December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Cyberspatial governments?
by frissell＠panix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:39 AM 8/30/94 EDT, Jason W Solinsky wrote: >You were >writing about the problems of anonymous entities and suggested that >you would have difficulty dealing with such entities because there is >no way for you to know when a company you are dealing with undergoes a >substantial change. But look at the physical realm. What is it that makes >companies disclose changes in their upper management? Why do they announce >major deals publicly? Why do they discuss strategy in their quarterly >filings? They might well be motivated to disclose positive things without >SEC regulations, but negative events show up because a government is forcing them to make those disclosures. An advanced telecommunications environment offers a number of ways to protect yourself against the problems involved in dealing with anonymous entities in a situation in which there is no monopoly Government. (Might I suggest that we adopt the typographic convention of using an upper case 'G' to spell Government when we are speaking of The Great Enemy and a lower case 'g' to refer to things like self government or corporate government or engine government.) When one's PBX finds that one's call is not going through via a particular long distance carrier, it automatically switches to another one. It is easy to imagine one's intelligent agents testing various sorts of transaction completions and switching vendors when one fails. Professional checkers can supply information on vendor status for a fee. After all, we don't care if a company we are dealing with changes if its service is unaffected. Eric Hughes is working on another approach, an Open Books protocol which will let companies post anonymous but checkable sets of accounts which can be accessed by anyone on the nets, can't be easily spoofed but give no private info to anyone else. Sort of Zero Knowledge Proof Bookkeeping. (Could we call this triple-entry bookkeeping?) It is important to note in any case that the use of third-party escrow as a substitute for Government regulation was a feature of the Northern European semi-anarchies of Iceland and Ireland that have informed modern libertarian thought. I doubt that my old Poli Sci prof Don Balmer would consider an escrow company to be the equivalent of the Government of the United States. DCF "Though he may be poor He will never be a slave"

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Remail: errors
by HFinney＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have been out of town for the last week, so I missed some CP mail. It looks like some good things are happening with remailers, though. Kudos to Karl, Sameer, and the others for their work! I have received many messages to my remailer in the last week which came from remail(a)tamsun.tamu.edu, which were PGP-encrypted apparently in an effort to get my remailer to send them. They did not work, though, because there was no "Encrypted: PGP" header to trigger the remailer's decryption. This can be arranged by creating the message something like this: ======================================================== :: Request-Remailing-To: hfinney(a)shell.portal.com :: Encrypted: PGP - -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- <rest of message> - -----END PGP MESSAGE------ ======================================================== This would then be sent to remail(a)tamsun.tamu.edu. I don't know whether the multiplicity of such erroneous messages is just due to one person stubbornly re-trying, or whether there is an error in one of the new programs for creating chained remailer messages. Hal Finney hfinney(a)shell.portal.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.2 iQCVAgUBLJaNuKgTA69YIUw3AQHrNwQAowMEQwuH6YyHoj6T7AqZFLNdTf+eqJ9L LhAatHS94nmC1smkfVNq0dZmigmkvBdMNEPlBZemmxALz+KJw6OSY/ULSBmuVNEq 5rJANh3XimoJWqLISy2lZiuC5Fw2R7UvRadcdM94pncSVvev92Fyf7CqEOOtrGAK PUzRds7BVNo= =FpLa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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more than spread spectrum
by cme＠ellisun.sw.stratus.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There are alternatives to spread spectrum, if we're threatened with loss of freedom to communicate. We could lay our own wires/fibers. We could set up a mesh network of infrared lasers through the air. Last time I looked, there were no laws against shining lights out your window as long as they didn't bother anyone. An infrared laser could hardly bother anyone. We could produce a line of cheap cards to plug into a PC which would do packet routing, using a variety of physical links -- our own wires, lasers, very low range radio, .... Each card would connect to three or more neighbors and become part of the global mesh. Adaptive routing with no global map would suffice for the card and would keep the whole system peer-to-peer with no need for central control and no chance for central tapping. Of course all of these solutions require a high density of users. A college campus might be the right place to start. We could then branch out to cities. I suspect that a place like Chicago or NYC with high rise apartments might be the place to start -- many options for line-of-sight communications. The benefit isn't just for Cypherpunks. It's a free network for the masses -- like the original USENET (with each user donating routing and store/forward) but with unrestricted, low-range, continuously operating physical links. I'll volunteer to do the software for the node card. Does anyone have hardware design/fab to donate to the effort? - Carl

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(Fwd) Re: Alt.Gvmt.Bad.Bad.Bad
by blancw＠pylon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to msg by Michael Conlen: Theft could be from thoes who do not protect there property and from thoes who do not respect others property, so can it also be said that 'bad government' can be from people not protecting there rights and people who have no respect for the rights of others? ............................................................... What should be said is that theft does not happen of its own accord; someone must decide to accomplish the so-called criminal act. To describe theft as the result of another's inaction is to imply that human action of any kind is mostly automatic, that there is a pull which will evoke action upon intelligence the way gravity affects inanimate objects, and that nothing better could be or should be expected from it. It is also to imply that the possession of intelligence is negligible because any opportunity for taking advantage of another's vulnerability will be irresistible to humans, as if they were basically scavengers looking for the spoils of other people's negligence. In which case, rather than speaking of bad Government, the aim should be to question the existence of intelligence & the possibility for morality. I don't know who would be qualified to discuss it, though, without the possession of the one and an appreciation of the other. Blanc

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Re: Bad govt represents bad people?
by Rachel_P._Kovner＠gorgias.ilt.columbia.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

perry(a)imsi.com wrote: >They've never failed -- thats the thing. France has had five or six or >seven governments since its revolution depending on how you count >them. Italy's government was barely a few years old following the last >war when it became nothing more than a graft generator. Of all the >nations of Europe, only England in some sense can be said to have >survived more than the last sixty or seventy years without a major >change of government -- and it might be said that England's government >changed radically following the reforms of the last century and the >Parliament Act of 1911. (Well, some of the Scandanavian countries are >also partial exceptions, but not especially big ones.) Europe is >considered the "advanced" part of the workd, ladies and gentlemen. >The U.S.'s record of surviving over 200 years without a major upheaval >is quite an unusual thing. I agree with you that the U.S. is unusual in this way - but I would say that part of the reason the US has been so successful in warding off 'bad government' is because Americans have traditionally been very concious and protective of their liberties, more so than the French and Italians, and even more so than the Brits. I would suggest that this supports my 'eternal vigilance' statement, because it is only the country that has been most protective and concious of its rights that still has it's rights. (Having a written Constitution has helped a bit, too...) >But the people almost never resist. Usually, they want the bad >government -- it needs them to survive. Well, that's an awfully pessimistic attitude, but I think you would certainly agree that some countries in the world have worse government than others. I would say that the government reflects the people - the countries with the best government tend to be those with the citizenry which is most aware of the dangers of big government. Even if those countries eventually succumb to bad government, they will have succumbed because they cease to resist the big G. My point is this - G(g)overnment reflects the people in that it is the people who ultimately must insure that their rights are protected. If they don't, history has shown, 'bad Government' will take over. American liberties have survived in some form for so long because Americans have made efforts to maintain them - not because the forces which try to restrict/remove our liberties are not their. By the same coin, since these forces are always there, when the US gives into them it will be because our citizenry is no longer vigilant in resisting these forces. rk ---------------------------------------------- Delivered by the NLTL Internet Gateway

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Pasting syntax
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Regarding pasting headers for remailers - How does one paste in a "Cc"? Can it be done by adding it to the paste header, like so? :: Request-Remailing-To: Subject: Organization: Cc: I guess I'll find out....

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Moby Crypto
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Punkz, With the recent turn of events concerning the subpoenas for Austin Code Works, Grady Ward and Phil Zimmerman, I would suggest that each of us do our parts to disseminate PGP and all other forms of crypto FAR AND WIDE, as quickly as possible. The battle has been joined!

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RE: REMAIL pasting syntax
by nobody＠rosebud.ee.uh.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Earlier, an anonymous person asked about pasting syntax, about how to paste in a CC: header. The answer is: it depends on which remailer you use. For a Hal-style cypherpunks remailer, you would do something like this: ----------8< cut here >8---------- :: Request-Remailing-To: someone@somwhere ## CC: I am pasting this into the header as the mail leaves Here is my message ----------8< cut here >8---------- But, if you use Chael's remailer (since I beleive he wrote his own software!), you would do this: ----------8< cut here >8---------- :: Request-Remailing-To: someone@somewhere CC: I am pasting this into the header as the mail leaves Here is my message ----------8< cut here >8---------- Of course, you would only want to paste at the last hop since the remailers would trim it out otherwise. For example, this message should have an "X-CC:" header I pasted in. -- Karl L. Barrus: klbarrus(a)owlnet.rice.edu keyID: 5AD633 hash: D1 59 9D 48 72 E9 19 D5 3D F3 93 7E 81 B5 CC 32 "One man's mnemonic is another man's cryptography" - my compilers prof discussing file naming in public directories

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Re: Trust fund to support free software. Backed, in part, by PGP.
by doug＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Although that's an interesting scheme, it would be even more trustworthy to send the money directly to the trust bank account, which can be done in simple ways. We need better algorithms than the one suggested. Doug

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Crypto Witchhunt?
by ssteele＠eff.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To the 'net community: EFF is very concerned about the Customs Department-initiated grand jury investigation into encryption export violations. Two U.S. companies have been subpoenaed to produce documents related to the "international distribution" of commercial products utilizing PGP and RSA source code. Neither of these companies are engaged in the international distribution of any illegal materials. EFF is working with the concerned parties and is trying to find out the scope of the grand jury investigation. Unfortunately for us in this case, grand jury investigations are secret, so learning the scope is proving to be quite difficult. What we do know is this: Austin Code Works, a software publisher in Austin, Texas (heavy sigh), has been planning to publish a code document written by Grady Ward called Moby Crypto. Grady describes Moby Crypto as simply containing descriptive source code, not executable object code, describing many cryptographic routines that are freely available around the world. Most of this material has been released in print form already. The important distinction seems to be that Moby Crypto will be released in machine-readable format. Austin Code Works has told Customs Agents that it does not intend to release Moby Crypto outside of the U.S., yet the company has been subpoenaed to release all documents related to this product. (Incidently, if Moby Crypto contains no executable code, it should be exportable under ITAR, just as textbooks containing such materials are exportable.) ViaCrypt, a Phoenix, Arizona,-based (heavy sigh again -- man, does this ring familiar) software producer that has a license to sell software products that use the RSA algorithm, was issued a similar subpoena. ViaCrypt has recently contracted with Phil Zimmermann, creator of the PGP encryption code, to sell a commercial version of PGP. ViaCrypt only distributes its products containing the RSA algorithm within the United States, since RSA is not exportable under ITAR. EFF has been in touch with Phil Zimmermann and his attorney, Grady Ward, and the owner of Austin Code Works. We have advised everyone that there is nothing to hide and that they should abide by the subpoenas and produce the documents requested. We will not know what the appropriate response should be until the grand jury makes its determinations. In the meantime, we want everyone to know that EFF is committed to ensuring that the right to use and publish whatever encryption method an individual chooses to use is protected. Jerry Berman, EFF's Executive Director, issued the following internal message this morning: >I've assured Phil that he is not alone, and I have talked with his attorney. >If Phil is charged with export control violations based on making PGP >available in the US on a non-commercial basis and it happens to get >published or copied overseas, First Amendment issues indeed may be joined. >As of now, ViaCrypt has done no "exporting" and does not intend to. I have >the subpoena. Indeed, EFF has copies of both subpoenas. We will continue to keep you informed of what's going on as we learn the facts. EFF is deeply concerned, and we want Phil and everyone else involved to know that they are not alone. As soon as it becomes clear what specifically is being investigated, EFF will respond. Shari ****************************************************************************** Shari Steele Director of Legal Services Electronic Frontier Foundation 1001 G Street, NW Suite 950 East Washington, DC 20001 202/347-5400 (voice), 202/393-5509 (fax) ssteele(a)eff.org

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