December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Remailers, law and the Church of Scientology
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- AvI Harris Baumstein writes: >> clients' property rights. Courts are holding such >> contributory infringers liable. Two examples are: Sega >> Enterprises Ltd. v. Maphia BBS, 30 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1921 (N.D. >> Cal. 1994) and Playboy Enterprises v. Frena, 839 F. Supp. >> 1152 (M.D. Fla. 1993). >what of these cases? is this just an example of typical lawyerly >intimidation tactics? Neither case is particularly similar to the remailer situation. _Maphia_ concerned a business which sold $350 boxes to copy SEGA programs from and to ROM cartridges; they also sold access to their BBS which held unlicensed copies of SEGA games. The court held that the copying devices had no purpose other than to contribute to infringement, and that when SEGA programs were uploaded to the BBS, the upload was made with the knowledge of the defendants. _Frena_ involved a BBS operator who made copyrighted pictures from Playboy available on his BBS; Playboy trademarks were removed from the pictures prior to posting. Access to the BBS was only available to people who paid for access, or who otherwise did business with the defendant. The court's discussion about the defendant's mental state in _Frena_ consists of a single sentence, and a cite to Jay Dratler, Jr., "Intellectual Property Law: Commercial Creative, and Industrial Property", $ 6.01[3] at 6-15(1991). The court seems to be addressing direct, not contributory infringement. (I don't have Dratler available easily right now so I dunno what it says.) _Maphia_ does cite text from _Casella v. Morris_ 820 F.2d 362 (11th Cir. 1987): "'[o]ne who, with knowledge of the infringing activity, induces, causes or materially contributes to the infringing conduct of another' may be held liable as a contributory infringer." (quoting from _Gershwin Publishing Corp. v. Columbia Artists Management, Inc._, 443 F.2d 1159,1162 (2nd Cir. 1971). I don't think the cases cited stand for what the Church's attorney says they stand for. I'm not convinced that the "contributory infringement" doctrine can be reasonably applied to remailer operators; and I'm not sure that remailer operators have the sort of mental state (knowledge) required to create liability. The letter to operators may be part of a strategy to establish knowledge of the potential for misuse, to later prevent operators from claiming a lack of knowledge. I'm not sure that a vague warning "someone might use your service to infringe a copyright" is strong enough to establish that sort of knowledge. As a remailer operator, I don't see a good way to eliminate infringing uses without also eliminating non-infringing uses; the crazy politics around this Scientology stuff makes it seem like the perfect place for people to use remailers. I also think the non-commercial and political nature of postings to the Scientology groups may make a fair-use analysis turn out differently than in _Maphia_ and _Frena_; both defendants tried a fair use argument, and both lost. On the other hand, I'm a law student, not an attorney, and the person who wrote that letter certainly knows more about law in general and about copyright than I do. I may be totally hosed. Coincidentally or not, I had a long chat today with the sysadmin of the system immediately upstream from mine. He said, out of the blue, "So .. you run a remailer?". In the past he has been privacy-friendly and anon-friendly, and seems to remain so today, but the timing was a little peculiar. I explained about the remailers and told him how to get Raph's list and about alpha.c2.org and all the rest of it. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBLws+TH3YhjZY3fMNAQEpmgP+JnIZKmdzLWx3P8fMVO0v1pEZ33lrlHHe FLZBnk59rDXZBomFhprlZAs65ERmKBbugXRJYkPhFA7aKYqcmpquGj6BqWp0oTul SjHS3OWpsDJhPVEWzt5uOhlV5WrDdhqUWgrI9hN1nfLHnD/Y2NGvPPUt4J2Web/H uD9htAdxH8o= =U4oG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: C'punks Economist Fan Club
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Why is it that so many cypherpunks like the economist? The Economist is my favorite magazine (my parents' too). I don't read it regularly, but that has more to do with my being busy than anything else. It succeeds in providing fairly balanced in-depth coverage of international news that isn't terribly Amerocentric or Anglocentric. At worst it's G7-centric, but I think that's entirely reasonable ;) It's witty, politically aware, relatively technically savvy. The articles exhibit a healthy (IMHO) cynicism about what happens and why, yet maintain some idealism about what should happen. It's not perfect, but it's difficult to imagine surpassing it. I recently read an interview with Bill Gates in which he was asked which periodicals he reads. His first response was: "The Economist, every page". -L. Futplex McCarthy; PGP key by finger or server "The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an alligator clip or ones and zeroes. Wherever they are, whatever they are, I need them." -FBI Dir. Freeh - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLwu1BGf7YYibNzjpAQH9nAP/SMG+SpBKMnW0owZJb8mH1+boR8veHxZR ZHF88L2XRKb4PRvzBho8oukfGAneaTJ45EaApZ7PAcz+zWin3PT3IHl6KqsgZger nHl2g7HHVqVO+XXbcpM3eSzvfA8lzbQgWLGM+0RAguYjAPFoMgWNunDU7xUrfuwY 66mBQMCNUlo= =QPTj - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLwu2ISoZzwIn1bdtAQEw0wGA4UqmMyxtaoR6nzs54zUesF2CvvSROy6O xAOR//mT0N6v7oLdhTmOHlWDVeFqJBXw =M8TG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: another factoring thing. . . .
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:04 PM 12/30/94, camp(a)industrial.com wrote: >Hey did anyone see the artical, some time ago in Science News (May 14, >1994) their was this artical on using a 'quantum computer'. Through >the marvels of quantum mechanics it is theroretically possible to >build a computer that would be really good at factoring large numbers >such as the ones used in RSA. This combined with team sieving could >possibly be used to signifigantly reduce the time required to factor >a key. Any thougts, did anyone else see the artical, has there already >been a really stimulating discusion that I missed? Well let me know. .... I think that that kind of quantum computer is much less likely to be built to impact RSA style crypto, than some revolutionary sort of factoring algorithm. It is not clear whether the tolerances required for the quantum computer can ever be met and it is not entirely clear if the quantum principles are correct. I don't entirely rule it out however.

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No Subject
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Factoids lifted from apple-internet-users(a)medraut.apple.com: >Jonathan P. Sullivan <jsullivan(a)arpa.mil> wrote : > Here are some other stats culled from an article in the 12/22/94 edition of > Washington Technology: > >* Approximately 300,000 attacks have been made on DoD computers >* Hackers have successfully compromised 350 DoD computer systems >* 88% of all information warfare attacks succeed >* 96% of those successful attacks are never noticed >* Only 4% of those noticed are reported Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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NYT on $GIF
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Peter Lewis writes today on Compuserve and Unisys grub for royalties on GIF. Perry has noted its sty, java-eyely. For email copy send blank message with subject: GIF_nip

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_Why_ the print media doesn't like Usenet
by Tommy the Tourist 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As many of you know, recent articles and editorials in the nations main newspapers (_New_York_Times and the _Chicago_Tribute_ to name just two) have presented shockingly distorted accounts of the infamous Canter & Siegel Usenet spam. Ordinary Usenetters, outraged at the socking abuse of the internet by Canter & Siegel, were transformed into "network terrorists" in these editorials. The attorneys, who have haughtily expressed their determination to repeatedly inconvenience millions of Usenet readers by flooding Usenet newsgroups with unsolicited advertisements, were portrayed as the innocent victims of anti-business "vigilantes" bent on terrorizing the attorneys after their widespread Usenet spam last year. The articles also included numerous serious technological inexactitudes which supported the distorted conclusions of the articles. The articles called for increased government regulation of the internet in order to thwart the alleged abuses. Determined efforts by Usenetters to educate the print media into presenting a more balanced (and, I might add, less dis-ingenuous point of view) have been in vein. It seems reasonable to point out the following facts: 1. It has not been unknown for powerful individuals in newspapers (such as editors and owners) to manipulate articles for political purposes. 2. Usenet has often been highly critical of the print media, especially editorials which disagreed with strongly held Usenet views and articles which contained erroneous information. This criticism may have been seen by the print media as damaging. 3. From time to time articles published in newspapers have been posted (sometimes anonymously) to various newsgroups. This has denied the print media of revenue since readers only had to turn to Usenet to read especially sensationalist articles. 4. In the past, the print media has held a monopoly on detailed news. Sure, television could bring news stories instantly, but for detail one had to turn to the newspaper. Usenet and the internet are capable of providing very detailed information rapidly and on demand, changing instantly as conditions change. It is a very real competitor. 5. Government regulation would seriously hurt Usenet. Censorship (like an FCC censor) and regulation of anonymous remailers would result in increased legal liability on the internet. Holding Usenet posters and other providers of information liable for the accuracy and tastefulness of their information would make many people think twice before making their information available. This would eliminate not only inaccurate and tasteless information, but it would also greatly hinder the flow of even accurate information. This would put the print media on a more even footing. These facts together suggest that it might be to the advantage of the print media to call for government regulation. Once this is realized, the behavior of these newspapers can be better understood, and action can be taken against them: 1. Misleading information in the print media about Usenet must be widely disseminated so as to damage the reputations of newspapers that print inaccurate accounts and encourage them to get their facts straight the next time around. 2. The print media's self-interest in government regulation of Usenet must be pointed out, both to the public and to law-makers so as to reduce the effectiveness of their pleas. 3. Usenet should seek the support the of the media (especially rivals like TV media that have less to lose from Usenet) to obtain favorable and anti-regulatory publicity. -> If you found this article interesting, please feel free to distribute widely. <- ------------ To respond to the sender of this message, send mail to remailer(a)soda.berkeley.edu, starting your message with the following 8 lines: :: Response-Key: the-clipper-key ====Encrypted-Sender-Begin==== MI@```%I^&2?(E<U9BPG1]W7L'=&KH_PWY8"RO>+YR'QAJ3&+D2`UAI&EZX\# M%D0S6>LX!B&XC`CI2S9?]$AN7*P9K`)Q4JT_V`>$K2Z<X!O-/MH$TO5V:@(L %BQ>,T(@` ====Encrypted-Sender-End====

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Remailer postage
by jpb＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Russ, Where can I get the Magic Money software? I'm also interested in a combination FV/MM approach to anonymous postage. I'm still waiting to get my linux box set up (hassle with client paying the bill and all that fun stuff) but am considering starting a remailer once I get the site set up. I am concerned about the ethics of having a paymailer feed into the free remailer soup - how would their operators react if I'm effectively making money (no matter how little) off of them? In the interest of preserving anonymity, perhaps their should be a set postage rate - that way someone could use a digital stamp anywhere, helping to confuse the audit trail. I'm not sure if I want to get involved in the hassles of redemption though. It would probably become a major hassle for all the operators to have to do that much accounting on a regular basis. jpb(a)gate.net finger for pgp and ripem keys

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All I did was properly crosspost!
by Carol Anne Braddock 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I first saw the Dubois Letter in alt.security.pgp the 28th. PRZ posted it here the next day. I "crossposted" it to my favorite 10 newsgroups. Just 10. Some creep complained. (we'll get to him a bit later). I didn't get a chance to get back on-line for 3 1/2 days. I was lied to. I am hurt. My mail has been stolen. I haven't read any of you for four days now. My web pages are vulnerable. Is there somebody who can please help me get my 2 megs of mail? I can't get at your keys. http://www.winternet.com/~carolann/coffee.html has the cypherpunk rant links on the page. I'm proud of them, and proud to be on this list. But to take my account away for crossposting to 10 groups is not right. I'll be back with a better chronology. Love Always, Carol Anne ps Hope you like (and feel free to use) my new .sig

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Re: Are 2048-bit pgp keys really secure ?
by danisch＠ira.uka.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> A somewhat disturbing trend has appeared in the low-end cost-sensitive PC > SIMM market. Some supposedly 9-bit SIMMs are actually 8-bit SIMMs plus > a parity generator. This means that the parity checking is essentially > subverted, because the parity bit is generated from the stored contents > of memory at read time, rather than the stored contents when it was > written to. As such, NO bit errors are detected. So why not do a cheap trick: After the small primes check calculate a CRC checksum over the number. Then do the primality check. If it is a prime, store it together with the CRC. The CRC can be checked for every use of the number. (PGP encrypts the secret key and therefore it generates a CRC for the encrypted packet. But this CRC is generate after the primality check.) We already had some SIMM modules with bit errors. They were detected by a parity check. If cheap pc simms don't have a real parity bit, the probability of having such a bug isn't as low as 10^-40. If cheap parity-less simms are available they get sold (cheap and expensive). Hadmut BTW: Some weeks ago they found motherbords with falsified cache rams: They had just the normal DIL-ICs and the normal pins, but the plastic of the ICs didn't contain a chip. The BIOS was modified to give out a message about a good cache ram check at boot time.

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Re: public vs. private replies
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Tim May writes: > [...] has asked that we reply in e-mail to him, to avoid > "cluttering the list more than I already have...," but the logic of > this is faulty. The few lines of a response such as this one, or even > of several such responses, are as nothing compared to dozens or more > people sifting their own archives so they can each independently send > [...] what they find. Hence my public reply. I'd like to amplify this point, which is missed all too often on Usenet and mailing lists. Replies to requests for fairly widely-known factual information should be directed to the forum (i.e. the mailing list, newsgroup, or what have you). This practice not only prevents duplication of effort by the repliers, as Tim mentioned, but also prevents duplication of effort by others interested in the same answer. I try to make a point of replying to the whole list when someone asks for a list of remailers, mail-news gateways, etc. for precisely this reason. As I see it the basic principle rests on a simple comparison of the number of replies desired with the likely number of replies. If you anticipate getting many more replies than you want, you should ask for replies to the entire forum in which you place the query. Otherwise, seek private email. This is certainly not a perfect heuristic, but it's an excellent starting point IMHO. For example, a few months back I wanted to give away an old AM/FM/ shortwave radio, so I posted to a local newsgroup. I asked for initial public replies, so that I wouldn't be flooded with mail before I had the chance to announce that a recipient had been selected (first-come first-served). After the initial expression of interest, further correspondence continued in private. [...] > In my opinion, having personal access > to past posts is several orders of magnitude more important than > having MIDI-MIME JPEG-II TeX players [...] It takes more disk space from one's personal quota, though (for those who suffer under such restrictions). :[ Let's not head down this road again.... "You've gotta keep `em separated !" -Offspring -L. Futplex McCarthy; PGP key by finger or server "The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an alligator clip or ones and zeroes. Wherever they are, whatever they are, I need them." -FBI Dir. Freeh - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLwz5Mmf7YYibNzjpAQEooAQAlj93pc1CuSMTdApaRTg06ONgPkeyqUfY KhdcqzDmEnuWBDdwgO+YtHOHFsOGlPhoFhOijajJzTh97G1TBYn5plBECaZXs1RJ Au9g1uqEAKtFLFYB/jKDaDA/Xzf13irCKb846IAhttKICwQJ8HfLfgPWLHMa1/f1 ldkXYq7DfY8= =7KNc - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLwz6PCoZzwIn1bdtAQGpbwGAqY6tLm7TAN2TluCpD1WOTsR6kMgI2R27 CMExwcLopwSapiPNO0u/IHnzHUq5ij2C =TyKQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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True Names
by Angus Patterson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've been trying to get True Names by Vernor Vinge, and have been told it's out of print (like most good cypunk ), does anybody have it scanned? I realize this is without permission, so does anybody have Vinge's address? (e-mail or otherwise) or could anybody ask him? Btw, does he have any other crypto/anonymity related stories? Thanks in advance.

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Re: Remailer Abuse
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Russ Nelson writes: > Heh. An anonymous remailer paid for by credit card... > Sure, I'll know who used it, but I'm not going to keep that > information. (Yes, yes, FV says that I have to keep records of who > bought what, but I'll label all my information with a random number, > that simply says that X bought information worth Y, not *what* > information.) And if you don't trust a remailer operator, then you > won't use it. I'd be worried about a couple of issues - one is just the transaction cost - can you successfully market remailer use at a buck a shot or whatever you'd be charging beyond FV's 29c stamp, or would you have some convenient way to aggregate bill? Beyond that, though, are some traffic analysis problems - remailers require a fair bit of traffic to be useful, and unless you receive a reasonable amount of encrypted traffic, and support encrypted email for purchasing remailer service and other merchandise, an eavesdropper would have a fairly good source of traffic data on your remailer users, especially since buying and using remailer service requires two messages within an hour or so. An alternative billing mechanism, which wouldn't use Chaum-patented cash, would be to sell a bunch of one-shot random-number tokens. When you sell the tokens, you add them to the database of valid tokens, and when one comes in on a message you delete it. This allows you to sell more than one message or service-period per FV transaction, and separates the purchase and use by a longer time, without adding the need for record-keeping based on the user's ID. It obviously does require encrypted reply messages. Another variant is for the user to send you a bunch of tokens along with the purchase, which you store. Blind signatures would improve the security of this process, but require more computation and may involve Chaum's patents. In this case, the message from the client to you would be encrypted, but you wouldn't have to send a reply, so the request could come in anonymously. Bill

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Re: All I did was properly crosspost!
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [I'm cc:ing this to C. A. Braddock's new address and her ex-sysadmin, in addition to the cypherpunks list. --L. Futplex McCarthy] Carol Anne Braddock writes: > I first saw the Dubois Letter in alt.security.pgp the 28th. > PRZ posted it here the next day. > > I "crossposted" it to my favorite 10 newsgroups. Just 10. Posting letters asking for $$$ is of course a risky venture on Usenet. We see the PRZ Appeal as a Worthy Cause (tm), but that's just what all the MAKE.MONEY.FAST posters think of their garbage too. If you go sticking out your hand, you'd better be doing it in the right place. My frank reaction as a veteran Usenetter is that 10 newsgroups sounds like rather a lot, especially when that presumably excludes the groups like a.s.pgp to which the letter was originally posted. To which 10 newsgroups did you repost the letter ? [...] > Is there somebody who can please help me get my 2 megs of mail? I believe it's questionable whether your old system is under any legal obligation to provide access to your accumulated mail there. As I recall, Netcom ended up deleting most of the deluge of mail Canter & Siegel received after their infamous spam. However, in this instance it does seem that it would be polite (and good P.R.) to give you access to the mail your account has received. Apologize and ask your former admin nicely, and you might well get it. He could move it to an anon-ftp directory, perhaps encrypted with some public key of yours :) [...] > But to take my account away for crossposting to 10 groups is not right. Well, it depends greatly upon what you posted and where. If I posted the PRZ Appeal to *my* ten favorite newsgroups (including alt.config, alt.religion. kibology, and alt.sexual.abuse.recovery), I'd certainly expect to face trouble and perhaps lose posting privileges. [...] > Login name: carolann In real life: CarolAnne Braddock > Directory: /usr2/carolann Shell: /etc/scripts/tcsh-susp > Last login Thu Jan 5 21:38 on ttyq5 from annex3-1.wintern > New mail received Thu Jan 5 21:16:23 1995; > unread since Mon Jan 2 13:18:25 1995 > Plan: > This account has been disabled permanently. > > Mike Horwath - Admin - Winternet - drechsau(a)winternet.com -L. Futplex McCarthy - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLw0Fu2f7YYibNzjpAQGwoAP/RrXUl3vguSSJSvGDNKsXIMek61Ay5Cvy xFO/NWcyZpzXkqwF3w19DOtke1EQ1NuPP7Z9luN6zF/QkqNwS6Z0mAMc8hcI0kLg F3ESx06UABPJMQoVY63BtaDYuj6Dualjs903koAliIUhpITZ+qsf7jaj3qT1FtMa d3SzHqOWGYM= =876P - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLw0G3CoZzwIn1bdtAQHTCQGAgs4itNl5sAZMFjgMIx4Gef52o49+4q3k m36gnACMfYDMThQyhcOS8udSMFw3YM4Q =uty3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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GIF_nip
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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available NNTP posting sites?
by erc＠s116.slcslip.indirect.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have a list of NNTP sites that take connections from anyone for posting? My regular NNTP site seems to be hosed, or something, and I have a post that needs to get out, but also needs to originate from this site. Thanks in advance :) -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp(a)linux.org, ecarp(a)netcom.com 801/534-8857 voicemail 801/460-1883 digital pager Finger ecarp(a)netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744(a)anon.penet.fi ** PGP encrypted email preferred! ** "What's the use of distant travel if only to discover - you're homeless in your heart." --Basia, "Yearning"

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Vinge reference in Moving Mars
by Hal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greg Bear's novel Moving Mars, now out in paperback, has a cute reference to Vernor Vinge's ideas from True Names. p.208: "'Don't stick on the names,' Orianna said, shaping the living room into more Regency. 'All my friends are into Vernoring. They work and play with fake names. I don't know their true ones. Not even their parents know.' "'Why?' "'It's a game. Two rules - nobody knows what you're doing, and you do nothing illegal.' "'Doesn't that take the fun out of doin crypto?' I asked. "'Wow - crypto! Hide in the tomb. Sorry. I shy from two-edged words. We call it Vernoring.' "'Doesn't it?' I persisted. "'No,' Oriana said thoughtfully. 'Illegal is harm. Harm is stupid. Stupid is its own game, and none of my friends play it. Here's Kite.'" The book is pretty good, lots of nano and other hot tech, but not much crypto (sorry, Vernoring)... A little slow in places, though. Hal

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Anonymity in Donating
by L. McCarthy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Some nice examples of the preservation of anonymity in charitable donations, both for the donor and for the recipient, caught my attention today. An article by Clare Ulrich in the December 1994 Communique (Vol.18 No.3), published by The Cornell Campaign, pays tribute to an anonymous donor to Cornell U.: "While some acts of generosity are marked by a name on a building or a plaque on a wall, others, so to speak, can be counted among the philanthropic `whodunits.' These are the anonymous gifts, and Communique would like to profile several innovative projects that one anonymous donor helped launch this year. According to the donor, anonymity provides greater freedom to `pick and choose' projects that are personally interesting. This donor is particularly attracted to programs that involve computer technology or promise to generate benefits beyond the scope of the immediate project. [...] The same donor who declined recognition for these high-tech projects also provided support for 24 high school juniors from Boys Harbor in Harlem to attend the six-week Cornell Summer College Program in 1994, as well as the two previous summers. [...] Although this anonymous donor may not be interested in getting a name on something, he certainly leaves an indelible mark on the quality of education at Cornell." Closer to home, our dept. chair Dave Stemple broadcast a request for donations to an anonymous recipient: "One of our undergrad majors lived in Amherst Crossings, which burned down last week. As a result this student, a senior who had planned to graduate this spring, is destitute and needs help or he will be unable to complete his degree. If you would like, you can contribute clothes or money (cash only please in order to maintain the student's anonymity) to him. [...]" Incidentally, I received my B&W C'punks shirt from Kevin Prigge a few weeks ago, and consider myself a very satisfied customer. I made a point of wearing it on the flights both ways for a recent vacation I took in California. On the return trip, I was delayed at O'Hare for over an hour due to a leaky window on the airplane. A man in his 50s or 60s approached me and asked, with a smirk, what a Cypherpunk was. I explained a bit, mentioning the passage of the DT bill. Noting the mention of the NSA on the shirt, the man mentioned that his son is working at Apple "with the NSA".... -L. Futplex McCarthy; PGP key by finger or server "The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an alligator clip or ones and zeroes. Wherever they are, whatever they are, I need them." -FBI Dir. Freeh - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQCVAwUBLwyA6mf7YYibNzjpAQFENAQA09JTWr501ZJliFWK4efY8py2OhgBq8gy rqYvrGX+EZ49Uq+IDU2DjiiPBHuYPOE23wb/QfouhmKaSSUMqifYTd+uau247Cot CC+CYceBvH3oK35oTr7CahSqb4JLUNs4atOkoYtpbYPG5qrR8yJkAGBKbVzQZHKt ioUFB5xhYKA= =QD4b - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLwyB+CoZzwIn1bdtAQEgkAF+OBkRShMO+Et/Kr8AkPXPz564xgNnhzfP WPSO0W0UCpkg/e7bQIliMCXiyzp7nHQr =1IBd -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RSADSI Conference - Extra Passes?
by chen＠intuit.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A cohort of mine is in need of a pass to next week's RSADSI conference, which, unfortunately, is sold out. So if anyone has a pass that they're not planning to use for a half-day or so, please drop me an e-mail and I will be in your debt. Thanks! -- Mark Chen chen(a)intuit.com 415/329-6913 finger for PGP public key D4 99 54 2A 98 B1 48 0C CF 95 A5 B0 6E E0 1E 1D

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C-LIT: Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" (was: Re: True Names)
by ddt＠lsd.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:48 pm 1/5/95, Angus Patterson wrote: >I've been trying to get True Names by Vernor Vinge, and have been told it's >out of print (like most good cypunk ), does anybody have it scanned? >I realize this is without permission, so does anybody have Vinge's address? >(e-mail or otherwise) or could anybody ask him? Btw, does he have any other >crypto/anonymity related stories? Thanks in advance. Amazing that you should mention this, Angus: I *just* finished reading "A Fire Upon the Deep" and it is not only exeedingly gnarly, but also features a universal net, galactic-wide relays and Netscum-like service providers and associated user kvetching, a sinister-billions-of-years-old-AI-virus, newsgroups, lists populated by aliens - and even _crypto_ as the key to the whole shebang. There's also a great futuristic "dig" on pub key encryption buried in it. Neural net stuff. A possible explanation for the existence of both God and Newt Gingrich...and I could go on. Great read, true anus-clenching adventure... and this from one who does NOT normally read anything more sci-fi than certain software manuals. :) Strongly recommended for c-punks who can last 600 pages (after the first ten, you're hopelessly hooked if you have half a brain left afdter reading this list for a year or two). I _WISH_ I had VV's email address! I'd like to send the guy a big thank-you and ask if he's writing a sequel (yet). If anyone does know it, puh-LEEze mail me. First book of his I've read, first of it's kind I've enjoyed in a very long time. I'll scan my favorite crypto-related (legal-length) excerpt and post it next week, howzat? dave _________________________ Big books small Books high books tall Just give me a good Little book, That's all. -Truman Capote (age 11) C-LIT = Cypherpunk LITerature. Gitcher mind outta the gutter there, Lancelot.

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Re: ecash trial issues explained
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: Wolfgang Roeckelein <wolfgang(a)wi.WHU-Koblenz.de> > > >-> Digital cash should not be "anonymous" -- paper currency isn't. Serial > > There seems to be a misconception here what is meant with anonymous. Paper cash > is anonymous: I can't derive the person I got the note from from the note > itself. So if I meet a guy in the street, he gives me a pack of cigarettes and > I give him cash, this transaction is anonymous. It isn't difficult to make paper cash less anonymous, though, by tracking serial numbers. This is occasionally done in "law enforcement" situations - recording the notes used to pay ransom or bribes. It wouldn't be difficult to add serial-number recording equipment/mechanisms to automatic bank-teller machines, to record what serial numbers would be given out to whom. (This can be done either by adding scanners to the ATMs themselves, or by scanning the money before putting it into the ATM, and having the ATM record that transaction #43 dispensed the 105th-110th bills in the stack. Scanning can either be done by OCRs, or by replacing the human-readable numbers with bar-codes, as some of the paranoids periodically suggest the US Treasury is about to do as part of some heinous plan. However, the original posters' assertion that digital cash should not be anonymous is not a technical statement, it's a value judgement, and in my opinion it's a bad one. There are a lot of genuine social needs that anonymity can support, and a lot of bad things that can be done with traceable money. Aside from that, traceability costs money. Original gold and silver money didn't need to be traceable, though coiner's and assayer's marks were useful, and it is easier to keep track of your pile of gold bars if they're numbered. But paper money has serial numbers largely to prevent easy copying; gold is a lot harder to counterfeit, unless you've got a king who insists that coins with his face on them should be worth N times as much as anonymous coins. Bill

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Re: GIF_nip
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Watch your Cc: headers, s'vous plait? AAK! Eudora's "reply-to-all" strikes again! Grovelling in your general direction, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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Re: True Names
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Timothy C. May I see copies in used bookstores often. It's in the collection "True Names and Something-or-other" and was in print until recenly. I also have the Bluejay edition, with an afterward by Marvin Minsky. .............................................................. I bought one at Half-Price Books. I don't know what edition it is, it's a dingy little paperback with a signature in it of some stranger that I wouldn't know. I keep it with my "previously owned" collection. Blanc

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DES for HP48
by SINCLAIR DOUGLAS N 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There used to be some code on soda to do DES on an HP48 palmtop/calculator. I looked this afternoon, on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, and I couldn't find it. Anyone know where it got to?

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Re: True Names
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Jim Gillogly > Blanc Weber <blancw(a)microsoft.com> writes: > I see copies in used bookstores often. It's in the collection "True > Names and Something-or-other" and was in print until recenly. I also ............................................................. No, No, Jim, that wasn't me saying that - that statement was made by a cpunkgod. Mine was beneath it. Blanc

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floating point crypto?
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm incensed. I casually mentioned somewhere else that I saw something on this list about floating-point math being used in crypto, contrary to popular belief, and somebody had the *timerity* to call me on it. ;-). I think it had to do with factoring, but maybe even in key-generation, though that doesn't sound right at all... So, are there c-punk archives I could look in? I remember hearing something about that, too. However, if someone remembers off the top of their head, or if they have an actual copy of the posting, that would be great, too. Please send me whatever it is by e-mail. No point cluttering the list more than I already have... Of all the nerve.... Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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