# Why didn't the phone companies sue Steve Jobs for hacking their system with his Blue Box? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861 "2016-01-01T00:09:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/21 "2016-01-03T20:47:26Z")
First of all, Bell Labs was part of AT&T, and not a phone company in any sense of the work. The actual phone companies were the operating companies (like PacBell) and AT&T Long Lines which did long distance. There were many other parts of AT&T, like Western Electric and Teletype, which weren’t phone companies either. Second, as already mentioned, Jobs and Wozniak were small potatoes, and probably wouldn’t be mentioned if they weren’t Jobs and Wozniak. There is an excellent book on phone hacking (the name and author escape me) which said that they sold blue boxes to some celebrities. But everyone and his uncle were making them back then. The Bell Labs Technical Journal issue with the frequencies was the most checked out volume in the MIT Engineering Library. When I did a logic lab some friends borrowed my scope to check out the one they built. The book mentioned the reasons for AT&T’s reactions. One was that they didn’t want the vulnerability to be more widely known. And there were many other ways to hack the system. Remember, Draper used a Captain Crunch whistle. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/22 "2016-01-04T22:35:59Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Remember, Draper used a Captain Crunch whistle. My absurd nitpick of the day: Cap’n Crunch whistle. Draper’s synonym was “Captain Crunch” but he didn’t make the whistle, Quaker Oats did. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/23 "2016-01-04T22:53:26Z")
What kind of cap’n has eyebrows on his hat, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/24 "2016-01-04T23:12:17Z")
A Crunchy one obviously 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/25 "2016-01-05T01:28:59Z")
ftg writes: \> . . . Draper’s synonym was “Captain Crunch” . . . I think you mean pseudonym. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/26 "2016-01-05T05:46:32Z")
Ca 1970, I was vaguely aware of ‘phone pheaks’, but my entire knowledge was, for 1 year, a number/letter combo for faking ATT credit card numbers. Back then, it was impossible to instantly verify a card number in the time the operator (remember operators?) had, so they they used a kind of ‘check digit’ - if the nth digit of the number was a ‘5’, the ending letter had to be a ‘Q’ - they could check that digit against a list while placing the call. And yes, ATT realized the vulnerability of this and changed the number/letter each year (or so I was told). ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/27 "2016-01-05T05:48:24Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > ftg writes: > > \> . . . Draper’s synonym was “Captain Crunch” . . . > > I think you mean pseudonym. I would call it a ‘Nom De Guerre’ ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/28 "2016-01-05T15:48:10Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > I would call it a ‘Nom De Guerre’ Well, we are talking about Cap’n Crunch cereal, so maybe it was his “Nom de Om Nom Nom.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/29 "2016-01-05T15:54:01Z")
Q. What did the French dairy man say when his milk curdled? A. Quel fromage! ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861/30 "2016-01-06T13:54:36Z")
Thank you all. Very helpful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-phone-companies-sue-steve-jobs-for-hacking-their-system-with-his-blue-box/741861.md?page=1)