December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Encourage Singapore To Come Out Of the Stone Age
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:13 PM 9/2/96 +1000, James Seng wrote: > What i am saying is that Asian (Singapore) > values are _DIFFERENT_ from western (America) values. One of the classic Greek rationalizations for slavery was that Asians are slaves by nature. It would seem that you are saying that they were right. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: Scoring Politicians on Digital Liberty Issues (Re: Net Politics)
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I would suggest that support for "parental empowerment" and for any sort of mandated rating system (e.g., PICS with a requirement to rate pages for parental censorship use) be a down-rating. -Allen

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Solid Foundations
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:57 PM 9/2/96, lcs Remailer Administrator wrote: >Well, I just designed a nymserver that's probably more complicated and >difficult to use than any previous one. From this experience, I have >concluded that if you want to design a remailer with real security (as >opposed to a penet-style server), it just won't be easy to use that >remailer manually. Even alpha.c2.org was kind of a pain to use >manually. I therefore think in the long run it's better to bite the >bullet, write as secure a nym server as possible, and expect that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >people will use special client software to use the remailer. I strongly agree. It's very important that _foundations_ be as robust and strong as possible. Then on top of this foundation, other layers can be added without the whole structure tumbling down when flaws in the underlying protocols are discovered. This has been one of my pet theories for a long time. Not just the fairly obvious point that foundations need to be robust, but the specific point that one of the strengths of PGP was that it dealt with *text blocks*. Though we all want integration into our favorite programs, by building PGP around a text block there were several advantages. First, a simpler problem than trying to deal with n different programs. Second, a text block has fewer places for flaws to creep in. Third, platform independence. Fourth, any editor or other program that can access text can potentially be used with PGP. Fifth, separating crypto functions from other functions is good, orthogonal, method-oriented design. Sixth, this allows drop-in replacements (where "hooks" are used.) (To understand why these points are so important, one needs to look at programs which integrate crypto directly...independent verification is harder to do, bugs may be less apparent, and delays in supporting other platforms (if ever) are likely, etc..) --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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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Re: Silenced Machine Guns Are Safer Than TWA
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:37 PM 9/2/96, Dave Harman OBC wrote: >tcmay(a)got.net (Skippy) wrote: > >! At 4:33 AM 9/2/96, qut(a)netcom.com (Net God) wrote: >! >! >Contrary to popular fiction, ALL firearms have been permanently >! >registered since the 1968 Gun Control Act. The media monopoly lies when >! >they say the contrary. >! >! Nope. Gun sales between individuals without any paperwork were fully legal >! in some places until recently (and may still be fully legal...I can only >! speak of California). > >So? I was talking about NEW sales of firearms from license holders. Let's >consider improving the future rather than preserving the past, shall >we? My apologies! I assumed when you wrote "since the 1968 Gun Control Act" you meant since the 1968 Gun Control Act. I did not realize that you translate "since the 1968 Gun Control Act" into "NEW sales of of firearms." Sorry. I'll consult my qut-dictionary more often. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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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Re: Whistleblowing on the Internet
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There's also the point that some whistleblowing isn't exactly what some political groups would want to occur. For instance, opponents to unions such as myself aren't going to want a whistleblower to be able conveniently to report their exclusion from a job due to union membership. -Allen From: IN%"adam(a)homeport.org" "Adam Shostack" 27-AUG-1996 02:41:17.66 To: IN%"geoff(a)digidem.com" CC: IN%"cypherpunks(a)toad.com" Subj: RE: Whistleblowing on the Internet Geoffrey Gussis wrote: | Overall, I am quite surprised that there isn't a whistleblowing | clearinghouse on the Internet; a site sponsored by a non-profit that lists | email addresses and secure forms for sending anonymized email to those | areas of the public and private sector that deal with whistleblowing. As | the Internet is a great medium for information dissemination, and offers | significant privacy advantages, I really expected to find much more. Such a clearinghouse is what we call a fat target; something likely to attract attention since wiretapping it could be very useful to an organization that worried about having a whistleblower. As such, the correct attitude towords whistleblowing is to use an anonymous remailer, and send to interested parties. That's how the AT&T deal that sunk the des phones and made clipper a household word was publicized; a member of the list(?) interested party sent a number of interesting documents through remailers to cypherpunks. Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume

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Re: Los Angeles Times article on Helsingius and anon.penet.fi
by Tim O'Reilly 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John, Your statements seem like a position I could sign up to as an official EFF position... -- Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks 103 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707-829-0515 ext 266, Fax 707-829-0104, tim(a)ora.com Check out http://www.ora.com, http://website.ora.com, http://www.songline.com

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Re: SCO giving free licenses to UNIX OpenServer
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Eric Murray wrote: > > Scottauge(a)aol.com writes: > > Read, Understand, and Delight... Microsoft maybe in trouble at last. > > I doubt it. People don't use Microsoft products because > of their quality or functionality. Errmm.. hate to disappoint but SCO UNIX started life as Xenix which was written by Microsoft in the dark ages. > > This is for single user home based UNIX systems. > > Single-user UNIX isn't all that useful. Multi-user ain't much better. Listen to the guys who built it. UNIX is a program development environment. In the early years it was interesting because there was source available, that ceased to be the case years ago. Today Linux probably represents the future of the UNIX familly, it allows people who want to hack at the OS level access to the sources of a fully functioning OS. This allows people to add in new kernel features, schedulers and other exotica without having to write a whole new O/S. Just don't confuse it with "home computing", this is geek computing and you better have a lot of interest in computing to use it. Home computing is the market for users who need a system thats simpler than a VCR or they can't use it. At one time that meant Apple, today it means Microsoft, it will never mean Linux - not unless someone can make Linux much much simpler than it is at present and provide decent WISIWIG tools such as editors etc. designed for use by aunt Ethel. Phill

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New cryptography www site
by paul＠fatmans.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi all, Just announcing my cryptography www site, it`s very new so the content isn`t all there yet but it`s worth a look, email me and tell me what you think, also if anyone has any research papers on cryptography in ASCII, doc etc.. formats could they email them to me for putting on the pages... the URL is Http://www.fatmans.demon.co.uk/crypt/index.htm Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Http://www.fatmans.demon.co.uk/crypt/ "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey" -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCNAjH9j+cAAAEEAMBvREiQR0ot9dFCO0TiSCSunAYLv2g1Bc6I3bz8FzKXNH53 6mieJf/W4rD+CxJpT0q9RQaaoRtkHJLwbjfK2il3D7mEahMAyqvF/xRJNqkXfhM3 sRJM0Jh43l+W0M5vwokbEbk25/bxWWGspTsLD3YHbzKnG6pOcL5OPIRbv66xAAUR tCdQYXVsIEJyYWRsZXkgPHBhdWxAZmF0bWFucy5kZW1vbi5jby51az4= =riHc -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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FWD: Another try to kill democracy
by SPG 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi Y'all, I just got wind that the German government is planning to force german ISP's to shut off access to my ISP, XS4ALL, because the german magazine 'Radikal' has a web page on xs4all. This magazine is a radical left wing magazine of the type that in the netherlands is 13 in a dozen, and in germany (obviously) labelled 'terrorist'. The issue here is not my political beliefs (quite distant from radical I can assure you) but the fact that the german government does NOT see fit to extradite nazi war criminals, to fire Judges, DA's and other powerfull officials who were member of the nazi party during WW2, or to take steps towards closing access to US neo-nazi sites, but DOES deem it necessary to shut off an entire server because of a (in the netherlands perfectly legal) left wing magazine. Not so much is changed after all I guess. As student history I can name several people also labelled 'terrorist' before by a government, who were not. 'Terrorist' is the name opressive and undemocratic Junta's use for their opposition. Please considder mirroring or linking to this site. THIS IS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE!! It has litle to do with the actual content of the page (wich is quite harmless) URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal/index.htm or contact tank(a)xs4all.nl REMEMBER! NEXT OPINION LABELLED 'UNWANTED' BY A GOVERNMENT, MAY BE YOURS!! Greetz. DD. -- --__+==[ NOTE!! This e-mail adress is read by several different people, due to the fact that it is in use as mailing adress for our editorial staff (TRIBE MAGAZINE), If your message is of a personal nature, and is not to be reposted or used in our magazine , please state so. NOTE: we maintain the right to ignore this, if it has news value. ]==+--__

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"Bit Tax" article in EET
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

August 26, 1996, Electronics Engineering Times, Page 4 "Europe wary of bit tax" By Peter Clarke Maastrict, Netherlands Since it surfaced in a report prepared for the European Commission earlier this year (see April 29, page 1) the idea of a "bit tax" on data communications has received a mixed response in Europe. Feedback has ranged from calls for adoption and implementation from within the Belgian government, to a qualified rejection by one vice president of the European Commission (EC), to disjust and disbelief amonst individual Interenet users, particularly in Italy. The bit tax idea, only a very minor part of an interim report, has received a great deal of publicity from private individuals, who seem to be the most upset, fearing state interference as an attempt to tax freedom of speech. Luc Soete, director of the Maastrict Economics Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, has been heavily flamed via e-mail since the report's publication. As chairman of the so-called High Level Experts Group (HLEG) which authorited the report, it was he who included just one clause in about 100 pages of text, calling for an investigation of the taxing of data transmission over networks, and particularly over the internet. [JB: I can't resist adding a comment here. One of the most threatening aspects of this "bit tax" idea (even far more important than the value of the money paid) is the fact that it would make all ISP's and Internet users automatically subject to "tax evasion" charges which would just be a smokescreen for content investigation, and would automatically "justify" wiretaps where content-based investigation would be impossible. It is very likely that threatening an ISP with such charges would cause him to become more cooperative, and the difficulty in calculating and verifying the accuracy of the taxes paid would make everyone an inadvertent criminal, which would give the government enormous leverage it wouldn't otherwise have. The way I see it, anyone who values freedom who would otherwise support a bit-tax-type proposal should run into a brick wall with this problem, and join the opposition to it right here.] Speaking at a conference on telecommuting, the Belgian Minister for Telecommunications, Elio Di Ruppo, came out as a supporter of the bit tax. But the Flemish government, which is responsible for half of Belgium, claims a bit tax would undermine its efforts in promoting information technology within its territory. The report was prepared for DG-V, the department of the EC responsible for social affairs, but Martin Bangemann, the EC vice president who heads up DG-XIII and is responsible for information technology and telecommunications, has expressed concern over the impact of a bit tax. Issues include economic growth and roll out of next-generation information and communications technologies and how a bit tax could be implemented. The EC's official position on the bit tax is that it has no position. "This is only an interim report at the moment," said a spokesman for the DG-V. "The bit tax idea may not even be present in the final report." Not Possible? "The big problem is that it's a nice idea, but implementation may not be possible at the European level," the spokesman continued. It may have to be set at the world level. At the moment, we are waiting for the final report." Officials responses to the interim report, from government and industry bodies, have been generally favorable but often don't mention the bit tax, Soete said. "The bit tax responses have been much more individual. It just goes to show that people don't read reports, but they do read newspapers." Soete continued: "E-mail responses have been very offensive, very negative." Reluctant to give examples, Soete admitted that many e-mail messages had attacked him personally but that the gist was "keep your hands off the Internet." Those responses, as well as more cogent arguments put forward, have prompted Soete to publish a second paper, titled: "The bit tax: the case for further research." In this, Soete has recast the bit tax as a replacement for the value-added tax (VAT) on information-technology goods and services, rather than as an additional tax. "There was an issue of double taxation there, which it is hard to justify," he said. VAT is a European-wide system of taxation on consumption roughly equivalent to the US sales-tax system: It is typically set at 17.5 percent of the untaxed value. Soete argued that VAT is heavily based on ideas of material inputs at different states through a chain of manufacture and is not well-suited to "intangible" services. He pointed out that a telephone call is currently priced and taxed in relation to the distance and time. Instead, Soete proposes the bit or byte--rather than the second--as the fundamental unit of measure. Taxation on that basis might save small-scale users money while increasing the tax burden on large-scale users. "This is a new system of communications, and the assumption that we should be able to use it without any taxation is ridiculous," Soete said. As planned, the HLEG will rewrite its report in light of responses and further research by the end of 1996 before submitting it to DG-V, which is then expected to call for some of the particular recommendations to be investigated in 1997. [end of article] Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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