I remember that episode. Memory's fuzzy, but I think Merlyn wasn't employed by Intel at that time; I think even his consultant gig had just lapsed. I think someone at Intel just got a bee up his bonnet and decided to raise a stink; and things snowballed after that.

In my case, I was a student with unbounded curiosity at a Univ; and the sysadmins were very tolerant then.