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> 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. Thi
by RyanZAG 11y ago
> 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 a very controlled level.
Here's a quick rundown of internet access in South Africa during that time period from Wikipedia. From experience, it is accurate.
> The first South African IP address was granted to Rhodes University in 1988.[1] On 12 November 1991, the first IP connection was made between Rhodes' computing centre and the home of Randy Bush in Portland, Oregon.[2] By November 1991, South African universities were connected through UNINET to the Internet. Commercial Internet access for businesses and private use began in June 1992[3] with the registration of the first .co.za subdomain.
You might bring up stuff like BBS, but that was not around in South Africa until after 1990 also. You could technically have imported hardware and connected to a BBS in USA, but the costs involved and control of the only Telecoms operator allowed in Apartheid South Africa (Telkom) would have been unaffordable. Especially for Krugersdorp. I doubt you'd get some kind of USA led local police raid for pornography in Apartheid South Africa either. The whole thing would need some serious evidence.
- alricb 11y ago"On-Line" might mean on a Bulletin Board System, some of which did do pornography.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mchaver 11y agoI also thought it was interesting to learn that South Africa did not introduce television until 1976 (assuming this article is correct). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_South_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_South_Africa
- kieranhunt 11y agoI can confirm. My gran still has (she's not using it) her original TV bought around the time. From the stories my parents tell the SABC (think BBC) initialy broadcast a test signal and the early adopters would crowd around their TVs just to watch that.
- JonoBB 11y agoI can confirm first hand - I was one of those watching that damn TV signal for hours :)
- spullara 11y agoTo run a BBS you need nothing more than a C64, a 300 bps modem and a phone line. Also, I'm not sure if you know anything about phone phreaking but in the 80s it was pretty much the preferred method of connecting to BBSs internationally.
- RyanZAG 11y agoYes but from a teenager in Krugersdorp? And South Africa did not have such easy access to the international telephone market. The country was in the middle of economic sanctions at the time - international calls had to be placed through a switchboard with the government run telecom monopoly provider - Telkom. They also cost a literal arm and a leg for a couple minutes and were heavily monitored by the Apartheid regime. An actual police state.
- RoboErectus 11y agoAs a teenager in the US, it was one of my main activities, so I can believe the age. I'm not sure about how it would go in SA.
- waterlesscloud 11y agoTeenager in the US at the same time. Yep, this is exactly what we did with our 8-bit machines and modems at the time. We were global even then. EDIT- LOL. I guess the HN downvoters have proof this isn't what we were doing back then???
- oldmanjay 11y agoI didn't vote, but my guess would be that this is a me-too comment, which the community discourages. If you wish to echo a parent comment, it's expected that you add a significant contribution.
- waterlesscloud 11y agoCool. I guess we're all better off for the downvotes then. Honestly, I'm outta here. Had enough of this. Changing my password to something I'll never remember. Rage on, kids.
- casca 11y agoThere was a small community in South Africa that used to connect to the Internet around that time by dialing into X.25-connected modems. These seemed to be owned by banks or insurance companies, and would allow break-outs to US modems that allowed local calling to ISPs. The information about the numbers and credentials were shared on local BBSs. Source: was personally involved
- buserror 11y agoI agree. I used to do the same from France. Got me a a HELL of a lot of trouble in fact, as I've racked up a huge X25 bill with one company, and accidentally registered under my real name to a texan BBS that was later involved in the Hacker's Crackdown. Also, on the note of 'porn online in the late 80's' is probably impossible, as there were no digital cameras, no scanners to speak of, and the only 'porn' you'd have found would have been rare, and very, very data intensive for the days. I know. :-) And /most/ countries police forces had absolutely no clue whatsoever about 'online', 'computers', 'modems', 'internet' and 'keyboards'. I know the french didn't! Those were the days, etc etc :-)
- toyg 11y agoHe could have been selling actual magazines and tapes, rather than digital files. As I'm sure you remember, snail mail orders were part and parcel of the BBS world for all sorts of things.
- estefan 11y agoAny story featuring a character called "Randy Bush" should be taken with a pinch of salt...
- jlgaddis 11y agoWhy's that? Do you know who this particular Randy Bush is and his history with regard to the Internet?
- acqq 11y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc&t=1m25s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc&t=1m25s "PILATE: What's so... funny about 'Biggus Dickus'? CENTURION: Well, it's a joke name, sir. PILATE: I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome called..." (And he really did have this friend! Heh. Comedy, one way or another)
- camperman 11y agoRandy Bush is an awesome man who was key to getting South Africa connected to the Internet.
- xorcist 11y ago>> 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.
- zymhan 11y agoI didn't take that as actually transferring the porn online, but as using the BBS to facilitate sales of physical copies.
- nommm-nommm 11y agoBack in the day, before video streaming or video downloading I used to buy anime fansubs online. I sent in a check to someone and they mailed me VHS tapes.
- grandinj 11y agoIt's more likely he was using the "internet" to sell VHS tapes. Most probably via the form of Internet known as Beltel (I worked on Beltel for a while) and that is quite plausible.
- ilitirit 11y agoI'd have to agree. Most ZA BBSs only popped up after 1990. http://bbs.hmvh.net/lists/the_list.htm http://bbs.hmvh.net/lists/the_list.htm There were a few that were around during the late 80s, so it's plausible that there may have been BBS catering to porn. But to sell it via BBS during the late 80s? From Krugersdorp? No ways. The people who were really in the know about stuff like this were guys like tKC from The Phrozen Crew, and in his own words, he only started catching onto BBS in 1991. http://defacto2.net/wayback/the-life-and-legend-of-tkc-2000-october-10/index.html http://defacto2.net/wayback/the-life-and-legend-of-tkc-2000-... Phrozen Crew were a very well-known cracking group during the 90s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_warez_groups#Phrozen_Crew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_warez_groups#Phrozen_C...
- casca 11y agoI question the accuracy of the BBS list. There are some on there that are dated 1992 that I'm quite sure I was connecting to at 300 baud earlier than the dates given.
- hendry 11y ago> Telecoms operator allowed in Apartheid South Africa (Telkom) would have been unaffordable. Bluebeep dude! Where were you? https://twitter.com/kaihendry/status/714901743830700032 https://twitter.com/kaihendry/status/714901743830700032