August 2002 - cypherpunks-legacy

First they came for the Cpunks...
by Matthew X 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

"First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work pgp5 anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up." ~Alara Rogers (Aleph Press) ne Heard from ENRON just before they collapsed. "When I said burn all the books I meant , 'put them on the fire', not 'copy them onto CD'" CHINA CRISIS! I'm wondering whether China will use Linux for restrictive purposes - i.e. The Great Firewall of China ? Perhaps they've found that Microsoft products are just too insecure for this purpose ? ;) The German Government announced they will be switching exclusively to Linux. Chancellor Adolf Hitler declared Linux "the software of the Superman" and said that anyone caught using other operating systems will be imprisoned. Microsoft Windows cd's and books on using Microsoft software have been publicly burned in ritualistic bonfires. A few resisters caught with Windows 98 on their hard drives have been beaten and tortured by the Gestapo, their pleas that "it was just for Counterstrike!" falling on deaf ears. As of this writing, the computers that control the train timetables for transporting undesirables to death camps have been running Linux for three months now without a reboot. http://slashdot.org/articles/02/08/14/0327209.shtml?tid=163 Steve Ballmer was right about RED hat,"open source COMMUNISM!"

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Causing Trouble
by Matthew X 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

Some people just seek out trouble,don't they declan... "Unfortunately, nearly every person at the FBI who was notified of the situation reacted by questioning why Ms. Edmonds was 'causing trouble...Indeed, the FBI's first internal security action in this case focused on Ms. Edmonds, instead of the allegations that she raised in good faith as a whistle-blower and which bore on national security and the war against terrorism." --From a letter to Attorney Gen Ashcroft from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), on the FBI's response to reports of a compromised counterintelligence investigation

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News for murd's,stuff that splatters.
by Matthew X 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

Assassination Politics (Score:1, Troll) by aminorex on Tuesday August 13, @12:35AM (#4059484) (User #141494 Info | http://slashdot.org/) The only geek who ever came up with a viable means of effecting positive change in the current U.S. political system was promptly sent to prison. His name is Jim Bell, and he's a loon, but his Assassination Politics may well save the U.S. from totalitarianism and genocide, and I can hardly wait to see it implemented. [ Reply to This | Parent ] · · Re:Assassination Politics by aminorex (Score:2) Tuesday August 13, @09:41PM · · 1 reply beneath your current threshold. http://slashdot.org/articles/02/08/12/2148202.shtml?tid=123 "Declan McCullagh spent several years on Essential Information's AM-Info (Appraising Microsoft) e-mail list basically just lurking and stirring up trouble he could use in news reports." Not our declan! Shurley shome mishtake! Oh deccy boy the pipes,the pipes are calling...

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Re: Thanks, Lucky, for helping to kill gnutella
by AARG! Anonymous 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

Several people have objected to my point about the anti-TCPA efforts of Lucky and others causing harm to P2P applications like Gnutella. Eric Murray wrote: > Depending on the clients to "do the right thing" is fundamentally > stupid. Bran Cohen agrees: > Before claiming that the TCPA, which is from a deployment standpoint > vaporware, could help with gnutella's scaling problems, you should > probably learn something about what gnutella's problems are first. The > truth is that gnutella's problems are mostly that it's a screamer > protocol, and limiting which clients could connect would do nothing to fix > that. I will just point out that it was not my idea, but rather that Salon said that the Gnutella developers were considering moving to authorized clients. According to Eric, those developers are "fundamentally stupid." According to Bram, the Gnutella developers don't understand their own protocol, and they are supporting an idea which will not help. Apparently their belief that clients like Qtrax are hurting the system is totally wrong, and keeping such clients off the system won't help. I can't help believing the Gnutella developers know more about their own system than Bram and Eric do. If they disagree, their argument is not with me, but with the Gnutella people. Please take it there. Ant chimes in: > My copy of "Peer to Peer" (Oram, O'Reilly) is out on loan but I think Freenet > and Mojo use protocols that require new users to be contributors before they > become consumers. Pete Chown echoes: > If you build a protocol which allows selfish behaviour, you have done > your job badly. Preventing selfish behaviour in distributed systems is > not easy, but that is the problem we need to solve. It would be a good > discussion for this list. As far as Freenet and MojoNation, we all know that the latter shut down, probably in part because the attempted traffic-control mechanisms made the whole network so unwieldy that it never worked. At least in part this was also due to malicious clients, according to the analysis at http://www.cs.rice.edu/Conferences/IPTPS02/188.pdf. And Freenet has been rendered inoperative in recent months by floods. No one knows whether they are fundamental protocol failings, or the result of selfish client strategies, or calculated attacks by the RIAA and company. Both of these are object lessons in the difficulties of successful P2P networking in the face of arbitrary client attacks. Some people took issue with the personal nature of my criticism: > Your personal vendetta against Lucky is very childish. > This sort of attack doesn't do your position any good. Right, as if my normal style has been so effective. Not one person has given me the least support in my efforts to explain the truth about TCPA and Palladium. Anyway, maybe I was too personal in singling out Lucky. He is far from the only person who has opposed TCPA. But Lucky, in his slides at http://www.cypherpunks.to, claims that TCPA's designers had as one of their objectives "To meet the operational needs of law enforcement and intelligence services" (slide 2); and to give privileged access to user's computers to "TCPA members only" (slide 3); that TCPA has an OS downloading a "serial number revocation list" (SNRL) which he has provided no evidence for whatsoever (slide 14); that it loads an "initial list of undesirable applications" which is apparently another of his fabrications (slide 15); that TCPA applications on startup load both a serial number revocation list but also a document revocation list, again a completely unsubstantiated claim (slide 19); that apps then further verify that spyware is running, another fabrication (slide 20). He then implies that the DMCA applies to reverse engineering when it has an explicit exemption for that (slide 23); that the maximum possible sentence of 5 years is always applied (slide 24); that TCPA is intended to: defeat the GPL, enable information invalidation, facilitate intelligence collection, meet law enforcement needs, and more (slide 27); that only signed code will boot in TCPA, contrary to the facts (slide 28). He provides more made-up details about the mythical DRL (slide 31); more imaginary details about document IDs, information monitoring and invalidation to support law enforcement and intelligence needs, none of which has anything to do with TCPA (slide 32-33). As apparent support for these he provides an out-of-context quote[1] from a Palladium manager, who if you read the whole article was describing their determination to keep the system open (slide 34). He repeats the unfounded charge that the Hollings bill would mandate TCPA, when there's nothing in the bill that says such a thing (slide 35); and he exaggerates the penalties in that bill by quoting the maximum limits as if they are the default (slide 36). Lucky can provide all this misinformation, all under the pretence, mind you, that this *is* TCPA. He was educating the audience, mostly people who were completely unfamiliar with the system other than some vague rumors. And this is what he presents, a tissue of lies and fabrications and unfounded sensationalism. Don't forget, TCPA and Palladium were designed by real people. In making these charges, Lucky is not just talking about a standard, he is talking about its authors. He is saying that those people were attempting to serve intelligence needs, to make sure that people had to run spyware, to close down the system so it could keep "undesirable" applications off. He is accusing the designers of far worse than anything I have said about him. He is basically saying that they are striving to bring about a technological police state. And yet, no one (other than me, of course) dared to criticize Lucky for these claims. He can say whatever he wants, be as outrageous as he wants, and no one says a thing. I don't know whether everyone agrees with him, or is simply unwilling to risk criticism by departing from the groupthink which is so universal around here. I asked Eric Murray, who knows something about TCPA, what he thought of some of the more ridiculous claims in Ross Anderson's FAQ (like the SNRL), and he didn't respond. I believe it is because he is unwilling to publicly take a position in opposition to such a famous and respected figure. But anyway, maybe I was too personal in criticizing Lucky. Tell you what. I'll apologize to Lucky as soon as he apologizes to the designers of TCPA for the fabrications in his slide show. Deal? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1] We are talking to the government now, and maybe this is where we get some advantage from having a broad industry initiative. Our fundamental goal is "let's do the right thing." We have pretty strong feelings about what the right thing is on terms of making sure that things are truly anonymous and that key escrow kinds of things don't happen. But there ARE governments in the world, and not just the U.S. Government. http://www.techweb.com/index/news/Hardwa...WB19980901S0016/INW20020626S0007

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We believe...
by Matthew X 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

"...The issue of how the governments of the world will wish to address the proliferation of encryption in the post September 11 era is a far more complex, but equally important question. Although the United States intelligence community has sounded the alarm on this topic for several years, commercial and privacy interests have prevented many of the steps proposed to permit governments access to encrypted communications where the national security required such access. We believe those earlier decisions will now be revisited..." Globalops hotshits mouthing off.1 was an FBI flack around WACO massacre time and the other is ..guess who. The president? Following are some of the attorneys or judges who have been reported to have been disciplined by the District of Columbia for unethical conduct, who may be a resident of the District of Columbia and who were disciplined in another jurisdiction, sued for malpractice, incarcerated, whom we understand have been charged with unethical conduct, who have have engaged in conduct which tends to defeat the administration of justice or to bring the courts and the legal business into disrepute, etc. Same name mistake? Identity theft? Whatever. Judicial & Attorney Misconduct in the District of Columbia ... MICHAEL CHARLES MOGIL, BERNARD M. MURCHISON-SMITH, BRETT E. MURPHY, JUDGE TIM NEILL, DENIS M. NERENBERG, ROY NIELSEN JR, KENNETH EDWARD ONDECK, THOMAS P. OAK ... www.clr.org/dc.html - 6k - Cached - Similar pages Theres a million Thomas P Ondecks out there,right? D-2094 IN THE MATTER OF DISBARMENT OF THOMAS P. ONDECK Thomas P. Ondeck, of Washington, D.C., having been suspended from the practice of law in this Court by order of August 2, 1999; and a rule having been issued and served upon him requiring him to show cause why he should not be disbarred; and the time to file a response having expired; It is ordered that Thomas P. Ondeck is disbarred from the practice of law in this Court. Probably his evil twin...what did gumshoes do before they invented Google? Original grab at... http://www.waaf.ru/24.html Scroll for it.

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Chicago posts names, addresses on 'net, "promises to remove" after fine payment
by Khoder bin Hakkin 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

story at: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-park14.html Identities at: http://www.cityofchicago.org/Revenue/Parking/100Scofflaws.pdf The best part: Chicago says: "individuals will be removed from this list". However, the list will not be removed, as the Net Memory is Long. The Chicago office of Blacknet LLC seeks the names, addresses, etc. of responsible bureaucrats. -- "Better bombing through chemistry." -John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org on use of speed by US pilots

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Mortgage Rates Have Never Been Lower
by cypherpunks＠Algebra.COM 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

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Everyone a journalist,no one a witness.
by Matthew X 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20020813_romania.shtml Romania: Mystery of a missing journalist. A newspaper in western Romania has appealed for international help find a reporter who went missing two months ago. Investigative journalist Iosif Costinas, 62, was last seen by a neighbor near a market in his hometown of Timisoara on June 10, said Laurian Ieremeiov, deputy editor of the daily Timisoara on August 12. Thr Romanian rights group Freeex,org, citing Associated Press, reported that police had launched an extensive search in the rivers and woods near the city, and an adviser to President Ion Iliescu has pledged to support local authorities resolve the case, Ieremeiov said. So far these efforts have been unsuccessful. On Sunday, the newspaper sent messages to Reporters Without Borders and to Amnesty International, asking for public support in trying to find the reporter. Costinas has publishes articles about sensitive subjects, such as the unsolved killings during the December 1989 anti-communist revolt and the continued presence in high positions of Securitate communist secret police officers. He was just completing a book about the shady business underworld in the city located near the Yugoslav and Hungarian borders. "We believe it very probable that his disappearance is connected to what he wrote and his actions as a member of civil groups trying to find out the truth of the revolution," Ieremeiov told AP. Freeex.org campaign & report.

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Mortgage Rates Have Never Been Lower
by cypherpunks＠Algebra.COM 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

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Guilty of "publishing an alarming publication,"
by Matthew X 15 Aug '02

15 Aug '02

http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20020813_kenya.shtml Kenya: Publisher jailed over magazine story. The publisher of "Finance" magazine, Njehu Gatabaki, has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment over an article entitled "Moi ordered the Molo Massacre". The main story, which appeared in the magazine's December 1997 issue, dealt with killings which occurred in Molo, Kenya, just prior to the 1997 general election. A court in Nairobi found Gatabaki, who is also a member of Parliament in Kenya, guilty of "publishing an alarming publication," reported the Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa (NDIMA) as relayed by IFEX. But Gatabaki told the magistrate that he had suffered for publishing the truth. "The truth will set this country free. The articles were true. I'm ready to bear that burden of bringing the message to Kenyans." Gatabaki, who was unrepresented, was given 14 days to appeal against the sentence. Judge Ms Karanja said that she had considered the publisher's mitigation, which she described as little more than a political speech. "I've taken cognisance [of] the fact that the accused is [a] lawmaker who should be making laws and not breaking them. This is why this conviction should be taken very seriously," she said. NDIMA report via IFEX. Index report on Kenya's Zimbabwe-style strategies.

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