December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Hallam-Baker messes himself.
by null＠myemail.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hallam-Baker, pissing all over his own train of logic, wrote: > It is because Bell's scheme is entirely preposterous that Digital > cash is possible. There is simply no way an AP contract could be > enforced. > No country could allow such a betting pool to operate from its soil, > nor any other such cover. > > I will not only refuse to support Bell, I'll testify against him in > court if asked. What are you going to testify to? To Bell's scheme not being a threat to anybody because it would never work? That it is nothing more than a theoretical exercise which does not present a danger to a single soul? That it is preposterous of the government to prosecute someone on the basis of a pie-in-the-sky, preposterous idea? I'm certain the government is anxiously awaiting your testimony, as well as that of a number of others on the list who seem to think that Jim Bell is such a powerful and evil force that his mere thoughts and speculations are an overwhelming threat to civilization as we know it. Everyone who thinks they can implement Jim Bell's AP system in the near future, raise both hands. Now bend over backwards, placing your head near your rectum. Now... TruthMonger ************************************************************************ This Anonymous email has been relayed by http://www.MyEmail.net/ MyEmail.Net is a free anonymous mailing service. No records indicating the identity of person(s) who originated this message are retrieved electronically, or as a requirement to submit. Your email address can be blocked to prevent further contact from this service, please refer to the URL above for instructions on how to do so. ************************************************************************

1 0

Re: Feds reading this list, Jim Bell, and threats
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk pissed off Hallam-Baker to the extent that gave up all pretense hiding his support for a New World Order, and wrote: > I have degrees in Nuclear Physics, Electronic Engineering, I have > been offered a contract for my book on the philosophy of > communication. ...so the rest of us are just dirt under your feet? > I don't believe that people > are fit judges of their own cause as Bell and you do. So we should only fight for other people's causes, and not our own? Or not fight at all? It sounds to me like Jim Bell isn't the only one on the list with his own drug lab. Did you bring enough for everybody, Phill? <earlier> > Who decides what "innocent" was? <now> > Bells plan would lead to murder of innocent people. Well, I guess that now we know *who* decides. Send me a list of the "innocent" people, Phill, and I'll put them in the blocking list on my AP-Bot. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html

1 0

US Domestic GAK
by Steve 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Has Anyone heard about this????? sorrin privsoft(a)ix.netcom.com Clinton administration has new encryption proposal Network World via Individual Inc. : Washington, D.C. For months the Clinton administration has lobbied for its version of key escrow that largely focused on encryption export. Now in its first formal legislative document, the White House is asking that its policy also apply to data encrypted within U.S. borders and that law enforcement be given access to that data based on a simple request from a law enforcement or government security agency. The U.S. Attorney General will set up the specific rules for written authorization. Civil liberties groups highly critical of the White House plan pointed out that under the basic guidelines it will be easier for law enforcement to get encryption keys than to tap phones, which requires a warrant or court order. The administration does not just face domestic opposition to its proposed policy. The international community, represented by the 29-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), also has not rallied behind the Clinton cause. After a year of study and intense lobbying by the U.S. Justice Department, the OECD, based in Brussels, Belgium, last week released the ``Cryptography Policy Guidelines,'' an eight-point document that recognizes nations may want to have access to cryptographic keys or un-scrambled plaintext. But the OECD guidelines fall far short of recommending key recovery as the preferred international approach. Some participants in the OECD crypto-policy effort were pleased with its outcome, including Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center here. ``There's a strong emphasis here on privacy and voluntary market guidelines,'' Rotenberg said. The OECD guidelines state that users should have a choice in cryptography, that cryptography should be driven by business requirements, and that the privacy of personal data and the secrecy of communications should be respected. Congressional cold shoulder So far, no legislators on Capitol Hill have embraced the ideas in the administration-drafted legislation, the Electronic Data Security Act of 1997, which also calls for nationally certified key-recovery centers for storing copies of encryption keys. ``From our point of view, it's a breathtaking expansion of law enforcement's surveillance au-thority,'' said Alan Davidson, staff counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) about the draft bill. The CDT has posted the bill on its Web site, www.cdt.org. Commerce Department Un-der Secretary William Reinsch, whose office took the lead in drafting the bill, last week had no comment. The draft bill emphasizes that the key-recovery regulation is voluntary in the U.S., but opponents argue otherwise. The White House draft defines as the federal standard only digital certificates that work with key-recovery encryption products. And under the drafted bill, employees working in a government-certified key-recovery center would be spared any civil or criminal liabilities for disclosing decrypted information to a government agency. Through the economic in-centives and regulatory impact of the Clinton administration bill, ``they plan to severely limit [the products] you can choose from,'' according to Jim Bidzos, president of RSA Data Security, Inc., whose public-key technology is widely deployed in encryption products. ``The intent is to discourage the use of strong, unescrowed encryption in the U. S.'' [Copyright 1997, Network World]

2 1

News from the Front
by ForeFront 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

----------------------------------------------------------------------- F O R E F R O N T - Taking the Chaos out of the Internet http://www.ffg.com Mailing List 3/31/97 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: I. News from the 'Front II. Tip o' the Day III. To the Front of the Class ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I. News from the Front Newsflash! ForeFront Launches Dynamic Duo, WebWhacker 3.0 and WebSeeker 3.0! WebWhacker, voted best offline browser by Internet World, has just leapfrogged the competition yet again! WebWhacker 3.0's new features include: *More than 200% faster performance; *Now save your "whacked" Web sites virtually anywhere, including floppy disks, Zip disks, magneto optical disks, and other removable media; *InstantUpdate, ForeFronts proprietary push technology, which enables WebWhacker to update itself across the Internet, instantly delivering the latest version of the application to your desktop; *Integrated WebManager allows you to easily organize and categorize your "whacked" sites; *Filter any unwanted Web pages and files by size, MIME file type, file extension, and server directory location; *Search your "whacked" Web sites more thoroughly with the use of Boolean operators; *The AppBar, which allows you to control WebWhacker in the background while browsing, can now become a floating toolbar; *"Whacked" sites can be exported into a compressed format for easy transfer and import; and *Downloading of background sounds, dynamic images, Shockwave objects, JPEG and GIF images, and Java applets. WebSeeker, the only way to find exactly what you need on the 'Net, again proves itself as the only comprehensive Internet search tool that finds exactly what you want. WebSeeker's new features include: *Over 100 pre-configured search engines, categorized into customized folders, such as News, Shopping, and Legal search engines. This allows you to tailor the search by selecting search engine categories that specialize in the specific types of information you desire; *Now you can add your own search engines to the pre-configured list, whether they are internet- or intranet-based. *No more switching between WebSeeker and your browser! With Microsoft Internet Explorer installed you can browse Web pages inside WebSeeker! *You can now launch WebSeeker with a single click! Simply click Microsoft Internet Explorer's "search" button; *Faster Phrase searching; *Ability to drag and drop search results onto the desktop or to a printer. *Substring matching, so a search for CAT also retrieves CATS Check out the informative press releases at: http://www.ffg.com/press/ww3press.html http://www.ffg.com/press/ws3press.html Download evaluation copies of the these new versions of ForeFront's industry leading Internet applications at: http://www.ffg.com/seeker/ http://www.ffg.com/whacker/ If you can't wait to own these valuable Internet tools now, visit: http://www.ffg.com/storefront.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Tip o' the Day Faster 'Seeker If you have a fast connection, such as a fractional T1 or faster, you can dramatically decrease the amount of time a search takes by increasing the number of simultaneous connections. We suggest increasing the number of simultaneous connections to 25 or 35. Experiment with more... (You can always decrease the number of connections) Steps: 1. Click Tools/Preferences 2. Select the Network tab (or in Version 3.0, Search Limits) 3. Change the number of Simultaneous Connections 4. Click OK ----------------------------------------------------------------------- III. To the Front of the Class Bring Web excitement to the head of your class - even if you dont have an Internet connection! ForeFronts WebSeeker, WebWhacker, WebPrinter and ClickBook make utilizing the Internet a snap. Used by over 800 schools and universities world-wide, ForeFronts products are empowering teachers to find, collect and share the vast wealth of knowledge available on the Internet. Let ForeFront bring the Internet into your classroom by visiting: http://www.ffg.com/edu/edu.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to unsubscribe from the ForeFront mailing list, please send mail to nonews(a)sldc.ffg.com or go to http://www.ffg.com/press/

1 0

Cryptographer Hits SNL
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ex-Sandia Labs cryptographer William Payne has filed criminal charges with Judge Marilyn Patel against an SNL official for unauthorized disclosure of files: http://jya.com/snlhit.htm

2 1

Save Money...Own your own Cable Descrambler!
by Mid West Electronics 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Don't let your cable company force you to pay OUTRAGEOUS equipment costs to receive basic/premium channels. We are Midwest Electronics, Inc. America's LARGEST PROVIDER of cable converters and descramblers and we feel you shouldn't have to pay TOO MUCH any more! The Communications Act of 1996 approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton in February 1996 now allows cable subscribers to purchase cable converters and descramblers from independent vendors. We have 18 years experience in the cable industry. We carry most makes and models of cable converters and descramblers including Jerrold, Scientific Atlanta, Tocom, Zenith, Pioneer, Panasonic, Novavision and More. Our prices start at just $150.00. *** SPECIAL INTERNET OFFER *** Call us today at (800) 648-3030 M-F 8:00-5:00 C.S.T. with the model number of your cable company's converter/descrambler, usually found on top of your television, and receive a FREE Battery Charger with any combination unit purchase. *** ONLY THOSE NOTIFIED BY ELECTRONIC MAIL ARE ELIGIBLE *** Our SPECIAL Internet Promotion ends April 15th, 1997. When calling please provide us with your e-mail address in order to receive your FREE BATTERY CHARGER!!! If are unable to take advantage of our offer at this time, but would like to receive our FREE CATALOG reply to us via e-mail at cableus(a)internetmedia.com with your mailing name or visit our WEBSITE at: http://www.midwestcable.com More about us: * 30-Day Money Back Guarantee! * We Service What We Sell! * Personal Assistance Hotline! Note: No sales to TIME-WARNER or PARAGON cable franchise areas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you would like to continue receiving updates on prices and other information from Midwest Electronics you may REPLY and type SUBSCRIBE in the SUBJECT line. Otherwise, your address will be promptly removed from our lists and no further attempts will be made to contact you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: Feds reading this list, Jim Bell, and threats
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timothy C. May wrote: > > At 3:17 PM -0800 4/3/97, Anil Das wrote: > Gee. I too wonder about that, since I am pretty > >sure the Feds don't have to time to read the cypherpunks > >list. > > This is simply not true. Various government agencies/employees read the > Cypherpunks list. Absolutely! I know quite a few who do. Before Oaklahoma I spent some time trying to persuade people to take notice of the net.activities of the likes of Ahmed Cosar, an agent of the Turkish secret service who posted inflamatory material about Armenia into various newsgroups under the name Hasan B. Mutlu and Serdar Argic. I'd guess that at this point the FBI has its own version of DejaNews. Its not hard to do analysis of USEnet, a bit of simple graph analysis. The real loons tend to turn up on the net.kooks list quites quickly in any case. > This is not a matter of thinking ourselves self-important; this is just a > simple observation that there aren't a lot of places with more incisive > analysis of issues of importance to these folks. Plus not everyone in the agencies are pro the administration line. I've met plenty of CIA and NSA people who think the GAK idea a pointless and futile waste of time. I suspect that most analysts read c'punks for the same reason I do, to get the widest possible range of views on what the posibilities for the future are. > Political advocacy is one thing, but making threats, even veiled ones, is > another matter. Absolutely, that is why I was keen for people to oppose Bell's views. If his ramblings had gone unchallenged he would now be being presented as a representative of Cypherpunk/ pro-crypto views. Besides anything else Bell was like the party bore with a hobby horse he just has to talk about. I'm somewhat more sensitive than most to advocates of murdering government officials, some of my relatives are in government and have had well publicised assasination attempts against them. I think that Bell's on-list comments may well have been protected speech but I'm not sure about his off list comments. I'm scanning through my old mail files at the moment for missives from Bell re-reading them. I think that Bell's posts were entirely different from Tim's or for that matter almost every other person on the list. Tim demonstrated that a covert information sales organisation was possible with Blacknet but he never advocated setting it up. Indeed part of the point was the ethical responsibilities. Bell on the other hand was likely to respond to any post with his AP piece. I have throughout considered these to be incitement to murder. It seems quite likely that Bell may have made a statement to an IRS official that in the context of his authoring the AP piece may have constituted a threat. If he spouted "Common law court" theories as often to the IRS as he did AP on cypherpunks he would certainly have been marked for scrutiny. Its not hard to connect with his AP piece which has been all over USEnet. According to the story they got it from a copy left behind in Bell's seized Honda. Phill

3 2

Re: Feds reading this list, Jim Bell, and threats
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Phil Hallam-Baker's rejoinder to Paul Bradley' defense of AP: Virtually all of Phil's charges against AP apply equally well to state-sponsored killing in the natonal interest, including that arranged by highly educated, cultured, philosophical, nuclear physicists and electrical engineers. That's the issue. Who gets to decide who lives and who dies, and how close the killer is to the slaughter, unprotected by law, by public consensus, by popular will, by apologetics for the security of national interest. Jim Bell is hardly the first to articulate this challenge to the grand tradition of the majestic state and its precursors -- the king, the bandit, the tribal bully, the strong -- all sanctioned beasts taking what their trainers want by force, while being excused and celebrated by fey intellectuals and balladeers of all craven submissive dress. Rushdie, hmm. Phil what mind-swill you elbow-tipping? Is Rushie not closer to Jim Bell than he is to you in challenging the arrogant mullahs of highly sophisticated armed thuggery. Who you shillinging for these days, Crispin's bandits of the NLs?

3 2

Re: Feds reading this list, Jim Bell, and threats
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk writes: > > > Jim is hardly the ideal poster boy for a free speech cause, but we should > > not distance ourselves from him when he runs into problems directly > > related to his advocacy of anonymous markets. That cuts too closely > > for comfort. We should defend Jim's right to discuss AP and any other > > institutions which may arise as a natural consequence of the capabilities > > engendered by cryptography. That is one of the main things this list is > > for. If they can silence Jim, it's going to be just a matter of time befor > > they go after someone else. > > I really cannot understand the posts I have been reading to the > effect that Jim Bell is a "loon" or a "terrorist" etc... > If we do not protect the freedom of expression of the loons, fuckups, > terrorists and Bells of this world it will be our freedom that is > threatened next. As far as I know, anyway, Jim`s AP essay (the > original plan overview) was perfectly sane and discussed the problems > of people using it to commit crime by killing an innocent person as > well as the advantagest of the plan. > I will allow that some of his subsequent posts have been a little > "loon" like but I have never considered him to be a foaming at the > mouth madman as some do. Someone said: "popular speech does not need protection". --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

1 0

Re: Hallam-Baker is willing to testify
by Phillip M. Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

null(a)myemail.net wrote in article <5i3vrt$aad(a)life.ai.mit.edu>... > > Hallam-Baker, pissing all over his own train of logic, wrote: > > I will not only refuse to support Bell, I'll testify against him in > > court if asked. > > What are you going to testify to? He sent me a considerable amount of material in private email. Anonynous insults do not impress me. > To Bell's scheme not being a threat to anybody because it would > never work? That it is nothing more than a theoretical exercise > which does not present a danger to a single soul? I don't think it was a theoretical exercise. I think Jim scrambled his brain with a dodgy dose of amphetamines or similar. His posts sounded to me like the work of someone with a personality disorder who was working his way up to psychopath. >That it is > preposterous of the government to prosecute someone on the basis > of a pie-in-the-sky, preposterous idea? It may sound loony to you but I have no doubt that Jim believed what he wrote and intended others to act on it. I'm not sure that he acted on it himself but I would not be at all suprised. Phill

1 0