ironically, every self respecting hacker would be ok if he was trhow in jail for that. He didn't invent it or anything close to that, but tried to sell and make money. lacking a proper car analogy, akin to a script kiddie advertising malware he found on some BBS of later.

Nobody, now, for the reasons you said.

I think I was around 13, which would have been 1997 - a red box was a simple thing to build if you had any sort of soldering supplies, and moderately fun to play with. I didn't even really have anyone I needed to call - I think I probably used it maybe three times in my entire life.