The Internet is like a gun. It all depends how you use it.

Consider the case of this deranged Philadelphia Phillies fan living in California. He was so upset with his team's performance that he hijacked the e-mail addresses of several sportswriters and began sending out huge volumes of venemous anti-Phillies e-mails, so many of which bounced back to their "senders" that entire corporate computer systems were disabled.

Though he moved away from the Philadelphia area 18 years ago, Allan E. Carlson's obsessive interest in the Phillies - and his hostile opinions about the team's management - only increased with time.

Sitting in his apartment in Glendale, Calif., Carlson, 41, spent 70 hours a week hacking into other people's computers and using their e-mail addresses to spread his baseball gripes on the Internet.

.....Carlson, who is unemployed, said his main gripes were that Phillies management was spending too little money to build a winning team and that sports reporters and columnists in Philadelphia were not holding the team bosses accountable.

Among other things, Carlson used the e-mail addresses of sportswriters to send ranting messages to tens of thousands of random e-mail addresses. That triggered masses of return e-mails to the writers whose names were used. One columnist received 60,000 returned e-mails, some with angry replies.

Carlson also sent what Levy described as a racist e-mail to staff members at The Inquirer in 2002 in the name of Walker Lundy, the newspaper's editor at the time. Lundy testified as a prosecution witness.

Carlson's lawyer, Mark T. Wilson, said in his closing argument that his client's behavior was "reprehensible" and maybe "crazy," but not criminal. "There is no evidence that he knew damage was occurring," Wilson said. "Nobody came back to him and said, 'Yo, you've got to stop this.' How does he know that all this damage is occurring?"

Defense lawyers. Gotta love 'em. As it happens, tho, hours after the above-linked story ran, Carlson was convicted. He could get up to 41 months in jail.

If so, a memo to the warden: no computer access for the prisoner.

And some advice for Mr. Carlson. I know it's hard. But I got over the Cubs. You can get over The Phillies. They are NOT in your DNA, OK? You need a new hobby. Something outdoorsy, wholesome, relaxing and rewarding. Maybe gardening?

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 7, 2005 12:17 PM

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