Shane Anderson, the “list dad” of the once-powerful Mac EvangeList mailing list, is in jail after being charged with two misdemeanors: unauthorized access to a computer and third-degree criminal mischief.
Anderson was arrested Friday at his home in Waterloo, Iowa, following allegations that he broke into a potential business partner’s computer.
Anderson is being held in the Black Hawk County Jail on $5,250 bail. A trial date has not been set and Anderson does not yet have an attorney.
Anderson, 28, runs Mac Evangelist, an offshoot of Apple’s Evangelist, which in the mid-1990s was one of the most influential publications on the Internet. Led by Apple’s Guy Kawasaki, Evangelist once had 45,000 subscribers, many of whom besieged the publications whenever they wrote negative articles about the company.
Anderson took over the list’s name and some of its subscribers when Kawasaki retired the list after leaving Apple.
Anderson’s arrest follows a complaint from Carl Blake, owner of Macaquarium and a local ISP called Blake Systems, alleging that Anderson remotely broke into his computer after business discussions soured.
Blake said Anderson had been invited to Iowa to discuss creating a nationwide Macintosh-oriented ISP. Blake said he allowed Anderson to stay at his home, provided him with free office space and hosted Mac EvangeList on one of his computers.
But after two and a half months of free room and board, Blake said he finally asked Anderson to leave.
“I kicked him out,” Blake said. “He stayed here for two and a half months and didn’t pay anything.”
Blake said shortly afterward that he caught Anderson trying to remotely access one of his computers. Blake said he saw Anderson copying files. He turned off the machine and called the police, who confiscated Anderson’s computer.
Waterloo Police Lt. Bruce Arends said Blake provided a log of server activity and that Anderson’s machine has been examined by the local Secret Service office.
The Secret Service participated because of their expertise in computer forensics.
Anderson was not available for comment, but in an email interview in June, Anderson denied Blake’s allegations. Anderson confirmed that he had gone to Iowa to talk business with Blake, but returned believing that Blake was a “slick con artist.”
“He turned out to be a compulsive liar to a fault,” Anderson wrote in an email. “I told him I had decided I wasn’t going to do business with him. The next day he changed the locks on the office space he had given me and took all my equipment and stole the Mac EvangeList database. The police didn’t find it. we will accuse because they say it is a civil matter.
