Shocking news about UtterAccess owner (3 Viewers)

BlueSpruce

BlueSpruce

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Interesting. Google Gemini confirms that Jack D Leach was the most recent owner of the UA web site and was listed as its administrator. Your news certainly offers a plausible answer to the "why is UA shut down" question. Thanks for the "heads up" on that one.
 
The_Doc_Man said:
Interesting. Google Gemini confirms that Jack D Leach was the most recent owner of the UA web site and was listed as its administrator. Your news certainly offers a plausible answer to the "why is UA shut down" question. Thanks for the "heads up" on that one.
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I'm shocked! Ten years ago, I worked with Jack to market a Machine Shop app he developed with Access and I didn't get any bad vibes about his character. He is innocent until proven guilty, but it seems the Feds have overwhelming evidence against him. Could that be reason why the UA site didn't receive any updates for years?
 
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@BlueSpruce - you ask a valid question about the UA site shutdown, but one that probably cannot be answered in any practical sense. "Distracted" is "distracted" whatever the actual reason that led to neglect.

Over 20 years ago a friend of mine got fired for visiting web sites with extreme NSFW content, very adult-oriented stuff, and his wife divorced him for it. He was not involved with child porn, but he WAS using his employer's computer equipment in an unapproved manner for sex-related posts. This WAS grounds for firing, and even so, he was lucky that the employer didn't also press criminal charges for theft of computer services.

In subsequent discussion, my other friends and I speculated that he got what he needed from the web because he wasn't getting what he needed elsewhere. Read that as you like, but I didn't like his wife because of attitude. In the final analysis, we do what we do because we want it or need it and sometimes don't have a ready source to satisfy that need. Addictive behavior - whether drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, food, or high-speed driving - can provide such a pull on your life that you seem to be out of control trying to get to your vice.
 
The_Doc_Man said:
@BlueSpruce - you ask a valid question about the UA site shutdown, but one that probably cannot be answered in any practical sense. "Distracted" is "distracted" whatever the actual reason that led to neglect.

Over 20 years ago a friend of mine got fired for visiting web sites with extreme NSFW content, very adult-oriented stuff, and his wife divorced him for it. He was not involved with child porn, but he WAS using his employer's computer equipment in an unapproved manner for sex-related posts. This WAS grounds for firing, and even so, he was lucky that the employer didn't also press criminal charges for theft of computer services.

In subsequent discussion, my other friends and I speculated that he got what he needed from the web because he wasn't getting what he needed elsewhere. Read that as you like, but I didn't like his wife because of attitude. In the final analysis, we do what we do because we want it or need it and sometimes don't have a ready source to satisfy that need. Addictive behavior - whether drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, food, or high-speed driving - can provide such a pull on your life that you seem to be out of control trying to get to your vice.
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I still can't believe Jack did what the Feds allege because he's intellectually gifted and never gave any indications he was into anything inmoral. His wife, if he's still married to her, is a prominent Physician. I am truly saddened by this news 😢

Jack wrote the Bible on optimizing Access performance with remote databases. I still have that paper and he's considered one of the top Access developers.

I do remember Jack telling me his great grandpa was a gatsby era gangster. Maybe he inherited some bad genes?
 
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I'm somewhat surprised we didn't get a "This domain has been seized.." type message from UA. I'm sure someone was tasked with looking at every upload to UA.
 
moke123 said:
... I'm sure someone was tasked with looking at every upload to UA.
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That would take forever, UA had over 4.5M posts! I'm sure the Feds looked at what Jack did from the time he took over UA ownership from George Hubbell.
 
The_Doc_Man said:
@BlueSpruce - you ask a valid question about the UA site shutdown, but one that probably cannot be answered in any practical sense. "Distracted" is "distracted" whatever the actual reason that led to neglect.

Over 20 years ago a friend of mine got fired for visiting web sites with extreme NSFW content, very adult-oriented stuff, and his wife divorced him for it. He was not involved with child porn, but he WAS using his employer's computer equipment in an unapproved manner for sex-related posts. This WAS grounds for firing, and even so, he was lucky that the employer didn't also press criminal charges for theft of computer services.

In subsequent discussion, my other friends and I speculated that he got what he needed from the web because he wasn't getting what he needed elsewhere. Read that as you like, but I didn't like his wife because of attitude. In the final analysis, we do what we do because we want it or need it and sometimes don't have a ready source to satisfy that need. Addictive behavior - whether drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, food, or high-speed driving - can provide such a pull on your life that you seem to be out of control trying to get to your vice.
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Very truly said. I currently write letters to an incarcerated individual who did a couple bad things with a consenting 16 yr old boy - after living a lifetime (literally, his whole life was full-time this) of service and charity to help families in need. I tend to NOT write people off for the one bad thing they did if their life was chock-full of good stuff too. In Jack's case I'll make an exception, though, as my memory of him was being an a-hole to others, though I'm sure he did something good too.
 
Isaac said:
Very truly said. I currently write letters to an incarcerated individual who did a couple bad things with a consenting 16 yr old boy - after living a lifetime (literally, his whole life was full-time this) of service and charity to help families in need. I tend to NOT write people off for the one bad thing they did if their life was chock-full of good stuff too. In Jack's case I'll make an exception, though, as my memory of him was being an a-hole to others, though I'm sure he did something good too.
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IIRC, not long after Jack upgraded UA to version 4, he moved from NY to FL, halted his Access MVP contributions, totally disconnected from posting anything on UA, and did not fix several things on the UA site that weren't working right. It looks like somewhere along that timeframe he snapped. I never had any complaints about him when we collaborated 10 years ago in marketing his Access apps and services. Nothing surprises me anymore, but this news was shocking!
 
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In this day and age, you fully know someone only when you have access to their computer. Most people anyway.
 
Shocking doesn't even begin to cover it. I'd met Jack as an MVP and we collaborated on a small project. Very sad.
 
Isaac said:
In this day and age, you fully know someone only when you have access to their computer. Most people anyway.
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They'd think I didn't have much of a life. Bridge and Access and Access and Bridge. But both are actually very engaging so I don't have much time for other stuff.
 
Isaac said:
In this day and age, you fully know someone only when you have access to their computer. Most people anyway.
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More likely their Cell Phone.

In Jack's case I'd be most concerned with the charge of "Attempted Production" That carries some harsh time.
Possession charges sometimes do have some solid defenses. "It was in a zip file I downloaded from a coding forum" :rolleyes:
I've seen numerous cases of people being targeted when it was actually a neighbor who was stealing their Wi-Fi.

This should serve as a good reminder to make sure your wireless is well protected. ;)
 
moke123 said:
More likely their Cell Phone.

In Jack's case I'd be most concerned with the charge of "Attempted Production" That carries some harsh time.
Possession charges sometimes do have some solid defenses. "It was in a zip file I downloaded from a coding forum" :rolleyes:
I've seen numerous cases of people being targeted when it was actually a neighbor who was stealing their Wi-Fi.

This should serve as a good reminder to make sure your wireless is well protected. ;)
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In Jack's case he's looking at a minimum of 15 to 30 years in prison. The FBI said they have solid evidence of him purchasing child porno material and several devices they confiscated had child porno content on it.
 
moke123 said:
More likely their Cell Phone.

In Jack's case I'd be most concerned with the charge of "Attempted Production" That carries some harsh time.
Possession charges sometimes do have some solid defenses. "It was in a zip file I downloaded from a coding forum" :rolleyes:
I've seen numerous cases of people being targeted when it was actually a neighbor who was stealing their Wi-Fi.

This should serve as a good reminder to make sure your wireless is well protected. ;)
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I've sometimes wondered about that when I hear people being charged with something that's 100% digital evidence, it's concerning.
People are innocent until proven guilty. And unfortunately, I'm sure there is that 1% who are still innocent even after being convicted..

I also note that the term 'child' means vastly different things in different contexts and to different people.
Theoretically it would be possible to have the intention of downloading/watching pure porn, and not realize that underage's had gotten caught up in the mix of it. Thus the evidence would be very solid, except that little piece of evidence missing that you knew they were underage....
Especially relevant if/when the context is, i.e.,. 17 yr olds. I.E. some people call Epstein's saga a matter of "child porn", and still others call him (incorrectly) a pedophile, when that's not really what the word means. Personally I'd prefer the terms not be so malleable, because if someone really is into 5 year olds that's something I'd put in a whole different category than 16-17 yr olds, it's just an entirely different thing. They both may be wrong (the latter only in the last 1% of human history), but they are entirely different.
But I digress..
 
moke123 said:
More likely their Cell Phone.

In Jack's case I'd be most concerned with the charge of "Attempted Production" That carries some harsh time.
Possession charges sometimes do have some solid defenses. "It was in a zip file I downloaded from a coding forum" :rolleyes:
I've seen numerous cases of people being targeted when it was actually a neighbor who was stealing their Wi-Fi.

This should serve as a good reminder to make sure your wireless is well protected. ;)
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You mean that popup from Chrome password manager about how I just used a compromised password is something I was supposed to be not just X'ing out of all this time? ;)
 
moke123 said:
it was actually a neighbor who was stealing their Wi-Fi.
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And that's actually a very believable defense IMO, because if someone is doing child porn AND they know what they are doing, they're going to absolutely be trying to set up a fall guy the whole time, so using someone else's wifi would be their first stop naturally
 
Pat Hartman said:
They'd think I didn't have much of a life. Bridge and Access and Access and Bridge. But both are actually very engaging so I don't have much time for other stuff.
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I'm concerned if someone followed my Pandora stations (like Spotify but better, for any youngster reading this!) :: They'd think I was frenetically changing moods like a crazy person. Alan Jackson one moment, Five Finger Death Punch the next.
But hey, sometimes you feel inspired, other times you need to wake up.
 
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