December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

not a flame please read and think about this
by an116512＠anon.penet.fi 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

why is it that half the people who post here work for the government or big companies that are doing governments bidding (rand.org (which is part of the the nsa!) att.com (makers of the clipper chip) mit (which onwns rsa) netscape etc etc) what makes me wonder isnt so much that theyre here but that they post socalled reasonable stuff that supports the the government line. like when these people report on what the nsa guy says at the crypto convention as if were supposed to take it seriously and these people who say clipper is good enough no back doors. and then everyone takes this crap seriously. obviously the government thinks there are some things we shouldnt think about ourselves. and then someone comes along and says theyve thought about it already and we should just go mind our own biz. arent we supposed to be cypherPUNKS? than why do we need these people to think for us? honest replies only please. i dont mean to flame but this really bothers me. we should maybe think about a closed list. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)anon.penet.fi. If you reply to this message, your message WILL be *automatically* anonymized and you are allocated an anon id. Read the help file to prevent this. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)anon.penet.fi.

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Cypherpunk Fwd
by Jonathan Wienke 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 17:20:36 +0200 (MET DST) Subject: U.S. Refugees Flee to Germany To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com From: nobody(a)replay.com (Anonymous) Organization: Replay and Company UnLimited X-001: Replay may or may not approve of the content of this posting X-002: Report misuse of this automated service to <abuse(a)replay.com> X-URL: http://www.replay.com/remailer/ Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net Reply-To: nobody(a)replay.com (Anonymous) X-Loop: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net ~From: http://www.guidemag.com/newsslant/vigilante-censors.html ~"Whether it's CPAC wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'boy,' Senator Swinestein wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'bomb,' or Senator Hatch wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'sex,'" writes Mike Duvos in a Cypherpunks newsgroup, "the optimal strategy for service providers has turned out to be to quietly remove any material some squeaky wheel is uncomfortable with, keep proclaiming themselves to be the strongest supporters of free speech in the entire Net community, and stonewall when asked questions which might suggest anything to the contrary." Sounds like one of them-thar, cynical, irreverent, shit-disturbing CypherPunks, to me. ~Now, the pages are back online on a small server in Germany. Organizers of the site are raising funds to purchase their own direct connection to the Net. However they don't want their computer to be in the US-- but not because they plan to violate any US laws. "We are very nervous about being here," says Jim Finn, who helps run the Free Spirits, "if the government is going to use underhanded tactics to intimidate our providers and possibly confiscate our equipment." In the course of investigations, police frequently seize computers that they never return, even when they file no charges. Perhaps Germany should start building refugee camps for American homosexuals, Jews, and producers of strong encryption. ~If the Internet had sprung up in the 50s, Senator Jesse Helms would be riling his white constituents about the scandalous web sites promoting interracial marriage and civil rights. The right way to answer to Helms and his ilk is not with pacifying assurances that, thanks to filtering, people can avoid these offensive ideas, but to confront the underlying racism. Now that queer sex is the bugaboo, the answer shouldn't be any different. CypherPunk Cult of One Project:?: Put up a website containing quotes from Jesse Helms and other high- profile politicians, public figures, etc., and then actively promote it being censored and removed from the InterNet. (Pictures of a topless Princess Di, etc. Naked children from a "Life" magazine photo from the '60's, etc.) Has anyone ever sued themselves to have their own site censored and dismembered? "Greg Broiles vs. Greg Broiles" (Kind of has a 'ring' to it.) ~That censorship is bad and dangerous no matter who its victims is a concept best grasped today by Cypherpunks steeped in computers and the Net. And who came out of internment in the legendary "Flame Camps" of the late 1990's, vowing, "Never Forgive. No Prisoners." ~Whether it's the painting "Mona Lisa" or the sex video Lisa Moaning, WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE PROVIDE *POINTERS*!!! (No, *not* to the "Mona Lisa," you idiot!) ~If hysteria over drugs or hate speech or pornography becomes intense enough, then no one's data-- which is to say no one's privacy-- is safe. Much better than civil libertarians and gay politicos, Internet activists have seen the danger in the new wave of repressive laws. Whether they can articulate that danger to a broader public remains to be seen. If not, the 1990s may be recalled as a short-lived golden age of free expression on the Net, and free spirits won't have any place to call home. ** "Give me bandwidth, or give me death." "Give me your huddled electrons, struggling to be free." "Now is the time for all good hackers to come to the aide of no-country. "One if by land. Two if by sea. NULL if by Net." ("The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!) "I may not agree with what you censor, but I will defend to the death my right to tell you to 'Fuck off and die.'" "Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask where the Federal building is." "A small step for a nuclear bomb. A big step for D.C." ("It's raining donkeys and elephants out there. Better take your lead umbrella.") "In Diffie-Hellman We Trust." "Nuke the candidate of your choice--but Nuke!" "The final finding of the TruthMonger Commission is that Tim May acted alone. The Magic Nuclear Missle hit D.C., deflected toward Moscow, turned around in mid-air and took out London, before coming to rest at Rome. "There is no evidence to suggest that Jim Bell was ever a member of the CypherPunks list, or ever had contact of any nature with Tim May. Toad.com was never connected to the CypherPunks list--it served mostly as a mail-drop for decent, upstanding drug dealers, pedophiles, tax evaders and terrorists. "Duncan Frissel's first act of power, the pardoning of Tim May, was done in order to allow the nation to put this behind us and to heal our nuclear wounds." CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED ISP'S OF TERRA ----------------------------------------- "Congress shall make no laws." Signature: Anonymous Witness: Nobody --------- ------ Send complaints of abuse of this Constitution to: Lock&Load(a)nuke.dc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreedomMonger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jonathan Wienke What part of "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" is too hard to understand? (From 2nd Amendment, U.S. Constitution) When everyone is armed, criminals fear everyone, not just the police. PGP 2.6.2 RSA Key Fingerprint: 7484 2FB7 7588 ACD1 3A8F 778A 7407 2928 DSS/D-H Key Fingerprint: 3312 6597 8258 9A9E D9FA 4878 C245 D245 EAA7 0DCC Public keys available at pgpkeys.mit.edu. PGP encrypted e-mail preferred. US/Canadian Windows 95/NT or Mac users: Get Eudora Light + PGP 5.0 for free at http://www.eudora.com/eudoralight/ Get PGP 5.0 for free at http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pgp-form.html Commercial version of PGP 5.0 and related products at http://www.pgp.com Eudora Light + PGP = Free, Convenient Communication Privacy

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Why Key Escrow (GAK) is So Bad
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:25 AM 9/4/95, Brian Davis wrote: >On Fri, 1 Sep 1995, Timothy C. May wrote: >> I absolutely agree with this, though this doesn't mean I'll stop worrying >> about the government's plans for key escrow (GAK), about limits on key >> lengths, or about other efforts to thwart strong security. > >I, of course, know of the "dislike" of GAK here. I am curious to know, >however, if the "dislike" is because government would have access under >any circumstances or if the primary worry is that government will cheat >and get access when most would agree that they shouldn't (either by the >judge "cheating" or a TLA stealing it). > >In other words ... if it took agreement by a review board composed of >non-LEA members of this list, would the escrow be acceptable?? [I'm addressing the basic issue of key escrow, or what Carl Ellison calls "GAK" (Government Access to Keys), not the current debate in D.C. about using some form of key escrow for exportable crypto. The debate on key escrow is really about the crypto citizens will use, not what will be allowed to be exported.] Speaking for myself--though I think this captures the feelings of many--my objection to GAK is on *principle*: * No government can tell me what language I must communicate in and what language I must _not_ communicate in. David Sternlight has characterized this position as "childish," as the whinings of spoiled children who don't want to be told what to do. If so, then Thomas Jefferson was surely the biggest child of all, as he and his compatriots developed and used secret codes for communications. No doubt King George would have found GAK quite useful. No, the point is really about whether people may speak and write in the languages they wish, or be ordered to speak and write in ways the government can monitor, with or without the "speed bump" of key escrow and court orders to release the escrowed keys. (Ironically, I just heard about a case in Texas where a judge ordered a mother to stop speaking in Spanish to her child at home, calling it "child abuse." The implications of this are self-evident.) "Escrow" of communications keys, when commanded by the government, is no different than requiring that all locks have duplicate keys "escrowed" with the police, or that all curtains and window shades have a special "invisibility mode" that "law enforcement" can enable under certain circumstances. "Key escrow," or GAK, is to most of us equivalent to universal wiretapping. Why not tape-record all calls and "escrow" the result?. Why not mount surveillance cameras in homes and "escrow" the result? All are essentially equivalent. The pernicious nature of the "escrow" idea, which I have to admit is a new twist on the surveillance state that was not anticipated by Orwell, Brunner, or any of the other writers on this topic, is that it says that surveillance is not so bad after all, because the results of the escrow will not be looked at except when "justified." By whom? And by what conceivable right can the government tell me I may not use the communication system and language of my choice? I have no doubt that such key escrow, or recording of all calls, or surveillance cameras, with escrowed results, would "stop" some crimes. Maybe even some serious crimes, even horrific crimes. So what? In a free society, we don't tell people what language they may speak in, and with whom, nor did we place microphones and cameras in their presence, even if we "escrow" the results and promise not to look unless a judge or a review panel says it's OK. There are undoubtedly crimes that would be stopped if surveillance cameras were placed in many places, private and public, with "video escrow." Friends of mine are developing micropower, tiny, ultrawideband radio "localizers," that could be used by parents to keep track of children, pets, luggage, etc. I have long joked with them about "position escrow," where the government will mandate that all citizen-units wear these devices (or have them implanted) so that their positions can be monitored. Would an "escrow" system make it any less unacceptable? The arguments for "position escrow," once the technology becomes available (surely by 1998-9) are very similar to those being made for communications escrow. Lots of crimes would be solved, and even OJ might be convicted, if a court could order the "position escrow" files opened. So what? That's now what a free society is about. The basic principle is the issue. There are other problems with key escrow, involving such things as how persistent the access keys will be (will a court order reveal past communications not covered by the order?), who will have access, etc. These are the things the government _wants_ us to focus on, as these can probably be fixed by sufficiently elaborate protocols...sort of. But the core issue is not being addressed, the core issue of surveillance and the government's plan to order us to speak only in certain approved modes. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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U.S. Refugees Flee to Germany
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~From: http://www.guidemag.com/newsslant/vigilante-censors.html ~"Whether it's CPAC wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'boy,' Senator Swinestein wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'bomb,' or Senator Hatch wanting to nuke all web sites containing the word 'sex,'" writes Mike Duvos in a Cypherpunks newsgroup, "the optimal strategy for service providers has turned out to be to quietly remove any material some squeaky wheel is uncomfortable with, keep proclaiming themselves to be the strongest supporters of free speech in the entire Net community, and stonewall when asked questions which might suggest anything to the contrary." Sounds like one of them-thar, cynical, irreverent, shit-disturbing CypherPunks, to me. ~Now, the pages are back online on a small server in Germany. Organizers of the site are raising funds to purchase their own direct connection to the Net. However they don't want their computer to be in the US-- but not because they plan to violate any US laws. "We are very nervous about being here," says Jim Finn, who helps run the Free Spirits, "if the government is going to use underhanded tactics to intimidate our providers and possibly confiscate our equipment." In the course of investigations, police frequently seize computers that they never return, even when they file no charges. Perhaps Germany should start building refugee camps for American homosexuals, Jews, and producers of strong encryption. ~If the Internet had sprung up in the 50s, Senator Jesse Helms would be riling his white constituents about the scandalous web sites promoting interracial marriage and civil rights. The right way to answer to Helms and his ilk is not with pacifying assurances that, thanks to filtering, people can avoid these offensive ideas, but to confront the underlying racism. Now that queer sex is the bugaboo, the answer shouldn't be any different. CypherPunk Cult of One Project:?: Put up a website containing quotes from Jesse Helms and other high- profile politicians, public figures, etc., and then actively promote it being censored and removed from the InterNet. (Pictures of a topless Princess Di, etc. Naked children from a "Life" magazine photo from the '60's, etc.) Has anyone ever sued themselves to have their own site censored and dismembered? "Greg Broiles vs. Greg Broiles" (Kind of has a 'ring' to it.) ~That censorship is bad and dangerous no matter who its victims is a concept best grasped today by Cypherpunks steeped in computers and the Net. And who came out of internment in the legendary "Flame Camps" of the late 1990's, vowing, "Never Forgive. No Prisoners." ~Whether it's the painting "Mona Lisa" or the sex video Lisa Moaning, WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE PROVIDE *POINTERS*!!! (No, *not* to the "Mona Lisa," you idiot!) ~If hysteria over drugs or hate speech or pornography becomes intense enough, then no one's data-- which is to say no one's privacy-- is safe. Much better than civil libertarians and gay politicos, Internet activists have seen the danger in the new wave of repressive laws. Whether they can articulate that danger to a broader public remains to be seen. If not, the 1990s may be recalled as a short-lived golden age of free expression on the Net, and free spirits won't have any place to call home. ** "Give me bandwidth, or give me death." "Give me your huddled electrons, struggling to be free." "Now is the time for all good hackers to come to the aide of no-country. "One if by land. Two if by sea. NULL if by Net." ("The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!) "I may not agree with what you censor, but I will defend to the death my right to tell you to 'Fuck off and die.'" "Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask where the Federal building is." "A small step for a nuclear bomb. A big step for D.C." ("It's raining donkeys and elephants out there. Better take your lead umbrella.") "In Diffie-Hellman We Trust." "Nuke the candidate of your choice--but Nuke!" "The final finding of the TruthMonger Commission is that Tim May acted alone. The Magic Nuclear Missle hit D.C., deflected toward Moscow, turned around in mid-air and took out London, before coming to rest at Rome. "There is no evidence to suggest that Jim Bell was ever a member of the CypherPunks list, or ever had contact of any nature with Tim May. Toad.com was never connected to the CypherPunks list--it served mostly as a mail-drop for decent, upstanding drug dealers, pedophiles, tax evaders and terrorists. "Duncan Frissel's first act of power, the pardoning of Tim May, was done in order to allow the nation to put this behind us and to heal our nuclear wounds." CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED ISP'S OF TERRA ----------------------------------------- "Congress shall make no laws." Signature: Anonymous Witness: Nobody --------- ------ Send complaints of abuse of this Constitution to: Lock&Load(a)nuke.dc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreedomMonger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:15 PM 9/7/95, Duncan Frissell wrote: >At 09:20 PM 9/6/95 -0500, Mac Norton wrote: >>Well, scratch me deeply enough, I'm not sure I'd disagree >>with Tim, "philosophically speaking." The problem is, as >>all the truly wise philosophers recognized, we must live >>in the world. And given the number of us who must do so, >>that entails rules. > >That's what so nice about the nets. You don't (won't) have to "live in the >world" any more. The creation of consentual halucinations (virtual worlds) >allows you to "change the world" at will. > >And once the interface improves... > >Actually, the creation of separate "spaces" that can only be entered with >your (each person's) permission will have a big impact on life in the real >world. I of course agree strongly with Duncan. We don't often talk about this aspect, as it was all hashed-over a couple of years ago, and most newcomers to the list do not seem as interested as we were. (And, it has little to do with coding in C :-}) Those interested might want to look at the very long chapter on "Crypto Anarchy" in my Cyphernomicon, or my paper, "Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities." Or read "True Names" and "Snow Crash" and think about what happens when the stuff we talk about is added. (Hint: Hiro Protagonist would not be "vastly wealthy" in the Metaverse but poor in the Real World (tm).) --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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How to get to Saturday's meeting in SF?
by Ian Goldberg 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'd like to go to the meeting on Saturday in SF, but I need instructions on how to get there by public transit from the Berkeley campus. (Alternatively, is anyone going that may be able to give me a lift?) Thanks, - Ian

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Re: need confirmation of DVD/CSS crack in China ...
by Jenaer Mixmaster Anonserver 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ernest Hua (hua(a)chromatic.com) wrote: >> Third, the entertainment industry giants will have to improve and agree on >> an encryption technology. The current 40-bit encryption standard used on >DVD >> discs, which is supposed to stop copyright pirates, has already been >cracked >> in China. Stronger encryption, however, forces PCs and players to run at a >> crawl. Partially as a result, Fox, Paramount, and Disney have not >committed >> to producing materials on DVD, Burdon noted. DVD encryption is described on the Web at: http://www.kipinet.com/tdb/tdb_oct96/feat_protection.html There's a very simple way to 'break' it - you just copy the entire disk. Key-size is irrelevant. As the article itself says: "While copy protection for DVD is often mistakenly referred to as "anti-piracy," it does not in fact provide much of a deterrent to those who would produce illegal discs on a mass scale." Or in other words, it will do nothing to stop the Chinese, it's simply intended to prevent you and me from copying disks and giving them to our friends. This is, of course, inevitable from the nature of the technology. As has been discussed many times in the past, this kind of scheme just can't work. Since that article is a few months old and talks about the big movie company's desire for a mandatory standard and laws against the sale of any machine which allows access to unencrypted data, I'd guess that this new article is FUD to persuade Congress to pass the laws. (Now explain to me why I'd want to buy yet another video format which can't even record?) CopyMonger

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PGP key disclosure
by H Keith Henson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[included msg] i've been told that larry wollersheim refuses to give up his de-encryption key to Co$, and will go to jail before he does. this is ok to post. i can't post yet, due to technology transfer happening here at the usf.edu --------------------------------------m. council, human being Hell, if you understood everything I say, you'd council(a)luna.cas.usf.edu be me. -Miles Davis [end included msg] I am off cypherpunks at the moment, so if there are any followups to this, please send me email. Thanks, Keith Henson

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New service allows customers to track stolen PCs (fwd)
by Vipul Ved Prakash 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

*** New service allows customers to track stolen PCs Absolute Software announced Wednesday the CompuTrace Online Monitoring Service, a new service that provides CompuTrace customers with various PC monitoring reports via a private, secured Internet website. Customers will now have access to the whereabouts of their PCs via the Online Monitoring Service from any location at any time. CompuTrace's technology silently calls in to the CompuTrace Monitoring Center on a regular basis. The activity is reported to customers on a regular basis, or via the new CompuTrace Online Monitoring Service. (PR Newswire) For the full text story, see http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=4650167-e2a -- Vipul Ved Prakash | - Electronic Security & Crypto vipul(a)pobox.com | - Web Objects 91 11 2233328 | - PERL Development 198 Madhuban IP Extension | - Linux & Open Systems Delhi, INDIA 110 092 | - Networked Virtual Spaces

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Why Key Escrow (GAK) is So Bad
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I wrote: .... made for communications escrow. Lots of crimes would be solved, and even OJ might be convicted, if a court could order the "position escrow" files opened. So what? That's now what a free society is about. .... This last line has a typo. What I meant to say was: "That's not what a free society is about." Normally I don't post minor corrections, but this one needs correcting. --Tim ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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