Phone Losers of America

Posted by ryan at 04:54 PM in computers , internet , technology . | 2 Comments

I don't know what made me think of Phone Losers of America today, but I was surprised to find that the PLA is still around and active. When I was a youngin' I lived off this stuff.

Wikipedia has some PLA History here. The quick intro...

The Phone Losers of America (PLA) is an American phreaking group founded in the 1990s, whose knowledge, coupled with humor and general mischief, set it apart in the underground hacking scene. The PLA e-zine was first written in 1990, and the official web site went up in 1994.

While the PLA didn't actually exist until 1994, the ideas and articles which were brought to the PLA began in 1992. By 1995, PLA became very well-known in the computer underground for their odd contributions to the text zine scene. Most hacker and phreak related bulletin board systems carried the series of PLA text files.

The PLA text files continued until mid-1997, when RBCP suddenly put an end to them. Though the text files ended, the PLA never slowed down. Their website continued to flourish, PLA TV was born, and several prank call CDs were released. The PLA community continued to grow on IRC and on the various PLA Forums. In 2002, RBCP began an internet radio station which he called PLA Radio which still exists today.