🚀 go-pugleaf

My friend Julia Menapace (jcm@toad.com) was interviewed today by the
FBI.  They told her over the phone that they were investigating the
NuPrometheus affair last year, in which some person or persons released
source code to part of the Apple Mac system software.  She works at
Apple and knows various folks there, so this was a plausible excuse.
But when they arrived, they were interested in me, due to my
connections with FSF.  They had plenty of misinformation both about me
and about FSF, the most useless of which was the idea that I or FSF had
anything to do with stealing Macintosh source code.

Of course they never tried to talk to me, just to her, who they had heard
knew me pretty well.

If you read this newsgroup, for all I know the FBI will come talk to
you or your friends too.  If they do, they'll probably hit your friends
first, so you might warn them.  I recommend that if the FBI calls, you
tell them where to stuff it.  You are not required to tell them
anything.  They can ask you questions just like any other person can
ask you questions -- and you don't have to answer.  If they show up
with a subpoena (a court document ordering you to testify), then you
do; tell them you'll take written questions and make a written
deposition -- and post both the questions and the answers to the net,
too.  But they won't bring a subpoena before just trying to talk to you
informally.

Things are getting pretty bad when writing code for a free software
organization makes you a target of an FBI investigation.
-- 
John Gilmore      {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu      gnu@toad.com
Just say *yes* to drugs.  If someone offers you a drug war, just say no.