet another phase in whatever evolution we're going through.
We've said often that every time we get hit with something, whether it be word of a chilling raid somewhere, a moronic law that has no basis in reality, or something a lot closer to home, we progress wind up actually gaining strength when the dust clears.
Well, the dust is far from clearing but it's pretty obvious that we're heading someplace with renewed vigor. The hacker spirit is self-invigorating and it's surprising how many people either never realize this or forget it rather quickly as they move on in life.
Let's start with the close to home stuff. It was a year ago that we first told you about our crippling financial problems, caused primarily by our main distributors going bankrupt and taking a year's worth of our sales with them. We knew we weren't going to let this destroy all we've accomplished over the years but we felt we needed to explain why things might get sort of frozen and unhappy in the months ahead.
To the surprise of many, we didn't stagnate at all. Against the advise of everyone with a modicum of sense, we went forward with new issues, new projects, and new campaigns. We are eternally grateful to those of you who stuck with us in this difficult period, which, we are happy to say, is now behind us. Thanks to strong sales at the newsstands, we've been able to pay just about all of our printing debts and, by the time you read this, we should be entirely caught up. We lost a number of subscribers and we can certainly understand why. If there was even a remote possibility of our going under, who would want to lose their subscription payment? Now that we're back in force, we hope to see the subscription numbers go back up.
The advantages to subscribing: you'll get your issues on time every quarter, you'll be able to take out marketplace ads for free, and you'll occasionally get extra things like the "Free Kevin" stickers we threw in with the Spring issue. We're not trying to discourage people from picking us up at the bookstores and newsstands but we feel it's important to also have a strong subscriber base in case we run into another distributor/bookstore catastrophe down the road.
While we lost a year financially, we were able to minimize our setbacks when it came to the truly important things. Since launching the "Free Kevin" campaign earlier this year, we've managed to raise nearly $3000 for Kevin Mitnick's defense fund through the sale of our bumper stickers. By revamping the www.kevinmitnick.com and www.2600.com sites, we were able to get many more people interested, and hence involved, in something that really mattered.
External forces deserve a lot of credit for moving us forward. The announcement of the Takedown movie in our last issue and in other forums produced a strong reaction, the likes of which we have not seen in our entire publishing history. It was bad enough knowing Kevin was still in prison after more than three years of waiting for a trial that never seemed to come. But now, a film that would portray him as a truly evil person and at the same time line the pockets of those who helped put him in the position he now faces? Even people who thought he was guilty of something came out strongly opposed to this.
It started in July with a demonstration outside Miramax offices in New York by around two dozen of us. That doesn't sound like much but whenever you can get that many people to stand in front of a building with picket signs in this day and age, it's a very significant statement. Sad but true. And the impact of that demonstration was clearly felt throughout the industry. Even the press took notice, although it took most of them a few weeks to get around to covering it. But in the end, our demonstration achieved everything it set out to do: Raise awareness, begin a truly organized campaign, and show support for someone who was unable to defend themselves against a host of really powerful entities.
Miramax, to their credit, had the script rewritten several times, addressing nearly all of our objections to the original version. The infamous garbage can scene has been scrapped. Kevin is no longer portrayed as a violent racist. And, in a nod to reality, serious questions are raised as to just how involved Kevin actually was in the hacking of Tsutomu Shimomura's machine and, even more importantly, just why the FBI was targeting Kevin in the first place. But we can't say we support the film until Kevin himself feels that he's being treated fairly. As of this printing, that has still not happened.
We found a lot of the cause and effect to be really inspiring, so much so that we decided to do something more. So, for a good part of the summer, a group of 2600 people drove through the entire country (unlimited mileage rental car) searching for answers in the whole Mitnick affair and filming as much of it as possible. We spoke with dozens of people on all levels of involvement in the case and came away with nearly 100 hours of footage. What we do with it now depends on what kind of editing equipment we can get our hands on but, suffice to say, we've got a fascinating story to tell and a most interesting counterpoint to the major motion picture that will be out in a year.
Considering the weakened state 2600 was in at the time we began this project, such an endeavor could best be described as foolhardy. Nevertheless, we knew this was the right time, and the only time, we could cover the story in this way. The "Free Kevin" movement has been growing with every passing month and the news of the Takedown movie only served as a catalyst. Again, good has come out of bad and all of us emerge from the darkness with more strength and determination.
We're certainly not the only ones getting the word out. All over the country, kids are handing out leaflets in their schools and malls, spreading awareness and adding to the movement. While we've heard many of them say they were inspired by 2600, the real truth is that nothing makes all of this seem more worthwhile than hearing what they re doing. People in high schools and colleges are realizing they can make a difference, just by standing up for what they believe in. It seems like such a simple thing to do but so few of us actually take the trouble to go and do it. In the end, we believe this will be shown as one of the major reasons why the battle was won.
One of the most dramatic incidents in recent memory was The New York Times web page hack. On Sunday, September 13 (an extremely busy news day due to the Clinton scandal), hackers replaced the usual page with a rambling text, the entirety of which may have been hard for some to understand. But one section quite clearly told of the injustices of the Kevin Mitnick case as well as the culpability of The Times in his capture and the ensuing cashing in of the story. For many, this was their first exposure to any of this.
The message from Kevin and his attorney was very clear: this kind of thing is bad as it sends the wrong message and somehow makes it appear as if he's responsible for net chaos. However, we have mixed feelings. While doing something destructive in Kevin's name certainly won't help his case, we're not entirely sure that's what happened here. The Times is not claiming that there was any destruction to their original page.
A glance at the many forums on the subject reveals that most people don't think the hack itself is a serious matter and that The Times had it coming, both for their lack of security and their apparent lack of journalistic integrity. And most everyone began to express an interest in the Kevin Mitnick story. On the www.kevinmitnick.com site (which was linked from the hacked site), our counter went from 13,534 hits the day before The Times hack to 62,582 hits the day of the hack and 98,116 the day after! Since then it seems to have leveled off between 20,000 and 30,000 a day but it's clear that a lot of interest was generated and many of those new people have been checking in for updated info. Yes, working within the system is preferable. But we cannot control the way everyone spreads the message, nor should we. When the system doesn't respond to continued injustice, people who have any spirit at all will find some way of getting the word out. The Internet is a far more level playing field than many of us realize. And The Times once again missed an opportunity to get it right by merely vowing to prosecute the hackers to the fullest extent of the law instead of looking at themselves to see what might have spurred this.
But throughout all of this, we cannot forget that Kevin remains in prison day after dreary day. Despite all that has been going on out here in the real world, behind bars things have changed remarkably little. Kevin has yet to even get a bail hearing, let alone bail. His latest appeal for this basic human right was turned down by the United States Supreme Court. He still hasn't been able to see the evidence against him because of the prosecution's irresponsible allegation that his accessing the evidence, only available on computer, would somehow create danger. With nearly 10 gigs of data to go through by his trial date in January, we don't see how it's even remotely possible that his defense team can be adequately prepared by then. That, apparently, is how the system works. Kevin will have no preparation for his defense and be forced to either go into court with a tremendous disadvantage or accept an "offer" from the prosecution which would no doubt keep him in prison for even longer and, more important to the prosecution, erode his support network by making him "guilty" in his own words. It's a painful and difficult decision for anyone to have to face. It takes strength to keep up this fight day after day and prison is designed to erode one's strength. The support that people have shown, particularly in recent months, has done much to build Kevin's resolve and to emphasize that maybe things aren't hopeless after all.
No matter what kind of torture/mind games they put him through on the inside, we on the outside must not back down. This has gone on for far too long. Kevin Mitnick deserves to be released immediately. It's no longer an issue of what he did. Enough is enough. His continued incarceration for what he was accused of is nothing short of a human rights abuse. We managed to make this clear to Hollywood. Now it's time for Washington.
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Please show your support by getting as many "Free Kevin" bumper stickers visible as you can. We're selling them for $1 each with a minimum order of 10. Every penny goes towards Kevin's defense fund. We're donating the cost of printing so nothing will be deducted from your contribution. Make your checks/money orders out to Kevin's grandmother, Reba Vartanian, and mail them to us - 2600 Bumper Stickers, PO Box 752, Middle Island, NY 11953. Do not make your checks out to 2600!
You can also show support by grabbing the virtual "Free Kevin" bumper sticker available on the websites named above and getting it placed on as many sites as you can (with permission, please!). If you're interested in printing out a leaflet and distributing it, you can find a section for downloading them on our sites as well.