Organization: Toronto's Arts Newspaper ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY September 22 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EYE NET EYE NET PRESS, POLICE AND PORN REVISITED by K.K. CAMPBELL Once again, the news media finds itself being used to misrepresent the nature of the net for the Big Story about the 3Ps -- Pedophilia, Pornography or Piracy. On Sept. 14, CITY-TV's CityPulse News did a story about "Mr. Concerned Citizen," who is worried children can access hardcore porn on the net through a system called called Interlog. Mr. Concerned Citizen is Bruce Lloyd of Agincourt, who filed a complaint with Metro Police Chief William McCormack against Interlog. We also met Interlog owner Matt Harrop (mharrop@interlog.com), a 19-year-old with dyed-purple hair. It's the sort of juxtaposition of images that the camera loves: Mr. Concerned-Citizen-Who-Loves- Children versus Freaky-Haired Porn-Peddler. But that's not quite the whole story. It turns out Lloyd is himself a writer of copious vile material. Lloyd had not counted on some elements of the news media discovering his net.history. (Joe Baptista, a friend of Lloyd's, similarly suckered CITY news in January with the fake story that the Ontario government computers held banned Karla Homolka newstories in them.) In fact, as this column will demonstrate, Lloyd's complaint issues from a personal vendetta against Harrop. Sysadmins, take note. LLOYD IN ACTION Let's review some of Lloyd's posting habits. It all seems to have started around Aug. 21, when Lloyd entered into a flamewar with rabid homophobe Chuck Whealton (chuck@hopi.dtcc.edu). * Lloyd began mailbombing Whealton's site, a definite no-no. * Lloyd soon claimed he'd found out where Whealton lives and that he and friends would drive down to Delaware and gang rape Whealton: "I can't wait to have sex with him ... maybe we could do it at the same time! I bet he's never had two guys up his ass at once before!" * Lloyd has the curious distinction of being even more hated by most online gays than brain-dead homophobes like Whealton. Quotes from his public posts afford a glimpse into why. Lloyd wrote some interesting posts to lesbian netters: "You just can't leave me alone ... Enjoy being a failure, Cuntlicker." "Perchance a rigorous butt-fuck is what you need to loosen up, Cuntrag?" In a phone interview, Lloyd admitted to eye he wrote these remarks -- in fact, he giggled when admitting to them. "Well, you know, I was trying to be insulting." * His interest in protecting children from porn is also clear from this Usenet post: "I love straight fuckers like this. What they really need is to have their dicks tied up in leather straps and then have needles pierced right through them." * On the "pornography" front, Lloyd sent a very detailed post called "How To Suck A Penis" to newsgroups accessible by children. (He did not write it, just distributed it.) "If Mr. Lloyd is so concerned about children being allowed on this network, why was he contributing his own obscene material?" asks Ken Weaverling (weave@dtcc.edu), manager of computer services at Stanton/Wilmington Campuses of Delaware Technical & Community College -- the site that has Whealton as a user. For a fuller archive of Lloyd's public Usenet posts, use anonymous FTP to hopi.dtcc.edu in directory ~ftp/interlog. To experienced netters, these quotes from Lloyd's net.writings aren't that shocking and are dismissed as immature attempts to shock. They are really just his way of "turning up the heat" in this medium. But they become important to prove Lloyd's motives when he lays a complaint with the chief of police. HARROP IN ACTION Other netters had long been complaining about Lloyd to sysadmin Harrop. After the rape threat, Harrop asked Lloyd to tone it down. "I informed him his account would be terminated if he kept it up," Harrop said. "At this point, he attempted to blackmail me. He said he'd go to the police with obscenity charges against Interlog if he was removed." Reading that, Harrop said enough was enough and wrote Lloyd email that his account was history. Lloyd was permitted a farewell letter, which Harrop would use as proof Lloyd had read the termination notice. It begins: "Matt, I'll let you know that you've pissed me off. You've wasted a lot of your time and energy on nothing. I encouraged a lot of people to use your system. Now, they will not. I am very sorry, Matt, it sounds like you are going to lose a lot more than just me as a user. You are also going to lose Apple as a customer." (When eye called Apple, a spokesperson emphatically denied that Lloyd is an actual Apple employee. He is a subcontracted phone-tech support staffer -- he answers questions from Mac users who forget where the "on" switch is.) Lloyd again made the police threat: "I might mention that I am thinking of going to the police anyway. You are carrying highly illegal material on your system. Pornographic and obscene material. You are directly responsible for this." The next day (Sept. 13), Lloyd faxed media a release entitled "Metro Police To Investigate Obscenity Charges Against Toronto Internet Service Provider" -- before the police had even read the complaint. Lloyd told eye it's strictly coincidence his complaint came the day after he was kicked off Interlog. Most netters don't buy Lloyd's story for a second. But they worry that unless press and/or police get savvy to how the Internet works, anyone with a grudge will be able to do what Lloyd did. Meanwhile, the real victim in all this is business owner Matt Harrop and Interlog, portrayed by a gullible mainstream media outlet as purveyors of porn to children. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Full issue of eye available in archive ==> gopher.io.org or ftp.io.org Mailing list available http://www.io.org/eye eye@io.org "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421