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Subject: 
Re: Maori hacker forces toy forum off Net (BZPower Bionicle website )
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic.bionicle, lugnet.general
Date: 
Mon, 11 Nov 2002 20:10:24 GMT
Viewed: 
76 times
  
This is just sloppy journalism. It looks like the author read Kelly's article
(http://www.bzpower.com/story.php?ID=632)on BZPower.com, made a few
assumptions, and wrote an article without doing any research.  I have a few
comments on I've snipped parts that are taken directly from Kelly's article.

Though Lego had buckled to pressure and agreed to stop using Maori words in
its range of Bionicle toys, the BZPower Bionicle website and its fans
continued using the original names.
As I understood it, LEGO agreed to stop using some specific Maori words with
religious connotations, and agreed to not use Maori words for naming future
Bionicle products.  BZPower uses the same names that LEGO currently uses.

The hacker, identified only as "Kotiate", e-mailed website administrators
last week, giving them 24 hours to remove the site's e-mail forum
"and discontinue the abusive use of the Maori culture, customs and history".
A minor point, but the hacker didn't e-mail the administrators.  The hacker
posted his demands and threats on the message boards.  The administrators
closed the thread almost immediately, and the attacks began about an hour
later.

BZPower administrator Kelly, who would not give her surname, said the
hacker's attack had exploited a weakness in BZPower's server software.
Kelly is male.  His last name didn't appear in the article, but appears on his
e-mail.  I can only guess that if Jonathan Milne tried to contact Kelly, he
either didn't give Kelly time to respond, or didn't read the response.

The site would continue to use words like Toa, Mata Nui, Pohatu, Whenua, and
Tohunga.
The only one of these words that LEGO has quit using is Tohunga, which has been
replaced by Matoran.  I was surprised to see the word Tohunga here.

Although not mentioned in this article, the way the hacker explained his name
seemed a bit weird to me.  A 'Kotiate' is an ornate club that was used by Maori
chiefs.  The hacker ignored this meaning, and explained the name Kotiate as
"Kotiate (thats 'koti' as in 'kokoti' and 'ate' as in 'ate')", which I think
roughly translates to 'disembowel'.  Does anyone with a better knowledge of the
Maori language have any input on this?

I have no affiliation with the BZPower website, other than posting there
occasionally.  A couple of the site administrators post here, and might be able
to give some more information.

John



Message is in Reply To:
  Maori hacker forces toy forum off Net (BZPower Bionicle website )
 
Interesting... ---...--- "A so-called "terrorist" Maori hacker has forced an Internet forum associated with international toymaker Lego offline. Though Lego had buckled to pressure and agreed to stop using Maori words in its range of Bionicle toys, (...) (22 years ago, 11-Nov-02, to lugnet.technic.bionicle, lugnet.general) ! 

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