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He Always Had a Dark Side

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131–140 of 380 posts

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#131
post #13

> Lulu told me that when Le Roux was 15 or 16, in the late 1980s, the local police raided the family home and arrested Paul for selling pornography online. This seems a bit odd to me, having lived in South Africa at that time. There's almost no way a guy at home would have had that kind of access in Apartheid South Africa to the internet back then. There was access, but it was through big companies or academia and on…

>> late 1980s [... ]arrested Paul for selling pornography online

> This seems a bit odd to me

Understatement of the week. As you say, it wouldn't have been on the Internet. I know nothing about the South African BBS scene of the time but it would have been very small. And selling pornography online? How would you even have gone about that? That would have been cash transactions down in the corner. For downloading porn at 1200 bits per second.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#132

Original author of the story here... Just to add that 1. yes, the reporting on Le Roux's childhood is more tentative based on a family source (well backed up by docs and images sent to me). But the fact that the same Le Roux created E4M which formed the basis of TrueCrypt is something I think I've established definitively, company and site registration trails show it very firmly (and PLR himself admits it in court, b…

The birth certificate says, "Paul Calder Le Roux", but the diplomatic passport names him, "Paul SOLOTSHI Calder Le Roux". What's with the SOLOTSHI? Was that a nickname, an additional real name, or just a false name he threw in to the mix?

Solotshi appears to be a very uncommon Congolese name. Le Roux's story starts in Africa, and the author alleges he was an arms dealer - maybe there's some connection there.

http://forebears.io/surnames/solotshi

Or maybe, as the above website shows, it's an alternative spelling for a similar Moldovan or Georgian name? I have no idea.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#133

Original author of the story here... Just to add that 1. yes, the reporting on Le Roux's childhood is more tentative based on a family source (well backed up by docs and images sent to me). But the fact that the same Le Roux created E4M which formed the basis of TrueCrypt is something I think I've established definitively, company and site registration trails show it very firmly (and PLR himself admits it in court, b…

The story is really, really captivating and really Bond-ian. Thanks for telling it so far.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His name seems to be quite well known at this point, lots of stories about him cooperating with US feds in 2014-2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/in-real-life-ra... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/us-reveals-crimin...

He's pretty much a Bond villain from those articles, like the UN claiming he funded militias in Somalia to harvest hallucinogenic plants and shipping arms to Liberia. Probably would've made the same amount of money charging for TC premium support instead of building a pancontinental empire of mercenaries and arms trafficking.

Lord of War taught us such people won't enter such businesses because the "margins are too small." I'd also guess it's not as exciting and brings in less attention from the ladies.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#135
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't you nervous about doxxing someone like that so thoroughly?

Why should they be nervous about doing their job? Also, one X, not two: https://stallman.org/doxing.html

Is Stallman a new William Safire or Brian Garner? I never knew this was one of his areas of expertise. Oxford lists "doxx" as an alternate but accepted version. I don't have an OED license so I dont have access to the full etymology they use.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dox

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His name seems to be quite well known at this point, lots of stories about him cooperating with US feds in 2014-2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/in-real-life-ra... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/us-reveals-crimin...

He's pretty much a Bond villain from those articles, like the UN claiming he funded militias in Somalia to harvest hallucinogenic plants and shipping arms to Liberia. Probably would've made the same amount of money charging for TC premium support instead of building a pancontinental empire of mercenaries and arms trafficking.

I think you underestimate how much can be made from arms trafficking!

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#137
post #13

> Lulu told me that when Le Roux was 15 or 16, in the late 1980s, the local police raided the family home and arrested Paul for selling pornography online. This seems a bit odd to me, having lived in South Africa at that time. There's almost no way a guy at home would have had that kind of access in Apartheid South Africa to the internet back then. There was access, but it was through big companies or academia and on…

>> late 1980s [... ]arrested Paul for selling pornography online > This seems a bit odd to me Understatement of the week. As you say, it wouldn't have been on the Internet. I know nothing about the South African BBS scene of the time but it would have been very small. And selling pornography online? How would you even have gone about that? That would have been cash transactions down in the corner. For downloading por…

I didn't take that as actually transferring the porn online, but as using the BBS to facilitate sales of physical copies.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#138

Not to be pedantic, but you wrote "cutting out the middleman." Doesn't patreon take a small cut? Aren't they a middleman? (Though undoubtedly one taking a much smaller share than previous ones.)

Payments-wise, yes. Patreon does remove the middleman of your publisher, though, in terms of how your audience connects with you.

Which is usually called another term, the "gatekeeper".

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#139
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't "doxxing people" the actual job of a journalist?

Does that make it okay? Do the reasons we find it socially unacceptable in other instances apply to journalists?

Not everyone finds it socially unacceptable.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#140
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't "doxxing people" the actual job of a journalist?

Does that make it okay? Do the reasons we find it socially unacceptable in other instances apply to journalists?

Who finds it socially unacceptable? Redditors?
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