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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Great Worm</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../G.html" title="G"/><link rel="previous" href="Great-Runes.html" title="Great Runes"/><link rel="next" href="great-wall.html" title="great-wall"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Great Worm</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Great-Runes.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">G</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="great-wall.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Great-Worm"/><dt xmlns="" id="Great-Worm"><b>Great Worm</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> The 1988 Internet <a href="../W/worm.html"><i class="glossterm">worm</i></a> perpetrated by
<a href="../R/RTM.html"><i class="glossterm">RTM</i></a>. This is a play on Tolkien (compare
<a href="../E/elvish.html"><i class="glossterm">elvish</i></a>, <a href="../E/elder-days.html"><i class="glossterm">elder days</i></a>). In the
fantasy history of his Middle Earth books, there were dragons powerful
enough to lay waste to entire regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung)
were known as &#8220;<span class="quote">the Great Worms</span>&#8221;. This usage expresses the
connotation that the RTM crack was a sort of devastating watershed event in
hacker history; certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the
Internet than anything before or since.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="Great-Runes.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../G.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="great-wall.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Great Runes </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> great-wall</td></tr></table></div></body></html>