The year was 1977. I vividly recall my parents insisting I go with them to see a movie at the drive-in called “Star Wars.” I was ten years old and had no idea what this “Star Wars” was all about. I just knew that I had no interest in going to see it. I made that clear in no uncertain terms, the way only a ten year old can. …So we’re at the drive-in theater, and, like many other children of my generation, I was enamored! I was completely overwhelmed by the technology and the mere possibilities this movie represented!

My parents recognized my enthusiasm, and enrolled me in summer computer and electronics courses at the local vocational school. I later attended classes at Merrimac College where I became a permanent, year-round fixture in the various campus computer rooms. It was during this period that I was unknowingly introduced to software piracy. PCs were still on the horizon and most colleges were running PDP-11 mainframes from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was always an exciting day when one of the college employees or interns announced the arrival of a MAGTAPE obtained from a contact at another school –filled with new games and utilities!

In 1984 my Dad went to work for DEC (with no small urging on my part :•) ) and a whole new world was opened up to me. He brought home my first PC -- a 4.77MHz DEC Rainbow 100 complete with access to Digital’s internal network and a Tymnet account which gave me free phone use to any computer dial-up in the world. Ken Olsen, the founder of DEC, fostered a business philosophy of community and family. Much of this was achieved with a software product called Notes-11, a precursor of today’s UseNet newsgroups. It was in these various “notes conferences” where I finally found a sense of belonging.

Unlike the college I had been spending so much time at, no one in these conferences had any idea of my age or that I was not an employee. My knowledge and skills quickly became legend and people were turning to me for solutions to technical problems! It was the first time in my life I really felt valued rather than disregarded and judged by my age.

There were hundreds of conferences available for both professional and personal interests. It was in many of these that I learned about the availability of free software on DEC’s internal network and of the existence of dial up bulletin board systems specific to the DEC Rainbow personal computer. I used the Tymnet account to connect to these Rainbow BBS’, all running Fido, BBS software written by the infamous Tom Jennings.

Many of these boards had software available for download that wasn’t freely available on DEC’s internal network. Programs like VisiCalc, Borland Pascal and concurrent CP/M. I would share these with my Dad, who in turn, shared them with his bosses. He received much personal praise for being able to acquire specific software packages on demand and would pass that praise along to me. It almost felt like I worked for DEC. By this time I was proud of the company and the employees and wanted nothing more than to earn that praise.

This pattern continued for a few years until DEC began to flounder in the late 80’s/early 90’s. In 1992 Olsen was replaced by Robert Palmer, an individual who shared none of Ken’s ideas about work being a “family.” Morale within the company plummeted. I too, found myself despairing as people I had known for years either left or were “downsized” in multitudes. My Dad was one of these. But by then I had so many friends within the company, my access to the internal network wasn’t at risk. For that I was thankful.

Over the next year or two it became evident that the company would never be the same. All of the enthusiasm had vanished right along with most of the people I had come to know. The traffic to the notes conferences shrank to nothing, and my feelings of belonging went right along with them.

By this time it was deeply embedded in my being that much of this feeling could be obtained by using my skills to help people, and the one thing I was great at was acquiring software. I used some of my old DEC contacts to gain access to local PC based BBS systems that maintained private file areas with copyrighted software. Most of these BBS’ also had networked message areas that reminded me of the DEC conferences I had grown so fond of. But now, instead of being a “conductor”, I was merely a voice lost in the chorus.

I observed that the most respected people carried signatures denoting their memberships in groups like The Humble Guys, Fairlight and, of course, PWA. Here was a another group of techies like myself, and I wanted in. I learned that these groups placed great value on people who could acquire new software. My position at a huge Boston bank allowed me access to such things, especially beta versions of Microsoft programs. It was by pure chance that I ended up joining PWA. It could easily have been one of many other groups. I had notified several groups of the software I had access to; Microsoft Chicago betas (which later became Windows 95)  and betas of a new operating system called Windows NT v3.1. PWA was the first group to contact me and I quickly became a valued member (known as Marlenus). I now had access to more copyrighted software than ever via PWA’s various “headquarters” BBS’. I was being showered with praise by PWA leaders as well as my bosses and peers at work. I was the “go to” guy when any sort of software was needed quickly to complete a project.

In 1996 PWA's World Headquarters BBS, called The Assassins Guild was raided by the US Marshals and shut down. The operator was a PWA "council member" and it was the first time the thought crossed my mind that what we were doing was wrong. I quickly rationalized it away by telling myself that my company almost always purchased the software I had obtained for them after it was in use and that what I was involved in was not "criminal."

At around the same time TAG was shut down, the Internet was starting to take off in popularity. Many PWA members found their way to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) --a group of servers that facilitated real time group conversations. Access to IRC quickly required high speed if you wanted to remain a member of PWA. High speed file repositories called “FTP sites” soon replaced the slower BBS systems and IRC was the defacto method used for communications rather than the old BBS message areas.

Essentially, I lived IRC twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Interacting with these people became my life. PWA’s activities provided all of us with great feelings of camaraderie and accomplishment. I enjoyed the fruits of my hard work and dedication, and I was eventually promoted to “Senior Member” status, and later to “Council” as other members “retired.”

The problem with this group architecture is that once you reach Council status, there is nowhere else to move up to. It’s the final plateau. As a result, in many cases, including my own, there is a loss of enthusiasm for the hard work required for the group to function successfully. This Council, a group of five people who allegedly made decisions for the group, was most of the time, a group of five lazy, unmotivated people allowing Senior members to make the required sporadic decisions.

In December of 1997, congress passed the Net Act making PWA’s activities criminal. None of us really gave it much thought, still believing that nobody cared about our endeavors. We were sure groups like ours which “helped” companies like Microsoft gain a stranglehold on the desktop (in retrospect, not necessarily, a good thing) were not seen as any threat. The occasional Net Act bust seemed to be targeted at individuals who were selling someone else’s product for profit –something no PWA member would ever consider. That sort of thing was, of course, criminal and unethical, and we were most certainly not thieves.

The arrest of 15 PWA members (myself included) occurred as a result of a PWA member who went by the name of Shadow_M. He contacted the Chicago FBI to inform them of the existence of Sentinel, one of PWA’s oldest sites. The FBI made a deal with the Sentinel site operators. They would not prosecute if they cooperated and helped to build a case against the PWA members who used their site. To this day, I have no idea why Shadow_M made that call. Perhaps it was malicious? Maybe he had other legal troubles prompting his use of a bargaining tool? Or did he have an epiphany, and felt it would atone for his past “wrong doings?” I have no idea. However, I am fairly certain that if not for these events, I may never have realized that not only were my activities criminal, they were just plain wrong. For the first time, I was not proud of my accomplishments. I was regretful, and I was terrified. What have I done? What is going to happen to my life as a result? Do I really deserve to go to prison for this?

After our arrests, the prosecution and the media made PWA out to be some sort of fiendish group of outlaws devoted to a life of organized crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most members of PWA were hard working, educated, people who considered their activities with PWA as a hobby and social outlet. At the time of the investigation, PWA as a group was already well on the way to self-destruction. Suppliers and crackers were being ignored and taking their contributions to other groups. The Senior and Council members were burnt out to the point of inaction. But as individuals, we had all grown very close to one another on a personal level. Many of us were there to comfort each other during times of family tragedies and hardships. These people came to know more about me than anyone, including my own friends and family. I relied on them for my mental and emotional well being. As a piracy group, we were already finished.

Now, as I sit here at Devens Federal Prison, I think about my poor choices and mistaken beliefs which paved the road along my oblivious journey to this most unpleasant destination. What waits outside the confines of my prison is pretty clear. A mountain of debt, an unknown future and a tarnished past.

Click HERE to read how things progressed from the time of Rob's arrest to his time in prison through the eyes of his wife, Shannon Rothberg.