October 2000 - cypherpunks-legacy

CDR: First, Mexico's future lies with free, "open source" software like the operating system Linux, and Gnome
by Matthew Gaylor 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

[Sent with permission-MG] DIGITAL NATION Mexico Has Resources for High-Tech Success By Gary Chapman Copyright 2000, The Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved An open letter to Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox: Congratulations on your historic victory in the presidential election. About 100 million Mexicans and others who love Mexico are eager for change in your country, and they have high hopes when your new administration takes office in December. But clearly, one issue of great importance is how to bring Mexico into the "new economy" of the Internet, high tech and global commerce. Mexico has many resources in technology to exploit, but they have been obstructed by weak or bad government policies. You can change this. Let me offer you some suggestions on how you might start. First, Mexico's future lies with free, "open source" software like the operating system Linux, and Gnome, another open-source effort to build a Windows-like screen. Gnome itself was developed by a young Mexican programmer, Miguel de Icaza, who is 27 years old. This summer, De Icaza started the Gnome Foundation (http://www.gnome.org) to unify and stabilize the Linux desktop software, and he acquired the support of IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, among other major U.S. companies. He is a hero to young programmers around the world, and he should be a hero to all Mexicans. You should meet with Miguel de Icaza and get to know him and young people like him. They are the best hope for Mexico. Obviously, the biggest benefit of free software to Mexico is that it's literally free, and Mexico is a poor country that needs to preserve its capital. Mexico has a new law on software piracy, for example, and your government will need to enforce this law for Mexico to be regarded as a trusted partner in high-tech trade. But if you do enforce the software piracy law effectively, it will result in a massive transfer of pesos to the United States, and principally to Microsoft, the largest victim of software piracy in Mexico. Alternatively, you could promote the use of free software such as Linux, Gnome and application packages such as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite, which are all free. No pesos would leave Mexico and you would get all of the functionality of modern software. Indeed, you'd become part of a trend that is sweeping the computing field in the U.S. IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are all offering Linux on computers now. IBM is essentially a Linux company these days, an astonishing transformation. Mexico would not lose anything by adopting free software, indeed, it would move to the cutting edge of technology. Your government should also think about creating an elite but grassroots-oriented corps of young free-software evangelists, programmers, hackers and systems developers who could build on the culture and spirit of the embryonic free-software movement. Give them an identity with special shirts or jackets and specially painted pickup trucks to go out to villages and towns, and elevate them to hero status in Mexico. They should have an esprit de corps that reflects both their enthusiasm for their work and their patriotism. Send them around the world to technical and trade conferences and make them stand out -- make them the young, technically skilled enthusiasts everyone wants to work with. Joakim Ziegler is one of these wizard-like programmers. He's Norwegian, but he lives in Mexico City because he loves it there. He works for Helix Code, the company started by Miguel de Icaza. Ziegler is also in his twenties. He told me, "A change as radical as the internal use of free software" -- meaning use by the government itself -- "would be an indication of real change." The Federal Election Commission in Mexico used free software to run this year's election, but other government agencies have yet to grasp its benefits. Ziegler also said, "Small companies run by enthusiastic young people don't have a lot of status in Mexico right now." Too many of Mexico's young entrepreneurs have moved to the U.S. to start companies. In Mexico, there's too much government red tape, credit is too expensive and there is a culture of "not what you do, but who you know," all of which are obstacles to building the kind of entrepreneurial spirit Mexico needs. You should make Mexico a place that is as easy to start a business in as it is in California or Texas. Mexico also needs a better telecommunications infrastructure. Telmex, the recently privatized national phone company, and its competitors, such as Avantel, are slowly building up their capabilities. But they will not soon reach the vast numbers of Mexicans who live in underserved and poor areas. So you should pay attention to a San Diego company called Tachyon Inc.(http://www.tachyon.net), which is doing business in Mexico. Tachyon has a contract for using SatMex 5, the powerful Mexican satellite that covers all of Mexico. Tachyon is offering inexpensive two-way Internet service via satellite, and it can serve every town and village in Mexico right now. The company's vice president, Santiago Ontañon, who is 33 and from Mexico City, told me that its price for broadband Internet connectivity for a typical Mexican school with five to 10 computers is only about $300 to $400 per month. This is thousands of dollars less than what Telmex can offer, and it can happen tomorrow, not in some indefinite future. Incidentally, the ground equipment Tachyon provides its customers runs on Linux. With the combination of free software and inexpensive Internet connectivity, as well as building on Mexico's Red Escolar (SchoolNet) program for wiring Mexican schools, the country could become the world's leading example of affordable high-tech infrastructure for the rest of the world's developing nations. Moreover, the philosophy behind free, open-source software fits well with your important ideas about a new "open society" in Mexico. There will be strong pressures, both internally and externally, for Mexico to adopt a conventional model of development, dependent on big corporate players and mega-deals. But you have the opportunity to foster something different and far more interesting. Throw your power, prestige and vision to your young people, to your entrepreneurs and innovators and to the practical idealists of the free software movement. This will pay off in the long run, and it could dramatically transform Mexico Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at gary.chapman(a)mail.utexas.edu. ------------------------------------------ ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt(a)coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor,1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., PMB 176, Columbus, OH 43229 (614) 313-5722 Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/ **************************************************************************

1 0

Re: RE: AES winner to be announced Monday.
by paulo.barreto＠terra.com.br 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

You are right, I'm sorry. Anyway, it's no longer necessary to ask the AES finalist teams (all of which seem to have been offline for the last few days) about NIST's announcement. Sorry again, and best wishes, Paulo. > Careful on attributions. I did not say this - I quoted a usenet > posting which included this line. No harm done. > > Peter Trei > > > ---------- > > From: Paulo S. L. M. Barreto[SMTP:paulo.barreto@terra.com.br] > > Sent: Friday, September 29, 2000 6:27 PM > > To: Trei, Peter; 'cypherpunks(a)openpgp.net'; 'cryptography(a)c2.net'; > > 'coderpunks(a)toad.com' > > Subject: Re: AES winner to be announced Monday. > > > > On Fri, 29 Sep 2000, Trei, Peter wrote: > > > > > They (explicitly) won't say yet how many algorithms > > > have been chosen as the AES. > > > > So NIST will be silent for three more days. How about the finalist > > submitters? > > Did *they* tell anything? I'll bet NIST has contacted (or will contact) > > them regarding the forthcoming announcement. And the e-mail address > > <ptrei(a)rsasecurity.com> means that at least the RC6 team is easily > > accessible, > > isn't it? > > > > Paulo Barreto. > >

1 0

RE: AES winner to be announced Monday.
by Trei, Peter 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

Careful on attributions. I did not say this - I quoted a usenet posting which included this line. No harm done. Peter Trei > ---------- > From: Paulo S. L. M. Barreto[SMTP:paulo.barreto@terra.com.br] > Sent: Friday, September 29, 2000 6:27 PM > To: Trei, Peter; 'cypherpunks(a)openpgp.net'; 'cryptography(a)c2.net'; > 'coderpunks(a)toad.com' > Subject: Re: AES winner to be announced Monday. > > On Fri, 29 Sep 2000, Trei, Peter wrote: > > > They (explicitly) won't say yet how many algorithms > > have been chosen as the AES. > > So NIST will be silent for three more days. How about the finalist > submitters? > Did *they* tell anything? I'll bet NIST has contacted (or will contact) > them regarding the forthcoming announcement. And the e-mail address > <ptrei(a)rsasecurity.com> means that at least the RC6 team is easily > accessible, > isn't it? > > Paulo Barreto. >

1 0

CDR: Rijndael is GREEN
by R. A. Hettinga 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

--- begin forwarded text

1 0

CDR: Re: Fwd: AES winner webcast 4pm today
by Roy Silvernail 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

Rijndael. http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/aes/ -----Original Message----- From: R. A. Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: CDR: Fwd: AES winner webcast 4pm today >Strangely enough, http://real.nist.gov/ is, of course, choked. :-). > >Anyone heard yet who the winner is? _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0

CDR: Uma Maça chamada APPLE
by apoio＠giganetstore.com 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

1 0

CDR: Fwd: AES winner webcast 4pm today
by R. A. Hettinga 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

Strangely enough, http://real.nist.gov/ is, of course, choked. :-). Anyone heard yet who the winner is? Cheers, RAH --- begin forwarded text

1 0

CDR: PhotoPoint Password Reminder
by support＠photopoint.com 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

As requested, here's a reminder of your PhotoPoint password: Username: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Password: cypherpunks If you want to change your password, just go to "User Preferences" once you've logged in. Any time you forget your password, you can request it from the PhotoPoint Login page and it will be emailed to you again. If you need any other support, just go to our member "Help" section at http://www.photopoint.com/help/index.html. Thank you for your participation in PhotoPoint, the World's Favorite Place to Share Photos Online. And remember, membership in PhotoPoint is free, so send our URL http://www.photopoint.com to your family and friends and encourage them to sign up.

1 0

CDR: Supremes defer Sony vs. Fair Use soft emulator
by David Honig 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

Oct 2, 2000 - 10:31 AM Supreme Court Sidesteps PlayStation Dispute By Laurie Asseo Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court stayed out of a dispute between Sony and another company whose software allows people to run Sony PlayStation games on personal computers. The court, without comment Monday, let Connectix continue selling its Virtual Game Station until a lower court rules on Sony's claim of unfair competition. Sony has sold 50 million PlayStations - small computers with hand controls - that plug into a television set and allow consumers to play games inserted into the computer on a compact disc. The PlayStation's software program is protected by copyright. In January 1999, Connectix of San Mateo, Calif., began selling the Virtual Game Station, which allows people to run PlayStation games on their own personal computers. The Virtual Game Station software does not contain any of Sony's copyright material. But in developing it, Connectix used the PlayStation's software program by extracting its code from a chip and copying it repeatedly on its own computer to see how it worked. Sony filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit, and a federal judge in San Francisco halted sales of the Virtual Game Station in April 1999 pending a ruling. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that order last February, saying Connectix's action amounted to a "fair use" of Sony's software. The court said Connectix was a "legitimate competitor" in creating computer platforms on which Sony games can be played, adding that copyright law does not allow Sony to monopolize that market. In the appeal acted on Monday, Sony's lawyers said the ruling erodes copyright protection for computer programs. Connectix's actions were "pure free-riding, using the protected work to develop a substitute far more quickly and inexpensively than the original," Sony's lawyers said. Sony invested three years and $500 million to develop the PlayStation, its lawyers said, while Connectix took six months and $150,000 to create its product. Connectix's lawyers said the company created "an entirely new environment" for playing PlayStation games. A 1998 federal law boosting copyright protections for the computer industry endorsed the process used by Connectix, the lawyers said. In May, a federal judge in San Francisco threw out seven of Sony's nine allegations against Connectix in the copyright case, allowing Sony to pursue claims of violating trade secrets and unfair competition. The case is Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix, 00-11. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAEWJW8UDC.html "The electron, in my judgment, is the ultimate precision-guided munition." -John Deutsch, CIA Director

1 0

CDR: thought police
by David Honig 02 Oct '00

02 Oct '00

Oct 2, 2000 - 10:40 AM Court Allows Suspension of Student for Drawing Pictures of Confederate Flag The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - A Kansas youth suspended from school for three days after he drew a picture of a Confederate flag lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday. The court, without comment, turned away arguments that the suspension violated the youth's freedom of speech and other constitutionally protected rights. T.J. West was a seventh-grader at Derby Middle School in Sedgwick, Kan., when in spring 1998 he made a 4-by-6 inch sketch of the Confederate flag during a math class. West later told his assistant principal a friend had urged him to draw the flag, and that he knew what it was but not what it meant. West also knew drawing the flag violated a "racial harassment and intimidation" policy the school district had adopted after incidents of racial tension in 1995. The policy banned, among other things, students from possessing "any written material, either printed or in their own handwriting, that is racially divisive or creates ill will or hatred." Confederate flags were specifically listed as such material. During the racial tensions at Derby High School and the middle school in 1995, at least one fight had broken out as a result of a student wearing a Confederate flag headband. During that time, the Aryan Nation held a recruiting drive directly across the street from Derby High School and the Ku Klux Klan distributed literature to students near the high school. West and his father challenged the boy's suspension from school, but a federal trial judge and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the school district. The appeals court, in its ruling last March, noted that West had been suspended earlier that school year for calling another student "blackie" and had been reminded at that time about the harassment and intimidation policy. The case is West v. Derby Unified School District No. 260, 99-2039. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAX5X89UDC.html "The electron, in my judgment, is the ultimate precision-guided munition." -John Deutsch, CIA Director

1 0