It was probably inevitable that the unprinted chapter of Kevin Mitnick's new book ("The Art of Deception") would eventually find its way into the public's hands. Now it appears that this has indeed happened.

As we reported in our current issue, there was a chapter where Mitnick told his own story about his years on the run, his frustration while in prison, and his overall background. In this chapter, he expressed a good deal of anger at the people who helped to capture him and who profited from his story - New York Times reporter John Markoff and computer scientist Tsutomu Shimomura. Before the book hit the stands, a threatening letter was sent to Wiley and Sons (the book's publisher) by Markoff's attorneys and the chapter was pulled. (Wiley and Sons claims this action was taken independently of the legal threat.) This, however, occurred after review copies with the chapter were sent out.

Now the chapter has appeared in a public Yahoo! discussion group called kevins_story - accessible at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kevins_story/. We can only guess what will happen next. Ironically, as always, it probably wouldn't have turned into such a big deal without all the legal shenanigans.