December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Blue Ribbons
by David K. Merriman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- For as long as my 10-yard spool of blue ribbon and box of paperclips hold out, I'm sending a ribbon/paperclip to any snailmail address in the U.S. Note that each one is an individually hand-crafted work of art :-) Dave Merriman -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMRnw4cVrTvyYOzAZAQGXUQP/fu7/K7dkjSkbcDAgrOmVNH0OaUn6t5SP E6DKfyfz3Wlu2VIhxCAS0KGHaLdCSH1teGFfIuhwOWikq+FdidJjXjep04/MAuAe +KXI0QoaFYY4dVVi9qX8Uzz1igOHs2MXDXG/6eZ1AlSux+HG1DHPz44PyUY7flWP sVizJ7plH2w= =qrdr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------- "It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Judge <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> My web page: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1148

1 0

Re: Assassination Politics--isn't it gambling?
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 06:00 PM 2/6/96 PST, banelaw(a)med.com wrote: >Jim: as to "Assassination Politics." Isn't the structure you describe >gambling? Placing money on a prediction, with the correct predictor >winning? I guess that depends on the laws, doesn't it? <G> Seriously, though, since all the participants are anonymous, and it can all be done from overseas... Somehow, though, I think politicians will take little solace from knowing that they are protected from death only by laws against gambling. > And if so, isn't it illegal if done over the wires, i.e., federal >commerce? I'm not looking for a way to declare your scheme illegal, I'm >just pointing out that there are other angles, especially if done over the >wires. I'd sure like to read a serious legal analysis of all this. Maybe all the lawyers are too terrified to respond. > I guess you could move the structure off shore--pity the poor country >hosting such an entity! If you were at all succesfull, the server accepting >digital cash would be moving from place to place--remember pirate radio? Presumably, the digital cash could be encrypted with the organization's private key, and published (anonymously) on a USENET area, in a way which is untraceable and unidentifiable. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com Klaatu Burada Nikto Something is going to happen. Something.......Wonderful! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMRlnY/qHVDBboB2dAQHJcQP/T8u6c5K3Idb5K8/ztBJWSqTQBPmvMlpR y4GlRgOyIn11jnMX60p7ffselQwSF8mxM3BJv4O2ODr/KWwACeQoK9svWW30xSyF 0eSuFzHvOfrZLW3xvpTo1mMoxRCtYeUQZLZGLvU2G99P6GeWCPRhWbFfTQ1Q6aen yiEOvB/DfUs= =Aj2b -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

3 2

Re: RSA-China Crypto
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- BTW, there's an article about it on RSA's home page now. - --- [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 iQBFAwUBMRr/eyoZzwIn1bdtAQHRBAF+PNYhhytVCUQ5LDn9vM5sSFNJ9l0zKm8T mfzCvhN/eE/qLpl8fDi1gvLJDnrWte/Z =t5nc -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: Reasons in support of crypto-anarchy WAS Re: Why am I (fwd)
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:45 PM 2/8/96 -0500, Perry wrote: >You are annoying me. How much do people want to bet someone kills >Jim Bell in the next six months? 6 cypherbucks, if I can get the ecash software to work again. 12, if you'll accept killfiling as well... #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com / billstewart(a)attmail.com +1-415-442-2215 # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

1 0

Re: DSN
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:47 AM 2/1/96 -0500, you wrote: >Anyone heard of DSN? I think thats the right order of the initials... >... its supposedly the only crypto-hardware solution for protecting an >entire network on the Internet. You put one of these $5,000 units at one >end of a lan, and another one somewhere else on the Internet, and the >company gaurantees secure, encrypted transmissions. The TCP/IP headers >and data are mangled, encrypted, etc. Anybody who supposedly makes the "only [whatever-category] hardware solution" for a problem has either not done their literature searching, is going for a really obscure market niche, doesn't understand the problem, or (very rarely) is the first product out on the bleeding edge, or has had their competitors go out of business on them. VSLAN (I forget the manufacturer) used to make an encrypting Ethernet board for PCs, Suns, etc., and did the software work behind it to get a B2 Red Book rating from the NSA. Boeing had a secure FDDI ring about the same time (~5 years ago.) Motorola has made several products for encrypting Ethernets, X.25s, and other networks, which the military buys and likes. Don't know which of these are still on the market, and what new toys have appeared. Meanwhile, the swIPe encrypted/authenticated IP protocol is available, and the similar IPng security protocols are emerging (i.e. the RFCs are written and folks are working on reference implementations.) They'll cost you $0 for software plus a 386-box for Linux, or a used Sun. >It uses 512bit keys and I was just wondering how the authentication is >done. Does anyone have any specs on these units? Supposedly it does not >require a 3rd party entity to verify that the two units are both valid, >when determining the initial public/key pairs. Perhaps there is hardcoded >data in the units that is used to verify this? The company supposedly has >some proprierty method ... how can we be sure this expensive unit can do >its job if information on the encryption has not been released. If you can't get the company to show you the protocols, at least under non-disclosure, ask them if it's NSA-certified and see what the NSA has to say about it. 512-bit keys seem a bit short for either RSA or Diffie-Hellman these days... >[RSA in 5 lines of Scheme, deleted.] Got any short prime-number generators? #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com / billstewart(a)attmail.com +1-415-442-2215 # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

1 0

Re: Tell me whats wrong with this
by lunaslide＠loop.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Tell me whats wrong with this section of the telecom bill. I have a six >year old boy I am trying to raise >and it is hard enough to teach him respect and values without explaining why >Ned Beatty is being >bungholed in the woods by Billy Bob or why the Terminator splattered this >guys brains all over the >wall. > Tell me why parents should not be able to censor their OWN >television so that they may raise their children the way THEY see >fit...................Did your dad give you his old >playboys?.........NOOOOO............ <snip> A note here...my dad also did not go to jail for two years and get fined $100,000 when I weasled my way into his closet, without his knowledge, and found his Playboys at age five! >All I'm saying is it's tough to raise a child these days without the added >distortion of modern >programing and parents need not be denied any tool that can help them >achieve success. <rm for brevity> I didn't see anything really wrong with that part of the bill. What it will encourage is advertisers to withdraw from the more violent shows, and in turn will encourage television producers to prefer funding less violent shows. Since I don't watch television that often anyhow, it won't affect me very much. I do see where it will deny those who wish to see such shows the violence they wish to see. This is an issue, and it is indirectly caused by the bill, but it can not be used effectively against the govt. because they did not directly outlaw violence. It is particularly the CDA which boils my blood. One other concern, however, is that the lifting of restrictions on who can compete for what will result in mergers and buyouts of internet providers and that when only a few major companies own the bulk of the industry, the consumers will suffer from content restriction, technological lag and possibly price gouging. I note the car, oil, software and media industries as a few examples. For example, journalists have traditionally been in support of free speech and civil rights; they are, for the most part, rather liberal. However, they, particularly those in television journalism, have been notably absent in this battle over net censorship and have definitely not been there to support us. In fact, they have even spoken to our cause's detriment on many occasions, by the slant of their pieces! I can only attribute this logically to the fact that the internet takes attention away from their industry. The internet competes with television and print as an information source, and this the owners of the media do not want. It's sort of an unspoken conspiricy (appologies, I've already been accused of turning this into ConspiricyPunks once before:-) Nontheless, those are some of my concerns over the telcom bill aside from the obvious CDA. lunaslide On the meridian of time there is no injustice, only the poetry of motion creating the illusion of truth and drama. Henry Miller

1 0

Re: Fair Credit Reporting Act and Privacy Act
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:39 AM 2/9/96 -0800, jamesd wrote: >If you have one law for men who run businesses and one law [for] other folks, >then we have selective enforcement and application of the laws, >that enables governments to act selectively and capriciously. >For example here in California private citizens who attempt to organize >recall elections are often subject to extraordinary and confiscatory fines. On the other hand, of course, there are laws that are ostensibly for the purposes of regulating businesses whose primary effect is to limit the privacy or actions of individuals. For instance, California's law requiring that mailbox renters provide two forms of ID and make their mailbox companies agents for service of process is ostensibly to "protect" consumers by regulating businesses that operate out of mailboxes (which the law claims there are 7 million of here); it furthermore lets the Post Office specify what kind of ID to use (which some local postmasters are far more extreme about than others), and requires revealing True Addresses. #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com / billstewart(a)attmail.com +1-415-442-2215 # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

1 0

Re: [NOISE] #/%age of CDA-blackened sites
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Sorry to post this question here, but I know of no other group with >folks who would know. Have any of the "spiders" such as Alta Vista >been sent to see just how many US sites have been blackened in the >protest? The approximate number and percentage of US sites blackened >might be interesting. In my limited surfing, I have been gratified >to see the _widespread_ response -- but I am not the typical user. I don't think it's updated enough things recently (or else it only indexes the contents of a page and not the header details in the <BODY> statement.) For instance, BGCOLOR="#000000" had 197 hits, but most of them were old, and on topics like "How to set the background colors on your web page", and NO documents matched both BGCOLOR="#000000" and vtw. #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com / billstewart(a)attmail.com +1-415-442-2215 # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

1 0

Re: Fair Credit Reporting Act and Privacy Act
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:28 AM 2/9/96 -0500, Duncan wrote, regarding the appallingly invasive British Privacy Act: >Computer bureaux which process personal data for others or allow data users >to process personal data on their computers must also register. Their >register entries will contain only their name and address. > >Data users and computer bureaux who should register but do not, are >committing a criminal offence, as are those operating outside the >descriptions contained in their register entries. In these cases the >Registrar regularly prosecutes. The penalty for non-registration can be a >fine of up to £5,000 plus costs in the Magistrates Courts, or an unlimited >fine in the Higher Courts." Ouch - does this mean that if you offer shell accounts, you either have to contractually limit the processing your users may do, or be fined as a criminal for not registering? #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com / billstewart(a)attmail.com +1-415-442-2215 # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

1 0

Re: Benefits of the V-Chip
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:11 AM 2/9/96 -0500, olbon(a)dynetics.com (Clay Olbon II) wrote: >There is one potential side-benefit to the V-chip -- The inverse-V-chip .. >I am looking forward to a time when I will never, even accidentally, have >my TV tuned to "Full House" ;-) Just as many people program their televisions using VCR-Plus codes to record the shows they want (using TV Guide as a rating service) it would be easy for any rating service to publish a list of the codes for Approved Shows, Banned Shows, Rated-by-interestingness shows, etc. without putting any government-mandated rating chip in the TVs or forcing the TV producers to rate them (which also has a chilling effect on the shows produced.) #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com / billstewart(a)attmail.com +1-415-442-2215 # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs

1 0