December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 (fwd)
by Peter Trei 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> I remember one of the sponsors of the CDA ranting about pornographers > "profiteering" from pornographic images on the Internet, blissfully unaware > that stuff downloaded from alt.sex.binaries.insert.your.fetish.here doesn't > profit anyone but the phone company (for the hours you stay online to get > it). I called up Exon's press secretary and asked him about this. He claimed that BBS's were uploading advertisments to the Net, and this was the 'profiteering' referred to. He was immune to reason on this, and felt that the CMU 'study' was rigorous. It's true that a some of the pics in those groups include stamped-in BBS names and phone numbers, but my impression was always that this was the BBS operators trying to do a little damage control - so that when random users post their pix (on which they claim copyright, ignoring the fact that most of their scans rip off magazine publishers), they can recognize the 'piracy', and also earn a little publicity. For a good backgrounder on the story, check http://www.cybernothing.org/cno/reports/cyberporn.html Peter Trei ptrei(a)acm.org Peter Trei Senior Software Engineer Purveyor Development Team Process Software Corporation trei(a)process.com

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Re: Zimmerman legal fund
by hoz＠univel.telescan.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >I just received a bit of mail asking about the Zimmermann Legal >Defense Fund, which, like many folks out there, I support. The writer >implied that he might give money because I suggest it in my sig, but >expressed questions about its legitamacy, and questioned if it's "just >someone trying to exploit the Zimmerman case" > >Could someone in the know talk about the relationship between FV and >the ZLDF? I don't like to spread misinformation, so I won't answer >based on conjectures. > I had similar concerns last month, so I emailed the following to csn.net!dubois ("Philip L. Dubois") > > Could you please inform me of the financial status of the fund > raising for the Phil Zimmerman case? How much money has been > collected, and how much has been spent, and what are the future > anticipated expenses? I might like to contribute, but "a normally > unreliable source" has claimed to me that something on the order of > $50,000 has been spent, and there is not even an indictment yet. > Is this true and is this reasonable? Is it true that some/all of > his legal services are being done "pro bono" (I hope I got that phrase > correct, maybe I should just say "for free") > > If you choose to reply, may I have permission to make your reply public? > > Rick F. Hoselton (who doesn't claim to present opinions for others) > I got back the following reply: > >Mr. Hoselton-- > >Since the government has not yet decided whether to indict Mr. Zimmermann, or at least hasn't >told us its decision if it has made one, we continue to accept donations to the Zimmermann >Legal Defense Fund. I've never added up the total amount of all donations to date, but I >doubt that it would be in the neighborhood of $50,000. I can tell you that several lawyers >have been working on the case and that all of them but me have done so pro bono, which means >that they have not been paid. Since I have been lead counsel and have therefore had primary >responsibility for the defense, I have not been pro bono, at least not entirely; I have not >billed for much of my time. We have no way of knowing how long this case will go on. The >government could tell us today that it won't indict, in which case it will be all over, or it >could indict very soon, or it could do nothing until June of 1996 when the statute of >limitations expires. > >You have my permission to make my reply public. > >Philip L. Dubois >Counsel for Philip Zimmermann > Rick F. Hoselton (who doesn't claim to present opinions for others)

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Re: Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995
by danisch＠ira.uka.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >1. If the bill becomes law, how can someone who violates it be > >punished? > > > > - From the top of my head: > Subpoena your service provider's computer records. That's not a problem. He will find a lot of encrypted messages and images of nude girls. Both is not illegal. :-) > Intimidate your roommate > into testifying against you. I don't have a roommate. > Tapping your phone. I use encrypted modem connections and Nautilus. > Feds are in the business of putting people behind bars. They are _very_ good > at it. That's the question. How long can they put me behind bars? > I'm betting that the Feds will adopt as a working definition anything that > requires a key to decrypt the communications. That means compression > software, rot13, and most hash functions are ok. rot13 is not ok, 13 is the key. Someone should register at the department. :-) > Expert Testimony: "We experimented with 113,296 keys chosen at random and > the defendants algorithm took an average of 29,000 years to find each one. > It is our professional opinion, therefore, that the defendant is jacking us > around and ought to be keelhauled". Oh boy, wonderful experts.... Hadmut

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Re: Free The World Web Server project.. :)
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:10 PM 7/16/95 -0500, David K. Merriman wrote: >> The web page would generate a random letter, allow the user to edit >>it, further (possibly offering the alternate phrases) before he clicks >>on the [Send] button. >> > >If someone in the DC area wants to set up such a system, I'll gladly donate >an Intel SatisFAXion 200 fax/modem, complete with manuals, etc. > >This would be a Good Thing, IMHO. The "Experiment in Remote Printing" had this idea about two years ago. They have well established, free, email to fax gateways around the world (including DC). See their WWW page: http://www.dis.org/fax/faxsend.html DCF "And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But weve proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane." Rudyard Kipling

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Re: Automated Rant Generators and Letter Generators
by tcmay＠sensemedia.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David Conrad told me he meant for this to go to the whole list, but only sent it to me by mistake. So here is his post. At 4:14 PM 7/18/95, David R. Conrad wrote: >Tim May <tcmay(a)sensemedia.net> writes: >>Bart's comments about using Knuth's typographic work are interesting, to >>the extent that letters need to look handwritten. In the Mac market, it's >>possible to send in some handwriting samples and get back a font that >>emulates the handwriting! > >I suppose the resulting font has only one form for each letter? (Although >I understand that when you send them a sample, you send several instances >of each letter; a friend was showing me an add for this.) The fact that >each letter is the same every time would be a giveaway. We need something >like Metafont, or at least choose from a number of different shapes. > >> ... So, the combination of >>handwriting fonts, automated rant generators (of varying rabidities), and >>fax capabilities gives a pretty good start. Using lots of handwriting >>samples, various other fonts, and a mix of styles in the letters will help. > >Another factor that would make it appear more authentic would be spelling >and grammar errors. The grammar errors could be built into the rant >generators (an occasional dangling modifier, an incomplete sentence or two); >spelling errors could be done by post-processing the output of the rantgens. >It's important to take into account the different types of spellos that >occur: commonly misspelled words (aquired, beleive); wrong homophone (their, >they're, there; two, to, too); transposed letters (transpoesd); near-misses >on qwerty keyboards (nesr-mosses); and words left out. > >-- >David R. Conrad, ab411(a)detroit.freenet.org, http://web.grfn.org/~conrad/ >Finger conrad(a)grfn.org for PGP 2.6 public key; it's also on my home page >Key fingerprint = 33 12 BC 77 48 81 99 A5 D8 9C 43 16 3C 37 0B 50 >No, his mind is not for rent to any god or government.

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Re: Root Causes Roots
by Michael Froomkin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jim Ray asks what on earth I'm talking about the 9th amendment not applying to the right to write code, since people were using codes to protect their communications long before the passage of the bill of rights. I always understood "writing code" as in "cypherpuks write code" to mean computer code, that is FORTRAN, C++, assembler, perl or whatever. I understand "writing IN code" to be the use of cryptographic tools such as codes or cyphers. Thus my claim that the right to write IN code may have existed in the 1790s, but the right to write [computer] code could not (since there were no computers). Of course, I could be wrong about this, since however you define it, it's debateable whether I'd pass the code test to qualify as a cypherpunk, since I stopped writing code when I gave up programming for lawyering, and I didn't start writing in code when I started writing about codes. In any case it's a matter of definitions, not timelines. Note: I am not suggesting that the right to write code lacks constitutional protection; just that the protection wouldn't come from the 9th amendment. My views on the constitutional right to write IN code, which also does not rely on the 9th amendment, can be found in my Clipper paper, which Hal Abelson has kindly ported in Netscape friendly form to: http:// -- Michael Froomkin until Aug 6: michael(a)umlaw.demon.co.uk U.Miami School of Law London, England mfroomki(a)umiami.ir.miami.edu <-- this will still find me PO Box 248087 Coral Gables, FL 33124-8087 Rain. Sun. Rain. Sun. Rain.

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PINESIGN 2.0: A simple script for PGP signing Pine mail
by Robert A. Hayden 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- After a couple of comments, I've updated Pinesign to a new version. This new version adds the ability to choose whether your ascii signature (ie $HOME/.signature) is added. Some mail servers get confused by extra text, so the ability to make sure nothing extra is added was requested. Basically, if you want to sign the message both digitally and asciilly (is that a word :-), just press return twice after you exit your composing editor. Otherwise, make the selections you want specific to the type of message you are sending. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= #!/bin/sh # PINESIGN v2.0 # Written by: Robert A. Hayden <hayden(a)krypton.mankato.msus.edu> # PINESIGN is a simple program that will allow you to automatically sign # your email and news messages composed with the Pine 3.89 mail reader. It # may also work with other mail and news programs, but it has not been # tested. # INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONFIGURING PINE # # You need to define the following options in Pine. This can be done # either via the SETUP options in the main menu of Pine, or via editing # the .pinerc. # # A) signature-file=" " (an empty space) # B) enable-alternate-editor-cmd # C) enable-alternate-editor-implicitly (optional but recommended) # D) signature-at-bottom # E) editor=<exact path to this script> # INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONFIGURING PINESIGN # # The PGP program must be in your path, and the PGPPATH environment # variable must be defined. See the PGP documentation for details. # # Double check that the first line of this program points to sh. # # Edit the SIGPATH and PINEEDITOR variables to point at your signature # (if any) and the editor you wish to use for your Pine mail. Default # signature will be the file .signature in your $HOME directory. # Default editor is pico -z -t. SIGPATH=$HOME/.signature-pine PINEEDITOR='pico -z -t' # INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING PINESIGN # # When you compose a message, you will compose your message as normal. # # When you exit your editor (control-X in Pico), you will receive a prompt # asking if you wish to add your signature file to the message. If you # respond with y, Y or just press return, your text signature file (often # $HOME/.signature) will be appended to your message. If you type # anything else, your message will not have your signature added. # # Next, you will be prompted as to whether you wish to PGP sign your # message. If you answer with y, Y or return, you will be prompted for your # PGP passphrase and then dumped back to the address/subject section of # Pine. If you type anything else, your message will not be signed. # # If you selected it to be added, your .signature file will be appended # AFTER your digital signature. # # If you have not defined your alternate editor to be run implicitly, you # will need to start it manually. If you do not run the alternate editor, # your .signature file will not be appended and you will also have to do # that manually. It is highly recommended that your define your alternate # editor to run implicitly. ### DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING ### $PINEEDITOR $1 clear echo -n "Would you like to add your ASCII signature to this message? [y] " read SIG echo " " echo -n "Would you like to sign this message with your PGP signature? [y] " read PGP if [ "$PGP" = "y" ] then pgp -sat +comment="PGP Signed with PineSign 2.0" $1 mv $1.asc $1 fi if [ "$PGP" = "Y" ] then pgp -sat +comment="PGP Signed with PineSign 2.0" $1 mv $1.asc $1 fi if [ "$PGP" = "" ] then pgp -sat +comment="PGP Signed with PineSign 2.0" $1 mv $1.asc $1 fi if [ "$SIG" = "y" ] then echo " " >> $1 cat $SIGPATH >> $1 fi if [ "$SIG" = "Y" ] then echo " " >> $1 cat $SIGPATH >> $1 fi if [ "$SIG" = "" ] then echo " " >> $1 cat $SIGPATH >> $1 fi -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: PGP Signed with PineSign 2.0 iQCVAwUBMAvz9DokqlyVGmCFAQHq6QP9FztYKCL9lV16HWwY3E6bRzyfpqwoqCag o7hvWivmc81uocYzo54fR5sz0pLCOAIAJL6f0ST+cRM/epdfgn/eEovCDQFZXelB 0I9mmhaUVpUdHFGfw8UD0XhuBuPWbsaNbMfYr07IVEddH8zqOKHANG0QLBmc8aVm 6btQbK8/MWE= =wfGX -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ____ Robert A. Hayden <=> Cthulhu Matata \ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=- \/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> hayden(a)krypton.mankato.msus.edu \/ Finger for PGP Public Key <=> http://att2.cs.mankato.msus.edu/~hayden

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Re: "Judgement Proof" and Putting Up or Shutting Up
by terrell＠sam.neosoft.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >>> >and, conspiracy theories non-withstanding, we the people do not govern >>> >America --we are only given a short list of politicians who have sold >>> >their soul to CFR's satanist inner circle. >>> >>> What's CFR? >>> >> >>Council on Foreign Relations. > >or Code of Federal Regulations. > or Cupherpunks Fuming and Ranting --buford

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Re: A Chronology on crypto bans
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 04:08 PM 7/16/95 -0400, Dave Banisar wrote: >Attempts to ban encryption 1977-1995 > >1977-1980 NSA Director Inman calls crypto born secret. Should be restricted. >Attempts to use Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 to patent inventions by >academic researchers. Attempts to use export control laws to limit >scientific discussion. >NSA Threatens NSF over grants for crypto studies. I hope that you emphasize the big impact of the IEEE/MIT/Scientific American/NSA/"A Proposal for a Public Key Encryption System" flap of 1978(?). An awful lot of people first learned about public-key/private-key algorithms because of that fight. DCF "You men can't fight in here. This is the War Room." -- Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).

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Re: NRC panel wants questions for Law Enforcement on crypto policy
by wb8foz＠nrk.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In April, gnu asked: > Herb Lin called today to ask if the Cypherpunks could come up with a > list of questions for their panel to ask the law enforcement community > about crypto policy. They will be meeting with senior law enforcement > officials like FBI Director Freeh a week or so from now. Did we ever get any feedback on this? - -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz(a)nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBMAw6JRqU5+N/mI7JAQEWQQP/UCKWs1m8cMbbG7pAk7CKPjKSAP9yJLvw m+vBFcC+TuFPrQSEjhK7s4qJnck3IzIXl7AmV70NFkr9Dc1Wni7YHkrfhx0nnRRe 7F131pKMNlgypyX/u3FaEHXtCxQV9R5IpYzBAGpvQ++3dzR7LdXcvS2I7kvcWf2G 6knV4KwHvp4= =9+ER -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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