August 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

RE: Gotti, evidence, case law, remailer practices, civil cases, civilit
by Paul E. Robichaux 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

An Metet chastised Uni thus: >Your complaints about "free research" suggest that you have the sense >that you are more valuable than or superior to other contributors. Some animals really *are* more equal than others. Whether Uni has this sense or not[1], the fact remains that some contributors to this list produce more valuable material than others. Uni, Tim, Peter Trei, JYA, Sandy, and a number of other old-school c'punks have been making this list worth reading since 1993 or so. Not every contribution is of equal value. Having said that, I took about a three-year hiatus from the list. When I came back, Choate was still choating, Tim & Sandy were still sniping at each other, and Uni was still funny. Nice to be back at home. [1] He apparently doesn't, but would be entitled to have it if he wished.

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Intellectual Property and the Good Society
by Jim Choate 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

http://www.arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/01q3/ip-ethics/ip-ethics-1.html James Choate Product Certification - Operating Systems Staff Engineer 512-436-1062 jchoate(a)tivoli.com

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Haxploitation: the complete Reg guide to hackers in films
by Jim Choate 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/20818.html James Choate Product Certification - Operating Systems Staff Engineer 512-436-1062 jchoate(a)tivoli.com

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Assistance
by Zenab Abacha 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

Dear one, Permit me to inform you that after reading your add in the net.I become intrested in doing business with you.I am 25 years old ,the daughter of late Dr wilson Kabaka, the former chief accountant to the Sierra-Leone gold copration in kenama , who was assassinated by the RUF rebels during his visit to our village on April 6 2000. Unfortunately my mother died for hypertension three weeke later here in Abidjan and befor then my mother has already advised me and my younger sister Diana to look for a forign partner to transfer this fund and invest in abroad. I inheritad a total sum of $18;5 million us dollars from my late beloved father as the next of kin to my family.This money which is concealed in a matallic trunk box was deposited with a security company here in Abidjan under a special arrangements as family treasure.This means that the security company does not know the real content of the box which was brought from Sierra-Leone under diplomatic coverage. Now that we are in Abidjan and verified the deposit , we need your assistance to help us move this funds out for investment in your country as we can not invest here due to its nearness to our country and the war still going on there .we ask you to scout for a valuable and lucrative business , so that we can invest wisely . We have in mind to give you 10% of the total sum of us $ 18.5 million , and 5 % for any expenses which you will make in course of this transaction, fax messages,phone calls air tickets etc . By this mail you are now requested to arrange on how we can move the fund quick to your account in your country for investment . there is need for urgent actions because I pay us $ 100 daily as demurrage to the security company for keeping this consignment . Looking for your urgent response . Yours sincerely Miss Susan Kabaka ____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie

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How pork works -- a case study, from Sen. Richard Shelby
by Declan McCullagh 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

United States Senator * Alabama FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For More Information Contact: August 2, 2001 Andrea Andrews (202) 224-6518 SHELBY ANNOUNCES SENATE APPROVAL FOR ALABAMA PROJECTS WASHINGTON, D. C. --- U. S. Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced today the approval of funding requests for several Alabama projects. The Senate approved several Alabama-related projects at the request of Senator Shelby. Sen. Shelby said, "The money included in this legislation will go a long way towards assisting many communities in Alabama." The following project requests, were funded by the Senate: University of South Alabama, Center for Estuarine Research - $750,000 "I am pleased to announce $750,000 in funding for the Center for Estuarine Research at the University of South Alabama. The Center conducts important research on the ecology of coastal lands and seascapes in the Gulf Coast and Mobile Bay areas. This funding will allow the University of South Alabama to continue the vital ecological research it is conducting in Alabama. The knowledge gained from this research provides important scientific insights that can be used to preserve and protect coastal plants and wildlife," said Shelby. Renovation of the Historic Greene County Courthouse - $400,000 Sen. Shelby said, "The historic Greene County Courthouse is an important part of Alabama's history. I am pleased that this money will be used to restore the Courthouse to its' natural beauty. This restoration effort is an important first step in the County's long-term plan for renovation of the old Courthouse Square." Hamilton, Alabama Call Center Facility - $500,000 Sen. Shelby said, "The City of Hamilton is greatly in need of a Call Facility. Our funds will allow the city to construct the facility that will result in nearly 600 jobs for the city and surrounding area." The American Village, Federal Hall/Liberty Square Expansion - $500,000 Sen. Shelby said, "These funds will be used for the construction of Federal Hall and the expansion of Liberty Square in Montevallo. The expansion will triple the capacity of students served by the facility to more than 150,000 per year. The educational potential of these projects is significant." The Alabama Quail Trail - $100,000 Sen. Shelby said, "The Alabama Quail Trail project will create a "Quail Trail" to attract hunters to rural Alabama hunting areas. The untapped natural resources of these areas offer superb hunting areas for visitors. The boost that will be provided to local economies by visiting hunters is not insignificant. Once fully implemented, the Alabama Quail Trail will generate considerable economic growth in rural Alabama." Cleveland Avenue YMCA, Montgomery, Alabama - $500,000 Sen. Shelby said, "We have included $500,000 for the Cleveland Avenue YMCA in Montgomery to expand their existing programs. This facility is a cornerstone of the community and serves an underprivileged youth population in Montgomery. The expansion of these programs will allow the YMCA to serve a greater number of young people in the area." - more - Page 2 - VA/HUD Appropriations Housing Authority of Andalusia Bright Beginnings Project - $350,000 Sen. Shelby said, "The Andalusia Bright Beginnings Project serves a population of low-income, high-risk preschool children in the Andalusia area to ensure that they have the proper educational foundation before entering elementary school. These funds will allow the Andalusia Housing Authority to expand these educational programs and construct a new facility to accommodate a greater number of these children in their program." Winfield, Alabama Call Center Facility - $500,000 Sen. Shelby said, "The $500,000 provided in this legislation will allow the City of Winfield to construct a Call Center facility that will result in nearly 600 jobs for the city and surrounding area." Lovelady Building Acquisition on Historic Water Avenue, Selma, Alabama - $100,000 Sen. Shelby said, "These funds will assist the City of Selma in the protection of this historic home on Water Avenue. The acquisition of the Lovelady Building will also allow for future expansion of the St. James Hotel property." Lakeshore Foundation Facility Expansion - $500,000 Sen. Shelby said, "Birmingham's Lakeshore Foundation serves Alabamians with disabilities through a variety of programs and services. The $500,000 we have provided will assist the Foundation in their efforts to expand their facilities to serve a greater number of individuals with physical disabilities." Family Connection, Inc. Diversionary Program for First Time Juvenile Offenders - $150,000 Sen. Shelby said, "Family Connection, working together with the Shelby County District Court, will serve the community with the operation of a facility for first time juvenile offenders. Our funding will assist Family Connection in the construction of the facility to house this important program." Covington County Farm Center - $300,000 Sen. Shelby said, "The Covington County Farm Center is an important part of the Community and I am pleased that the $300,000 we have provided will assist them with the construction of Phase II of the Center. This Center is an important part of the on-going economic development in Covington County." Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Water and Wastewater Training - $700,000 Sen. Shelby said, "These funds will be used to continue the training at the Alabama Department of Environmental Management." Alabama Water Projects "We recognize that cities and counties are faced with many water and sewer challenges and I believe that this funding will go a long way in assisting local communities with those challenges," said Shelby. Southwest Alabama Regional Water Authority water facility project - $1,000,000 Rainbow City construction of emergency response systems for the sewerage lagoons - $500,000 Grant, Alabama wastewater collection and treatment facilities - $600,000 Jackson, Alabama for water system improvements - $1,000,000 - 30 -

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New (?) tric(k) for Internet Partitioning
by Mats O. Bergstrom 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

This Swedish entity believes it has found the solution (patented) to the long standing problem of effortless micropayments for web content. The solution is - skip micropayments! - but let the ISP´s pay tax to the content providers, the amount calculated from the size of the ISP's customer base, regardless of which sites the particular ISP customers actually visit. So you need a World Association of Approved Content Providers (WAACP) to share the tax profits. The tric(k) seems to be a method of technically denying access to sites in the WADCP domain to users who's ISP is not paying the taxes. One big problem is that providers of Not PC Content naturally will be barred from the WADCP. Even if it won't help the MS Masses it would be a gift if their system were crackable. //mob http://www.tric.com/

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Re: Adversaries Would Find Other Attack Methods, Game Theory Shows
by Tim May 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

At 2:18 PM -0400 8/2/01, Faustine wrote: >Interesting article, actually. > >I think game theory has the potential to be a powerful tool for any >cypherpunk to have in his or her mental arsenal, (so to speak.) Yes, discussed many times since 1992. Here's but one article on game theory and evolutionary game theory: To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com * Subject: Schelling Points, Rights, and Game Theory--Part II * From: tcmay(a)got.net (Timothy C. May) * Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 04:33:12 -0700 * Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As promised in Part I, here is more on the application of Schelling points to the discussion of "rights" (property rights, rights of parents to tell their children what to do, etc.). We saw that Schelling points, as developed by Richard Schelling and others, are essentially "lower entropy" points. (In fact, I suspect there are formulations which involve so-called "maxiumum entropy" methods which would reproduce the theory of Schelling points; Cover and Thomas hint at this in their "Information Theory" book.) How does this apply to rights? Let us take as an example the contentious issue of "parent's rights," "children's rights," and societal issues involving schooling, child abuse, indoctrination into the body politic, citizenship, etc. * Viewpoint #1: Parents have absolute control of what their minor (under some age, usually 18 and/or resident in their homes) children read, watch on t.v., listen to on the radio, etc. They can control the comings and goings of their minor children, whom they may associate with, etc. * Viewpoint #2: Children, even minor children, have certain basic rights to access to information, access to t.v., radio, music, and books. Even access to crypto! * Viewpoint #3: The State and/or Community has an interest in the upbringing of a child and may take steps to direct the education and exposure to information of children, even in contravention of the wishes of parents. There are of course various shadings of these viewpoints. And examples can be found to defend each of these viewpoints, and also to attack them. (For example, what of the Christian Scientist who lets his 5-year-old die of an easily-curable disease because he believes injections are unGodly? What of the 10-year-old who is taught in public schools how to use condoms (or how to clean dirty needles), in contravention of the wishes of the parent?) Cutting to the chase, I submit that nearly all societies have "evolved" an approach that says: -- "While I may think you are raising your child in a way different from how I would raise him, I cannot take over the raising of your child, and I cannot be in your house/tent/cave/yurt at all times, or even at _any_times, so I will basically not interfere unless something really egregious happens." This is a "Schelling point" in the same way that territorial boundaries develop and are mutually adhered to, for the most part. The _costs_ of extending beyond the Schelling point boundaries is deemed to be too high, and the boundary persists. (Boundaries may jump around, as conditions change. And wars still exist to try to imbalance or move the boundaries. Nothing says the Schelling points are fixed in stone, only that the points are not completely random, and that there is a kind of order out of the chaos.) This is summarized in the most important of all Schelling points: "Live and let live." In the absence of a direct threat to one's self or family, and in the absence of other compelling evidence of a need to intervene, much energy and grief is saved by not trying to intervene in the lives of others. (I believe many of the themes we talk about, here and in libertarian circles, come together in this way. The view of John Rawls, that "justice" is that which an ensemble of people of people would pick, even if they did not what station in life they would be born into, closely fits with this Schelling point model.) ObCrypto Sidebar: The "fair" method for dividing a pie between two people is well-known: "You cut, I choose." This *game theory* result is central to many cryptographic protocols (though it may not always be apparent at first). And the protocol can be extended to 3 parties, and proabably to N. Research is ongoing on this, including Cypherpunk Robin Hanson's work at Caltech. My essay here is not a formal, footnoted proof of my claims, naturally. But I believe my claims to be basically correct, and to offer insights into the debate about "rights"...certainly a Schelling point or evolutionary game theory interpretation of what we call "rights" is superior to an appeal-to-God or "natural rights" interpretation. To get back to the issue of children's rights: I will not expend my energies and risk my life to forcibly gain entry to my neighbor's "castle" to make sure his 7-year-old son is able to view "Power Rangers" when his "rights" to do so are denied by his father. Nor will I pay for cops, Child Protective Services, and a powerful bureaucracy to enforce these "rights." Nor will I demand that this parent send his child to the church I deem most appropriate, nor the school I deem most appropriate, etc. That is, "practical and economic" issues lead me to the conclusion that parents basically can tell their minor children what to do, and that only truly egregious cases, such as clear cases of severe beatings, warrant the interference by the State. The same applies to cryptography. While there are dangers with any technology, including cryptographers, most societies have eventually evolved a system in which one is secure in one's home and papers. Orwell's vision of video cameras in all homes (actually, only of the elites, as the "proles" were unmonitored) has not come to pass, and even in nominally totalitarian states like the U.S.S.R. and P.R.C. there was considerable privacy in the home, at least after the worst of the terrors in the 1930-70 period. (I am not endorsing these states, naturally, just noting that even these states had to recognize the Schelling points of (mostly) not trying to send cops into private residences to enforce marginally-important rules.) Forceful advocates of children's rights, such as Mike Duvos, will no doubt find many points to use to argue for intervention on behalf of children. And in some case, I would even agree. But the basic principle, the "right" of a man to control his own castle, and the "right" not to have people nosing around inside his home, and the very real economic point that a parent pays for services and good consumed in his house, means that the balance of rights _must_ be in the direction of Viewpoint #1 above. Parents are free to raise their children as they see fit. They feed and clothe them, they talk to them about ideas and beliefs, they control the television set and the radio channel tuned to, and so forth. This is basic reality. To change this basic reality would require intervention from outside. And this is too high a price to pay for illusory gains. (I say "illusory" because I don't think intervention from outside would produce better-educated children, though it might produce more controllable citizen-units.) This essay has concentrated perhaps too much on "parent's vs. children's rights," but this is what sparked my desire to write an essay on Schelling points and why certain so-called rights appear to have evolved. I believe the game-theoretic and evolutionary approaches, mixed in with economics, offer the most solid grounding for the discussion of rights. Comments, as always, are welcome. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Slashdot | California Court Ruling Favors Online Speech
by Jim Choate 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/02/2145207 -- -- ____________________________________________________________________ Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, "Let Tesla be", and all was light. B.A. Behrend The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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*Protecting* civil liberties with facial recognition
by John Gilmore 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

See: Matching Faces With Mug Shots http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12629-2001Jul31.html Perhaps the c'punks should put some effort into installing facial recognition systems in places where they will point out TO THE PUBLIC undercover cops, FBI agitators posing as demonstrators, or other undesirable citizens. How about at the next WTO meeting (not that I sympathize with the anti-globalists, but when both sides are thugs, as in Genoa, then they both deserve to be exposed). Hmm, if DARPA or the Army is going to digitize its soldiers' faces for an IFF system, maybe we can FOIA that database. Maybe we can stir up some doubts in even the cops' minds about whether this technology is evil or beneficial. Or at least hoist them on their own petard. Brewster -- can we run this software over the set of pictures of people on the Internet that your Web spider pulls down? Luckily, picturephones never caught on -- or Ma Bell would be working hand in hand with the government to monitor every citizen's every phone call, and compare who's on it with the FBI and NSA watch list. Oops, I forgot the voice recognition software and the permanent international call wiretaps; I guess they already are. John

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RE: Laws of mathematics, not of men (fwd)
by pablo-escobar＠hushmail.com 03 Aug '01

03 Aug '01

>No Tim, what is utterly irresponsible is to make bellicose threats on this list about what your response will be if masked ninjas invade your home. If they end up shooting you (and I think their is a significant likelihood that they will), it will be in large part because of your macho siege mentality. Si. Threts are illoical, only be ready and do! Use their spy cameras against dem. Learn dem to see ninjas. When dey come in 'da middel of 'da nite have it shoot automatica guns wit armor piercing tips. Dig a tunnel so you can escape. Treet dem to killing infrasound from a leaf blowr grande whissel berried in your front jard. Pablo Free, secure Web-based email, now OpenPGP compliant - www.hushmail.com

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