d on the E911 Document, were quietly
forgotten at his sentencing--even though Prophet had already pled
guilty to them. Georgia federal prosecutors strongly argued for jail
time for the Atlanta Three, insisting on "the need to send a message to
the community," "the message that hackers around the country need to
hear."

There was a great deal in their sentencing memorandum about the awful
things that various other hackers had done (though the Atlanta Three
themselves had not, in fact, actually committed these crimes). There
was also much speculation about the awful things that the Atlanta Three
MIGHT have done and WERE CAPABLE of doing (even though they had not, in
fact, actually done them). The prosecution's argument carried the day.
The Atlanta Three were sent to prison: Urvile and Leftist both got 14
months each, while Prophet (a second offender) got 21 months.

The Atlanta Three were also assessed staggering fines as "restitution":
$233,000 each. BellSouth claimed that the defendants had "stolen"
"approximately $233,880 worth" of "proprietary computer access
information"--specifically, $233,880 worth of computer passwords and
connect addresses. BellSouth's astonishing claim of the extreme value
of its own computer passwords and addresses was accepted at face value
by the Georgia court. Furthermore (as if to emphasize its theoretical
nature) this enormous sum was not divvied up among the Atlanta Three,
but each of them had to pay all of it.

A striking aspect of the sentence was that the Atlanta Three were
specifically forbidden to use computers, except for work or under
supervision. Depriving hackers of home computers and modems makes some
sense if one considers hackers as "computer addicts," but EFF, filing
an amicus brief in the case, protested that this punishment was
unconstitutional--it deprived the Atlanta Three of their rights of free
association and free expression through electronic media.

Terminus, the "ultimate hacker," was finally sent to prison for a year
through the dogged efforts of the Chicago Task Force. His crime, to
which he pled guilty, was the transfer of the UNIX password trapper,
which was officially valued by AT&T at $77,000, a figure which aroused
intense skepticism among those familiar with UNIX "login.c" programs.

The jailing of Terminus and the Atlanta Legionnaires of Doom, however,
did not cause the EFF any sense of embarrassment or defeat. On the
contrary, the civil liber