Kevin Mitnick, once the world`s most notorious computer hacker and a man who has spent more than five years behind bars for his activities, has been barred from writing a column for a start-up e-business venture.
Mitnick will be in court on Monday to fight the ban, imposed by his probation officer, arguing that the judge who imposed the terms of his three-year probation following his release from prison in January, never meant them to be so sweeping.
Under the terms of probation imposed by US District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, Mitnick, 36, is not allowed within a "dot-com" of a computer until January, 2003. Neither can he use modems, software, cellular phones or anything else that could link him to the Internet.
In addition, he is not allowed to leave a seven-county area of southern California and cannot consult and advise on computers or any computer-related or Internet-related matters.
The Los Angeles Times said on Friday that Mitnick`s probation officer, Larry Hawley, had cited the "consult and advise" restrictions in denying him the right to work for the Web site Contentville.
The venture, to be launched next month, will sell books, magazines and other publications over the Internet and will offer a wide range of expert analysis.
Mitnick, whose hacking is said to have cost some high-tech giants hundreds of millions of dollars, was denied permission to attend a cyber security conference in Utah because that would have infringed on the seven counties restriction as well as the "consult and advise" ban.
A native of Los Angeles who led the FBI on a three-year chase before being arrested in North Carolina in 1995, Mitnick pleaded guilty to computer and wire fraud. Under a plea bargain arrangement, he was sentenced to 54 months in jail and ordered to pay $4,125 to the high-tech companies he victimized, a sum that the judge described as a "token" amount.
Prosecutors had sought restitution of $1.5 million. Mitnick`s victims, including such high-tech giants as Sun Microsystems, Novell, NEC America and Nokia Mobile Phones, said Mitnick`s hacking had cost them about $290 million.
Mitnick, who started hacking as a teenager, was jailed for eight months for his activities in 1989. He went underground in 1992 when he was accused of violating the terms of his probation.
In all his tangles with the law, Mitnick was never accused of making money and always insisted that he was just "having fun."
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