Copyright 1994 The New York Law Publishing Company
                            The National Law Journal

                                 August 8, 1994

SECTION: LAW SCHOOLS; Pg. A16

LENGTH: 829 words

HEADLINE: Law Is Just One of the Interests Popping Up on Student's Screen

BYLINE: By Ken Myers

BODY:
   IF JEFF A. MOSS had to write an essay titled, "What I did on my summer
vacation," he would not be at a loss for material.

   Mr. Moss, who will be a second-year student at the University of Dayton
School of Law, is in the middle of a summer internship at Capitol Records in Los
Angeles.  Not bad for someone who wants to be an entertainment lawyer.

   But what really makes this summer special is Def Con II, the second annual
computer hacker convention, organized by Mr. Moss, that took place in Las Vegas
July 23 and 24.  Not only did more than 300 techno-nerd teens and Generation
Xers show up, but so did government spies, corporate security people and the New
York Times.

   Mr. Moss organized Def Con (named after the Pentagon's phrase for various
stages of military readiness) as a way of meeting many of the people with whom
he had been corresponding electronically via computer for years.

   Last year's convention drew about 110 people, but this year there were 370
attendees who paid either $ 15 in advance or $ 30 at the door for a weekend's
worth of hacker speeches, warnings from government officials and partying.

   "It gives computer users a chance to talk to people they would never get a
chance to talk to, and the industry people want to talk to this audience, too,"
Mr. Moss says.

   Although at Dayton he was as anonymous as most first-year students, Mr. Moss
has been a leader of the computer underground for years.

   "It started way back when I conned my dad into getting me my first IBM PC, in
about 1983," says Mr. Moss, who grew up in the San Francisco area, then moved to
Washington state.  "I was totally fascinated with computers."

   He ran a computer bulletin board in high school in Seattle, then for two
years in college at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where he majored in
criminal justice and minored in computer science.  During his senior year in
college, he used his computer to produce an underground newspaper.

   He also ran a national network for computer users.  He decided to put
together a convention so he could meet some of the hundreds of people he had
been communicating with over the years.  Mr. Moss, whose father is a well-known
radiologist and whose mother is a retired English teacher, also has been
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                    The National Law Journal, August 8, 1994

interested in the law for some time.

   He didn't get into law school the first time he applied, so he worked for a
year as a messenger/clerk/computer technician for Seattle's Ryan.  Swanson &
Cleveland.  He decided then that he didn't want to work in a big firm, and
developed an interest in entertainment law.

   So when a lawyer from Capitol Records attended last year's Def Con and
recruited Mr. Moss for a summer internship, he jumped at the opportunity.

   During the school year, Mr. Moss divides his time between schoolwork and
interfacing with his computer pals.  "I try to avoid law school," he says.

   Mr. Moss says he is somewhat of a loner at law school.  "Maybe [only] two
people have any grasp of technology at law school, so I don't even get into
conversations," he says.

   And he hasn't exactly been able to apply his vast computer knowledge at law
school yet, either.  "The most I can do is write a neat-looking paper," he says.

   But he is attempting to help other students use their computers more
efficiently and he hopes, when he's not working on his monthly column for New
Media magazine, to lend his computer equipment to an effort to put some life
into the law school's student newspaper.

   His main interest, though, is the privacy aspect of computers.  Mr. Moss says
he believes most Americans don't know how much personal information is available
about them via computer, and he wants to use his specialized knowledge of
computers and law to help set proper limits for computer users and governments.

   He isn't even sure he wants to practice law.  "There's not much room for
creativity," he says.  Instead, he may become a consultant or start his own
business, something that gives him control over his activities.

   Meanwhile, back at Dayton, administrators were surprised to hear that one of
their students was leading such an exciting double life.

   Dayton Dean Francis J. Conte says he checked with several faculty members who
had Mr. Moss in class last year.  They recall him as "a decent and pleasant
fellow," but no one really was aware of Mr. Moss' computer background.  "We have
quite a few students with a strong interest in computers," says the dean, "but
his background seems unusual."

   Mr. Moss appears to have landed at the right place, given his interests.  Not
only does Dayton have seven technology-related courses, it also has a "Program
in Law and Technology," one of the only such programs in the country.

   Prof. Robert A. Kreiss, the director of the program, says continuing legal
education courses, symposiums and visiting scholars are all part of the program.
In addition, the student technology group, which Mr. Moss says he would like to
join, invites guest speakers to campus.

GRAPHIC: Picture, Hacker: Jeff Moss, a second-year law student, has been
fascinated with computers for years, but his goal is entertainment law.  JOHN
CURZINSKI/NYT PICTURES