December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Open NNTP servers and logging
by Rich Salz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I think Stephen Albert was asking about the possibility of using logs to find >out what he's reading, not posting. That's quite possible. Recall the recent >incident when an unethical researcher looked through his colleagues' .newsrc >files to see what newsgroups they were subscribed to. Most NNTP sites run INN, the software I wrote. (You can find out by doing "telnet {the_news_host} 119" and then looking to see if it says InterNetNews in the greeting line.) By default, INN logs every group command -- every time you switch to a newsgroup. It logs the full IP address of the client. If it can forward-and-backward map the IP address to a hostname (i.e., ipaddr->host and then gethsotbyname() includes ipaddr as one of the host's address) then it logs by client hostname. It is trivial to turn on full logging at compile time, boot time, or per-connection via a management program. This will then log ALL interactions. I could imagine that without too much work, someone would turn on logging for a given set of addresses (say, anyone in the "default" category). Every day INN generates a report that includes the host/ipaddr of every host that connected, what the most popular newsgroup categories are, etc. Hope this helps. Relevance? You're being watched. /r$

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The French do some things right...
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:41 PM 1/26/96, David Mandl wrote: >As has been pointed out here before, a lot of people are going to be >getting in trouble for things they posted to obscure newsgroups or mailing >lists four years ago. How do I make sure that I get credit for something >I've posted, but avoid the Alta Vista police? There are a few feeble >solutions, like: One thing I have been hoping for as America's scandal-fixated society asks whether Bill inhaled, whether Rush has a mistress, whether Madonna's grandmother is really shacked up with a 19-year-old musician...one thing I have been hoping for is that the American public will say "Enough!" Not that they will call for the ban of tools like Alta Vista, or a law against using one's past posts to alt.sex.barney as a consideration during hiring, but that people will just wake up to the triviality of it all. The French seem to have partially done this. Francois Mitterand had a mistress? Who cares? They take it for granted that people are people, with human foibles and weaknesses. The way the U.S. public and/or the media machine is devouring political candidates for minor transgressions, the blander are our candidates. Could this happen, could people get beyond the minor transgressions and foibles and just shrug off the petty scandals that seem to be fodder for "daytime t.v."? Maybe. And with search engines digging up "controversial" posts from the past, some amount of shrugging is probably better than using some ancient post to veto the hiring of a mostly-qualified candidate. (Again, I would never support a law banning the browsing of one's past public record, but I would say that wise businesses will appropriate discount such records.) It's rare that I have something positive to say about the French, so this is my rare tip 'o the hat to them. --Tim Boycott espionage-enabled software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we 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, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: "This post is G-Rated"
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:33 PM 1/25/96 -0600, Mike McNally wrote: >Bill Frantz writes: > > However is should be possible for TV programs > >Maybe, until it becomes common for "TV programs" to be accessible by >URL... Web sites and TV series can both be rated without seeing each and every page/show. > > > and whole newsgroups. > >Since nobody "owns" newsgroups, and nobody controls what's posted to >them, I don't see how that's possible at all. It seems to me that a moderated news group or mailing list would be easy. You don't expect explicit sex descriptions to show up in the comp. hieararcy. An unmoderated group or list carries a higher risk of seeing inappropriate material. However even unmoderated lists have standards and those people who enforce those standards. This kind of enforcement is an example of communitarian as opposed to authoritarian control. It all depends on just how vital it is to the consumer (and rating group) that NO inappropriate material appear. Crypto relevence: Public key systems or digital signitures can help ensure that the material actually comes from it reputed source (e.g. the modarator). Bill

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Re: Cypherpunk Elitism
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"bruceab(a)teleport.com" "Bruce Baugh" 26-JAN-1996 01:51:04.39 >At 07:15 PM 1/25/96 EDT, "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH(a)mbcl.rutgers.edu> wrote: > You might also find Robert Reich's _The Work of Nations_ >interesting. As a short, elegant, powerful argument against statist thinking, I recommend most highly Kenichi Ohmae's THE END OF THE NATION STATE: THE RISE OF REGIONAL ECONOMIES. Mr Ohmae focuses on areas that have geographical and social meaningfulness, on the scale of Hong Kong/Canton, Catalonia, the Pacific Northwest, and so forth. He quickly makes hash of the idea that the nation-state is a meaningful unit for modern economic analysis. -------------------- Actually, Reich realizes this.... and (being a liberal) opposes the various trends causing it. I can email people an interview with him that shows his thinking on the matter. One point he makes is that nations with high tax rates and high levels of social services (such as Canada) are losing symbolic analysts to and gaining routine producers from nations with low tax rates and low levels of social services (such as the US). Being a liberal, he doesn't like this trend, and wants the US to raise taxes and social services (without apparantly seeing that this will simply put the US in the same boat as Canada, etcetera). Cypherpunks relevance? First, anonymous digital cash will make it awfully difficult to have those high tax rates. Second, this gives rise to the phenomenon of anonymous digital cash usage probably being more common among the economically and intellectually elite than among the "peons". They're the ones with something to lose by the tax rates. I haven't had time yet to read Dr. May's piece on Virtual Communities, but I have had the thought that private anonymous digital cash makes such separation a lot easier. Reich doesn't like people splitting off into seperate communities, and wants to oppose it- like Christopher Lash, the late populist writer of _The Revolt of the Elites_. Fortunately, anonymous digital cash makes such opposition a lot harder. -Allen

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Re: Belgium has 'key escrow' law
by cman＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I should also point out that Belgium apparently has crypto export laws of sufficient complexity to inspire me to look elsewhere when attempting to purchase a hardware encryption board from a Belgian company (uti-maco). Said company also was under the mistaken belief that I needed a US _import_ license; my failed attempts to persuade them otherwise was the final kicker. ------ ------ Douglas Barnes "The tighter you close your fist, Governor Tarkin, cman(a)communities.com the more systems will slip through your fingers." cman(a)best.com --Princess Leia

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[LOCAL] pdx-cypherpunks-l Announcement
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- A mailing list for Cypherpunk issues local to Portland Oregon (and the surrounding area) has been created. It will have meeting notices and other topics of interest to local Cypherpunks in the Portland area. To subscribe send a message to majordomo(a)teleport.com with: subscribe pdx-cypherpunks-l in the body of the message. Due to problems with spammers to lists on Teleport, the subscribe request will feed back an authorization code to verify that it was actually you who subscribed to the list. If you have any problems getting subscribed, please send me mail (or owner-pdx-cypherpunks-l(a)teleport.com) and the problems will get resolved. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMQhG4eQCP3v30CeZAQFQZwf/Uxc+NYHNVwsXaH8co6vlN2qgKdt46Ymq itCZTdzlOHHnU4rcMdsDeUzod3WYsFBH3UD90x+Z+n+3tX8Y0YB0H0j+imJJhJSo 28kscZnoji0CZKevuOxbL8AFWJ3wUiaa88S6sb0+1aa97TKIuBC845p2ctMqkD90 fExZl/DobXH0HxV+O19UpWoekceIBBoWYsFwBF/6SGLmzmyoBpXmc2lpR3CuJfgk Nk8w3LIAbSmyI2ERxaUMNKffnItoBt9aCBAR+tybTDLj1RgBYkYO54qqDHVwTSOW /pkqRN0mQWjYZlryvflPYlykpSN2VUR0dqIVoO9z7ME9P/99iTytVQ== =bAIW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ National Security uber alles!

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Re: Crypto Exports, Europe, and Conspiracy Theories
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"rsalz(a)osf.org" "Rich Salz" 26-JAN-1996 04:39:43.50 >I believe that one minor reason is the PKP chokehold on public-key patents. It has slowed down adoption within the US, and the RSA licenses for example tend to get very "interesting" when it involves places where their patents don't hold. ---------------- Speaking of other countries' non-recognition of algorithms as patentable, are David Chaum's patents on digital cash enforceable outside of the US? Thanks, -Allen

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Re: [rant] A thought on filters and the V-Chip
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"alano(a)teleport.com" "Alan Olsen" 26-JAN-1996 16:31:41.98 >The purpose of all the ratings, and the filters and all the other stuff is not to "protect kids". It is to protect the prejudices of the adults. They do not want to see it anywhere in the world, not just inflicting some sort of imaginary harm on their children. I expect the first people to use the "reversed filters" will be the kids themselves. (Behind the parents back, of course.) I have known too many adults that believe that by restricting their kids access to information, they can prevent them from growing up. In these parent's minds, such information is what makes them want to hump their little brains out. Biology has nothing to do with it in their limited way of thinking. Cluelessness does not just cover computers with these people. It also covers any other topic that required more than two brain cells to understand. ----------------- Strongly agreed. Why should parents be able to determine what information their children receive? Are children the property of the parents? I can see some rights of parents over children, since they have responsibilities over their children also (and thus need the rights to fulfill those responsibilities), but censorship is not one of them. No study has ever shown actually harmful effects from viewing pornography. Crypto relevance? A lot of the same people wanting to restrict children's access to information are also against cryptography, anonymnity, etcetera- see the "CyberAngels" for an instance. Incidentally, they also tend to want to restrict people (or at least minors) from viewing other information opposing them. "SafeSurf", the censorship-by-rating site that the CyberAngels are associated with, has as one of its categories of stuff to restrict access to any advocacy of illegal drug usage. Translation- NORML and anyone else working for drug legalization. Of course, the anti-some-drugs biases of the Guardian Angels are well known... -Allen

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Feds on Internet Banking
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Evidence that the Fed has noticed Internet banking. It looks like they're more concentrating on electronic checks than on digital cash, though; I may be mistaken in that, however. Any of the lawyers on here know much about banking law? -Allen Reuters New Media _ Friday January 26 2:01 PM EST _ Boston Fed Minehan Warns Of "Virtual" Bank Danger NEW YORK - Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Cathy Minehan is warning against potential risks of "virtual" banking -- or electronic account systems handling electronic money. Minehan stressed that the regulatory community has just begun to consider these issues and that much work needs to be done before it even knows all the questions to ask, let alone what answers to give. "Legislation and regulation of new payments system alternatives could be unwise right now, but that does not mean that participants in such systems should not oversee them or that central banks should not be concerned" Minehan said in an address to the Goldman, Sachs Conference on Risk Reduction in Payments, Clearance and Settlement Systems. "'Smart' card technology is now being used to store electronic 'notes' authorized by the card-holder's bank that can be used to transfer value between banks, consumers and merchants," she said. "These electronic 'notes' flow over the Internet and give authorization for funds to be withdrawn from a bank account and paid to another party electronically," Minehan said. "This can come close to being a new form of currency in that the potential exists for the value on the card to remain in circulation, transferring from card to card, and one endpoint to another, without necessarily being converted to a more traditional form of money," she said. [...] "'In this regard, it is especially intriguing to consider how the 'virtual' bank might be regulated," said Minehan. "Some maintain that virtual banking is just a new form of bank which all the usual rules and regulations apply," she said. Copyright, Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved

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Banned French Book Online
by Declan B. McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As Tim May noted a few messages ago, the French government censored a book written by the physician to their late president, Francois Mitterrand. An enterprising fellow in eastern France scanned it into 189 pages of GIF files and put it online. Now the French police have arrested him, ostensibly on unrelated charges. I'm putting the complete version of the banned book, _Le Grand Secret_, online -- you can find it on the following identical sites: http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena/contrib/bitbucket2/le-grand-secret/secret/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://robotweb.ri.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://mousa.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~stephane/secret/ Since the combined size of the files is 9 MB, Seth Finkelstein and I stripped the images from 4 bpp to 1 bpp (greyscale to monochrome), and reduced the combined size to 2 MB. The stripped GIF files are on: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/reduced/ http://robotweb.ri.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://web.mit.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/declan/www/le-secret/complete/ http://joc.mit.edu/le-secret/reduced-gifs.tar [tar file] http://joc.mit.edu/le-secret/reduced-gifs.tar.gz [compressed tar file] Related stories and commentary are available at the following identical sites: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~declan/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/ http://www.well.com/~declan/le-secret/ http://robotweb.ri.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/declan/www/le-secret/ http://web.mit.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/declan/www/le-secret/ -Declan

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