-=> Quoting John Waters to All <=-

 Hello,

 This is a difficult letter to write, for I feel I have let
 all of you down. I know that, given the same situation, most
 of you probably would have done the same thing, but the feeling
 is hard to shake. I feel like my right arm has been cut off... I
 really put my heart in that puppy (BBS) and shutting it down was
 the very last thing I wanted to do.

 On Jan 10th, about 2pm, the P.O. box that Sat Co-op had rented
 was served a Federal Subpoena by a FBI agent. About 1 hr later
 the P.O. box for Fax Plus (one town away) was served the same
 kind of subpoena by the same FBI agent. The warrant was for the
 records of the people that had rented the boxes.

 This was interpreted as the beginning of a search warrant and
 after a few phone calls, we decided to shut the services down.

 We had two choices, to allow the equipment to be confiscated, and
 fight a lengthy legal battle (with all the costs and time
 involved). Or just stop.

 All hard drives were wiped of all data to prevent ourselves
 from re-starting the services. This is why it has taken a week to
 get my computer back in operation and to get this note written. I
 have had to reload everything and am missing a lot of data. I
 managed to save my qmpro.fon file and that was about it.

 I have decided to stay out of the VC2 arena from now on, once
 they have your number, there is no sense in trying to fight the
 odds. (this is the FBI we are talking about, and of course
 Corporate America)

 I still feel that my First Amendment rights were about to be
 violated and am angry, upset, and hurt by the whole affair.
 I watch tv with a legal VC2RS. I am not a Chipper and believe in
 my heart that I was not breaking any laws. It is a sad state of
 affairs when a large corporation is able to intimidate the
 citizens of America with the long arm of the FBI.

 Well that's about it. I will check back on a weekly basis (if
 that's ok), I have made quite a few friends on the Satellite
 Circuit and really do not want to lose touch with the people that
 have helped me through the starting of Satellite Co-op and it's
 untimely demise.


 With my deepest apology,

 John Waters