Underground Mac Community Foils a Coup

An anonymous reader writes "In an attempted palace coup that would not have been out of place in a Shakespearian tragedy, a moderator faction at Mac Serial Junkie, one of the largest underground Mac communities, was shut out this weekend after it was discovered that many staff members were plotting a coup. The plans included a surreptitious takeover of the domain name macserialjunkie.com. In an Open Letter to the Community, the founders of MSJ explain how a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years, only to be foiled at the last minute."

Hmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hm. I wonder who submitted this story? The foiled coup members, maybe?

kdawson is a shared account

[Nymz]

Anytime there's a story that's not story-worthy, or obviously false politcal propaganda, they use the kdawson account to publish it, thus saving their own reputation. There is no way it could be one man.

Re:Who cares?

[vertinox]

Amusing that people who are content to rip off other people's hard work suddenly think they have the moral high ground when they're about to be ripped off themselves.

Are we talking about the CEO who laid off half the development team, required the remainder to work over time, and then gave himself a bonus by firing the rest after the product went gold or the pirates?

I say this because more than naught developers are underpaid for their work and then have the hounds released on them by the bean counters when quarter figures need to look better.

I don't say this to justify piracy (and I highly disapprove of it), but at the same time it could be developers work is being undermined by pirates when they are really getting the proverbial shaft by their management or publisher is often the real root of the bane of the developers.

Personally, I always buy direct from small time developers directly... It helps them more than having a large corporate structure of marketing types showing government officials powerpoint presentations on all their theoretical losses so they can get a tax break and still lay off their developers.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mac users are more willing to pay for the software they use. That said, sometimes a pirated serial is the only way to test or run an app.

For me, it's because the developer/software company doesn't accept PayPal.

I've paid for lots of software with my PayPal account, but without a credit card I can't purchase the other programs I'd like to.

So, I get a pirated serial and use that.

Every time the developer releases an update, I check to see if they (or Kagi) have started accepting PayPal yet. If so, I happily give them my money in exchange for a proper license. If not, I continue with the working serial.

Other good reasons to use a pirated serial include requiring internet activation when you don't have an internet connection, testing the software for longer than the 15- or 30-day trial period, or getting screwed on update charges when you only recently purchased the (formerly current, now out-of-date) program and the developer releases a paid upgrade a month later.

Oh My God - Did You See!

[Bob Cat - NYMPHS]

Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison are wearing the same outfit!

Re:tag this whocares

[24-bit Voxel]

Funny you should mention this. When I was just a kid of about 12 or 13 years old the going modem rate was 2400 baud and BBS's were where it was at. The rules to get access to the adult sections were always crazy like send in a photocopy of a drivers license, and often times pretending to be a girl and flirting with the sysop gained you entry within 10 minutes, no ID required. Most of the time I just typed out word for word the bs letters from penthouse/playboy I'd found in my dad's closet. (In these days porn 'video' found online was usually about 12 frames of animation that was looped very well so the male was in a perpetual thrusting motion. Hilarious.)

The best is when they called you out for downloading porn that obviously was predominately female, and telling the sysop that you really liked girls as well as guys and before you know it you have superuser status. You could download all kinds of things with that. (I think this is how I played police quest 2.) I remember having to setup fake 'meetings' with some of these sysops, just to keep status for a few more days. Nothing elevated user privelages faster than the possibility of some "hot chick" who is into girls and wants to meet you. Then I'd hide out for a few months and repeat the process all over again.

My pops at the time didn't have unlimited local calling for the phone line and our first months phone bill was something like 700 dollars. Ah, those were the days.

Anyway, don't always assume that the "chatroom moderator" isn't just out to find some busty images back in those days. Often it was guys pretending to be girls.