This was first posted in the topic that the subject originated, http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?start=1&catid=39&threadid=490400, but I felt it needed some more attention because we need to help this guy out.
The basis of the case is that this guy administered some computers at a school he worked for and had installed the distributed.net rc5 program on the computers 2 years ago. The State of Georgia is now suing him for $415,000 including $0.59 per second of bandwidth by the clients.
In response to this I would like everyone to email a letter to my address at aschrader@tech-reviews.com addressed to state officials of Georgia as if you were writing them a letter directly. Since most of these officials do not have email addresses (surprise), I will print out each message and after a few hundred will send them off via postal mail to the each official (governor, attorney general, senators, representatives). I feel that this method will be more effective than email even if email were possible because these people tend to have a trained monkey, umm, I mean secretary that systematically deletes email messages but may pay more attention to a real letter.
Please send the email with the subject line of "Georgia RC5 Case". I hope to have a webpage setup soon where this can be done via form but email will work for now. Some things I would suggest in the email are the following. First of all do not swear as I will probably filter it out or just throw out your message. This only diminishes the cause by making us look like foolish whining children. Secondly please keep the letters at a somewhat professional level so that because of one obnoxious letter they are not all thrown out.
On another note I am also considering setting up a paypal account (or maybe just using mine because it is never used) to take donations to pay for this guys legal fees. Of course any money that did not end up going towards these fees would be returned to everyone in the proportion that they gave.
Perhaps someone else with some legal experience could follow this post up with some advice on how to write this letter to make it most effective. Also, if you have any advice/comments/questions please feel free to email them to me.
-Adam Schrader
aschrader@tech-reviews.com
The basis of the case is that this guy administered some computers at a school he worked for and had installed the distributed.net rc5 program on the computers 2 years ago. The State of Georgia is now suing him for $415,000 including $0.59 per second of bandwidth by the clients.
In response to this I would like everyone to email a letter to my address at aschrader@tech-reviews.com addressed to state officials of Georgia as if you were writing them a letter directly. Since most of these officials do not have email addresses (surprise), I will print out each message and after a few hundred will send them off via postal mail to the each official (governor, attorney general, senators, representatives). I feel that this method will be more effective than email even if email were possible because these people tend to have a trained monkey, umm, I mean secretary that systematically deletes email messages but may pay more attention to a real letter.
Please send the email with the subject line of "Georgia RC5 Case". I hope to have a webpage setup soon where this can be done via form but email will work for now. Some things I would suggest in the email are the following. First of all do not swear as I will probably filter it out or just throw out your message. This only diminishes the cause by making us look like foolish whining children. Secondly please keep the letters at a somewhat professional level so that because of one obnoxious letter they are not all thrown out.
On another note I am also considering setting up a paypal account (or maybe just using mine because it is never used) to take donations to pay for this guys legal fees. Of course any money that did not end up going towards these fees would be returned to everyone in the proportion that they gave.
Perhaps someone else with some legal experience could follow this post up with some advice on how to write this letter to make it most effective. Also, if you have any advice/comments/questions please feel free to email them to me.
-Adam Schrader
aschrader@tech-reviews.com