At a real level, 2600 is one of the creditors. How does the possibly 2% “go away” money compare to the creditors that are debtors in possession? If they’re getting a substantially better percentage of their money back, 2600 is getting screwed. If not this may just be a sad story. And was the company larded with debt as part of an LBO?
Just a thought here… Even though 2600 magazine is not a large dollar volume publishing house… this may not be the best group of people to piss off and or fuck with.
Most probably all the creditors are being offered 2%. Unfortunately, the trick SE has pulled is absolutely standard in business: spin off a subsidiary, hand them all the debt, they go bankrupt and take your debt with them. I don’t know of any way to reform the practice short of abolishing corporations or rolling out the tumbrels.
One gripe about the lede - it doesn’t make it clear SE owes 2600 money. I thought they were suing for their inconvenience, at first, which is a lot less compelling.
Exactly what I was thinking…
Kind of sad to hear, I’ve been a fan of 2600 since the early 90’s and have about 4 shoe boxes full of their old magazines. I lived in a small landlocked town so I was only able to get them when I occasionally traveled out of town. I so desperately wanted to get a subscription, but my parents were convinced we’d be on some FBI watch list if we did. So anytime I had friends going out of town I’d always give them $20 to swing by a couple bookstores in Anchorage and pick up as many back issues as they could. I swear I learned more about security, programming and how electronics work from that magazine than from most of my programming classes in college. Their website is pretty solid and has most everything on it, but there was something amazing about their funky sized magazines that I just loved.
Can someone help me understand what an underground hacker zine needs with a publisher in 2015, anyway? To get paper distribution in Barnes and Noble?
What blows my mind is that buying a paper copy with cash at a Barnes and Noble is pretty much the only way to get an anonmous, DRM-free copy of the current issue.
What clintcarlson77 and flout said. The printed copy is secure from tracking, takedowns, etc. Many people were wary of having it mailed to their house.
My perspective on “subversive” subscriptions is that for the FBI or whoever to find a publication objectionable, this means that they must subscribe to it themselves. Which makes it hypocritical and bogus to complain about others getting it. Also it represents a weird sort of uncritical bias, because if the FBI read it, and don’t approve of it, this obviously demonstrates that other people or groups might also read diverse things without endorsing the views published in them.
That makes sense, and the paranoiac angle of the zine is in line with not wanting to be tracked. I seriously doubt that FBI is bothering with the small time things described – sometimes in very amateur, naive ways-- but the mag itself is required reading for anyonr interested in the subject matter, whichever “side” they perceive themselves to be on.
What are “small time things”? This with descriptions of amateur and naive seem at odds with calling it required reading!
I think their caution is largely justified. They have encountered some static, and some people have apparently had the possession of this sort of information held against them in legal proceedings. There are those appear to be adamant that certain kinds of information be tightly controlled. Feds also have a history of keeping tabs on leftists for frivolous reasons.
I have been reading it for years. There’s a lot of crap in it, with the occasional gem. I think it’s interesting as a peek into the mind of a hacker or wannabe. Much of the content is small time vandalism or wishful thinking.
Ok… That’s fine but I suppose you could say that about most anything. This doesn’t provide much insight into your specific thoughts. What sort of content are the gems for you? I wouldn’t think vandalism or wishful thinking would have anything to do with hacking or computer security. I haven’t read 2600 for 15 years or so but you make it sound like it’s been overrun by poseurs.
Posers? More like children. Of course, that could be a function of me growing older
Most of today’s high-end security consultants have such beginnings. The prettiest butterflies often come from pretty ugly caterpillars.
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