I heard about this on Gimlet's Reply All podcast[1] last week. It's a great overview of what went down with Evan Ratliff himself.
Immediately after listening I bought the book from Amazon. I'm only a few pages in and there's already so much more to the story which is great as I found it really fascinating.
It's a big book, so be prepared for some good bed time reading!
yepp that's what brought me down that rabbit hole too. I've spent the last 3 days reading this story and related court documents.
some interesting conclusions were that TrueCrypt came out and claimed their software now no longer secure[1] because they assumed that Paul Le Roux might be working with the Feds on breaking its security ...
there is an interview[2][3] from last week where they discuss with investigators how they hunted him and what motivated him
If you read the Evan Ratliff's full book, you'll hear how Paul Le Roux was able to avoid having his domains seized by becoming a registrar himself.
I know that it's not really relevant to the narrative, but I'm curious about what level of interaction that law enforcement had with ICANN and Verisign in regard to Le Roux, and what sort of policies they have on law enforcement cooperation.
I just re-read the Atavist piece the other day, as Le Roux made one of his first public appearances at a hearing. A truly awe-inspiring piece of journalism about a man who seems to have already lived multiple lives in his 46 years.
His message board and mailing list comments were especially fascinating to me, as I spent time lurking on those lists and others as a teen. Cannot recommend Mr. Ratliff's work enough.
Great piece of journalism, though. Also, one of few long forms I read. There's so many other potentially-good stories in this yet to be reported on. Hope people get at them. :)
Immediately after listening I bought the book from Amazon. I'm only a few pages in and there's already so much more to the story which is great as I found it really fascinating.
It's a big book, so be prepared for some good bed time reading!
[1] https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/the-founder#episode-pl...