December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

IRS "DataBase"
by Connie Sadler 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In reference to the IRS database, I heard this announced on the radio this morning - that the database has existed for years and that it is being worked currently rather enthusiastically. The news announcer somewhat eggagerated the comment that followed which seemed to make clear the fact the we members of "John Q. Public" would NOT have access to these records to review or correct them. The DJ and others picked it up and talked about it afterwards and obviously did not approve. I believe that the IRS is exempt from many laws, so is this for real??? Digital Cash? Probably. Anonymous Buying? Wishful Thinking? Why not just get 10% tax from everyone and be done with it? Connie

1 0

Re: Electronic cash illegal? (fwd)
by chen＠intuit.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Derek writes: > > As far as I know, the legal definition of a "dollar" in the US is still a > > certain weight of silver, and payment in silver legally satisfies debts; > > under current silver prices, that probably costs more than a > > $1 US Federal Reserve Note, so nobody bothers. > > Uhh, no, US currency does not have any backing. I believe it was > Nixon who stopped it, possibly even earlier than him. There _used_ to > be Gold- and Silver-backed dollars, but no longer. Correct. Nixon dismantled the Breton Woods system in (I think) '71. -- Mark Chen chen(a)intuit.com 415/329-6913 finger for PGP public key D4 99 54 2A 98 B1 48 0C CF 95 A5 B0 6E E0 1E 1D

3 3

*More* wiretaps?
by Brad Dolan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Associated Press reported on 1/20/95: >Secretary of State Warren Christopher Friday announced >plans to combat narcotics smuggling and terrorism with tougher >laws and sentences and tighter control on visas for entering the >United States. > >A senior State Department official said wiretapping was among the >measures to be proposed to the Republican-controlled Congress. The >official said there were ways to use wiretaps without violating >Supreme Court restrictions. Since wiretapping on court order from their no-questions-asked secret court is already allowed, can they mean anything other than wiretapping without court order? Can somebody explain to me why the Clinton administration is considered "liberal"? Why the Republicans are considered "conservative"?

2 1

internet world mag
by jml＠wizard.synapse.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>>Sorry to bother you but can you tell me how to get this mag ? >>thanks If you can't find it at your local bookstore then contact: Internet world p.o. box 713, Mt Morris, il, 61054, USA or via email 74671.3430(a)compuserve.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ wizard(a)alpha.c2.org Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 0

Re: The Remailer Crisis
by Ben.Goren＠asu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:39 PM 1/20/95, Mark Chen wrote: >> From: frissell(a)panix.com (Duncan Frissell) >> >> I offer to pay for and operate a remailer account on any system that will >> have me. >> >> best.com, based in Mt. View, CA. Mail to postmaster(a)best.com, or try >> the other standard extensions. > >As it happens, I just signed up for a SLIP account at Best. I'm using >their standard dial-up service, but they also offer a dedicated 28.8 >connection for $450 setup and $60/mo. You know, these fees everybody keeps quoting sound remarkably like the cost of a modem, the installation of a new phone line, plus a reasonable amount of profit. So why don't a bunch of you, say in the Bay Area, get together to get a small subnet, each buy your own pair of modems, pay for the added phone line, and install the whole shootin' match in Tim's house? >Mark Chen b& -- Ben.Goren(a)asu.edu, Arizona State University School of Music Finger ben(a)tux.music.asu.edu for PGP public key ID 0x875B059.

1 0

Remailer In a Box available for beta testing
by sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I finally got annoyed with Tim clamoring for a Remailer in a Box, so I set it up just now... I just wrote it so there may be some problems I haven't gotten rid of yet. If you want to run a remailer on c2.org: 1) Sign up for a shell account on http://www.c2.org/services/signup.html 2) Log into your account (via dialup [510-549-1383] or telnet [c2.org] once it has been created. (within a day.. I'll automate account creation so it gets made within an hour soon, but right now I am doing it manually.) 3) If you wish, you can setup a .forward file to point to mailfilters or to another account. 4) Run the program /usr/local/lib/boxed-remailer/install_remail. The remailer will be installed, and non-remailed mail will be acted upon according to how the account was setup before you ran the program. 5) Answer the questions, they should be pretty simple. Once an account is created there is a one week free grace period. If you'd like to continue the account you can pay for it. If you have problems and suggestions, make sure you mail me, and I'll fix it. This is still in beta testing, so if you have problems I won't disable the account waiting for payment until the problems are fixed. $10 for one month, $27 for 3 months, $45 for 6 months. -- sameer Voice: 510-841-2014 Network Administrator Pager: 510-321-1014 Community ConneXion: The NEXUS-Berkeley Dialin: 510-549-1383 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer(a)c2.org

2 2

Re: Netscape, RC4, key exchange?
by kipp＠warp.mcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <19875.9501201052(a)exe.dcs.exeter.ac.uk>, you write: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > grendel(a)netaxs.com wrote: > > aba(a)atlas.ex.ac.uk wrote: > > > I have code to generate the RSA key pairs and modulus, what I am > > > looking for is code to factorise a number using one of the better > > > algorithms (quadratic sieve, etc.). > > > > It's been established that the encryption in Netscape is 40 bit > >RC4, not 40 bit RSA, [...] > > Ok, so Netscape (the exported version only?) uses 40bit RC4 for > encryption, but what about key exchange? RC4 is a stream cypher so > both the receiver and sender need to know the key. Does anybody know > what method Netscape uses to exchange keys DH, RSA, other? and what > key sizes? If you read the spec (http://www.mcom.com/info/SSL.html) you will see that SSL uses RSA public key encryption for key exchange. However, the protocol is slightly more general than that, so if there is a different public key algorithm it is possible for SSL to support it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Kipp E.B. Hickman Netscape Communications Corp. kipp(a)netscape.com http://home.mcom.com/people/kipp/index.html

1 0

Re: IRS to keep unreviewable secret dossiers on US citizens
by xpat＠vm1.spcs.umn.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

perry(a)imsi.com says: >xpat(a)vm1.spcs.umn.edu says: >> Excerpts from : St Paul Pioneer Press, Jan 29, 1995 >> >> Here's the kicker: "Although agency officials concede that some of >> the data collected will be inaccurate, taxpayers will not be allowed >> to review or correct it" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >The privacy act and FOIA make that more or less illegal -- if they are >keeping information on you, with certain law enforcement related >exceptions they have to let you see it. I should add that later in the article it suggests the scenario of select information from the database being used in an audit, and you would be able to contest the specific information they use against you, but you would not be able to view any of the raw data. ^^^^^^^^^ It sounds like this amounts to "we don't have the info until we use it against you". -------------------------------------------------------------------- P M Dierking |

1 0

RE: IRS "DataBase"
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A funny - I just saw this in some email: "If guns are outlawed, how will liberals collect taxes?" --- A. Nonymous (Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up an crypto-unrelated political party/tax discussion. This is *strictly* a matter for Logic and Anarchy.) .. Blanc

1 0

Place for WWW info/ stuff
by Jaeson.M.Engle＠josaiah.sewanee.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have a server (WWW and ftp) that I would like to use for anything anyone needs a place for. Drop me a line, or visit what's on my server (see below). The part of the server that I will be putting cypherpunk related material is password controled, and cannot be accessed unless you have am account and password (assuming of course someone else doesn't break in and figure someone's out that is... but I don't see how they could.) This is just FYI for all and anyone! Cheers, - -J -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6ui iQCVAgUBLyAj5UiLvmPjc4XdAQEJsAP+Pd7A/I01zZUaXUi7vhIbk3XHijrgAhjZ 1ZqIVuiOIfddnS8w+hJ1bKrxZFoY9YRzNLx0rliBckEn+HVYOl4+qQQjZ3TqjhDw FULRRD6DGS85ZLZ/rwKrlyrSPY6YywgzgyzlZcUa/UtQ9Ll66NA4R6c7VWQB+4K7 qBuOUaOWvV0= =XXIw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- aka: (-: Jaeson M. Engle || jme(a)josaiah.sewanee.edu :-) (-: www server: http://josaiah.sewanee.edu/ :-) (-: It's January 29th! IT'S TIME!!! Ask me for details!:-) (-: Finger 'jme(a)josaiah.sewanee.edu' for my Public :-) PGP block.

1 0