December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: rhetorical trickery
by Mutant Rob 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: [..] > there is an infamous case of a child pornographer or pedophile in > California that is sometimes cited by law enforcement representatives > as a good example of the evils of encryption: supposedly he encrypted > his diary and it couldn't be unlocked by them. this was mentioned in > the article. > > but I have a question: how did they know it was his diary? If I remember some earlier discussion about that case from a few years ago, the file was called "diary.pgp". What they don't mention is that they were still able to convict him. They were just under the belief that they could figure out who all the victims were they didn't know about from his alleged diary... so they could "help" the other victims or maybe get him ore jail time? Odd thing is he used PGP 1.0, which used Bass-O-Matic. > I've noticed that people tend to often make conceptual leaps like > this that are wholly unjustified. it is easy to get their opposition Yes. This is quite common in political/social discussions and argumentation. A big problem is that people are no longer taught rhetoric and argumentation in schools. Another problem is that it is a clear example the opponents of strong crypto can point to, with lots of emotional strings attached. The best you can do is to note that the case in question was still sucessfully prosecuted, and also to give counter-examples as to why PGP has helped people (cite the usual freedom fighters in Burma, Amnesty International examples, or cite the theft of records from the UN's investigation in Bosnia, noting that it wasn't encrypted....) - --Rob - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMUDtbSoZzwIn1bdtAQGyLwGAu0nRv276K9cAmJslrl6HwW6m0YHWYKw/ mpZvHynKhfdNLRj6ghaHHH8V2DMDYrLO =SpjH -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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FCC v. Internet Phone?
by Mutant Rob 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I've done a scan of the NYT web site (www.nytimes.com) and the AP and Reuters... no mention of this at all, though there's a new blurb about another company promopting an Internet Phone type technology. - --Rob - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMUDxiSoZzwIn1bdtAQFduAGArzYvmvL26xUQiag6etkyg/ysh8RUhTqX s19MCcxWng+3T3frKu5P8eRju2XYBoF5 =Du5Z -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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crash_netscape.html
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Netscape 1.12 core dumped on me while surfing today. Narrowed it down to this. (Don't try this at home, kids). <html> <table width=450 border cellpadding=2> <tr> <td colspan=4 align=center> <table> <tr> <td width=60></td> <td width=330>DIE</td> <td width=60></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </html> Crash! Core dump, sound of breaking code. Tested on HPUX only. Apparently doesn't crash Gold 2.0 on Win95. a

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Re: News on RSA vs. Cylink Injunctions and Patents
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:06 AM 3/8/96 PST, "baldwin" <baldwin(a)RSA.COM (Robert W. Baldwin)> wrote: > The following press release from RSA may be of interest to the >folks on this list. Thanks! It is of interest, but from one or two rounds of previous experience, I'd not want to draw any conclusions from either RSA's or Cylink's press releases about the content or meaning of a given court decision. They seem to inhabit different and not-quite parallel universes. >Cylink contends that RSA's software infringes its Stanford patents and that >licensing required an additional grant from Cylink, despite >the fact that RSA already has a license. After hearing oral arguments on >Feb. 29, Judge Williams denied Cylink's motion from the bench and later >issued a written order explaining that "several factors weigh against >finding that (Cylink) has shown a likelihood of success on >the merits." This sounds a lot like Cylink asked for a temporary restraining order blocking sales of BSAFE until the resolution of a lawsuit, and the judge rejected that request. If the quotations mean the same in context as they do in a press release (:-), they're moderately negative, though not a total rejection of the main case. It is pleasant to have RSA on the side of breaking the D-H patent and limiting the scope of H-M. Maybe this will help free the algorithms even before Roger Schlafly's suit does. #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281 # "At year's end, however, new government limits on Internet access threatened # to halt the growth of Internet use. [...] Government control of news media # generally continues to depend on self-censorship to regulate political and # social content, but the authorities also consistently penalize those who # exceed the permissable." - US government statement on China...

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Re: Another Motivation for the CDA (Federal Sentencing Guid
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:59 PM 3/8/96 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote: >The pizza guy was a thug, but twice as many third-strikers got >their third strike for marijuana as for all violent crimes combined. >I assume most of these had large quantities, possibly intended for sale, >and a number of them had real crimes as their previous felonies >rather than Prohibition-related offenses. But you can get legally >serious quantities of marijuana by just growing a couple of plants. I wonder how many of these drug dealers previous "real crimes" were related to using violence to protect their drug business, defense which would have used the courts and police had drug dealing been legal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Frantz | The CDA means | Periwinkle -- Computer Consulting (408)356-8506 | lost jobs and | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

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Net Day 96 and AOL
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Heard on the radio today that AOL will be donating service for a year to the first 2000 schools that ask for it, as part of their contribution to Net Day. (For those of you not from California, an industry-led group has been coordinating volunteers and materials to wire up schools to the net; tomorrow's effort will be installing inside wiring so that schools that have computers will be able to get hooked up.) Does anybody know if there's an AOL-friendly version of PGP that we can donate to the schools, to help teach kids about proper encryption? If nothing else, some of the cut&paste interfaces will do, I suppose. AOL is fairly friendly about pseudonyms, and remailer support is a no-brainer except for documentation readily understandable to kids. Bill #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281 # "At year's end, however, new government limits on Internet access threatened # to halt the growth of Internet use. [...] Government control of news media # generally continues to depend on self-censorship to regulate political and # social content, but the authorities also consistently penalize those who # exceed the permissable." - US government statement on China...

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Re: News on RSA vs. Cylink Injunctions and Patents
by thad＠hammerhead.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Adam, It is absolutely true that RSA has seen the light, and now believe that the DH and HM patents are not valid. I think that they had this realization on the day that they lost control of these patents, with the breakup of PKP. Roger Schlafly has been fighting these patents as well, and it appears to me that DH should be completely dead, it was widely publicized more than a year before the patent was filed. I don't believe RSA's interpretation of the judges ruling, though. Certainly they will twist the words in the most favorable way. RSA had been saying that Hellman-Merkle, not Diffie-Hellman, covered all public key patent ideas; but they were only saying that through PKP (which was a joint venture between themselves and Cylink) thad -- Thaddeus Beier thad(a)hammerhead.com Technology Development 408) 286-3376 Hammerhead Productions http://www.got.net/~thad

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Re: U.S. State Dept criticizes Chinese net-censorship
by jf_avon＠citenet.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 8-Mar-96 Re: U.S. State Dept >critici.. by JFA T. QC, Canada@citene >> There is no such thing as "self-censorship". Either you stick to >> your values, and then it is *not* censorship, or then you do not, >> and then, it is neither. > >Self-censorship does happen, and it's a growing problem in the arts >community. (I'm not a commercial artist, so this is my understanding >from other panelists and speakers at a conference I spoke at last month.) > >Making art more palatable or less "extreme" to curry favor with >corporate patrons, or to get that NEA grant, or to get that faculty >position is self-censorship, and it does happen. No, it does not. Making art more palatable is simply the process of free trade between two uncoerced entities. If the artist does not offer what the corporate purchaser wants he will not sell. He thus adapt his style out to his customer. Nobody is threatening to use force to have the artist conform to the client. Nobody is forcing the client to buy what he does not like. The artist does not have to compromise, he simply have to refuse the contract. Anybody using the term "censorship" to describe that is in the following situation : he *wants* the advantages of the contract (money) without respecting the customer, therefore. He deplores the fact that somebody (the customer) can act to his best judgment. The fact that the artist calls that censorship shows that he have the same thought process as the true censorers, i.e. the conviction that the end justify the means, and more specifically, the feeling that *his* ends justify *any* means. The artist may not act on his feelings but nevertheless, they are, in essence, of this nature. And unfortunately, too many artists think that way. JFA Accepting a grant is accepting stolen money. The collectivists and their free-lunchers be DAMNED! Restore an objective monetary standard such as gold! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i iQEVAwUBMUDVbsiycyXFit0NAQHG0gf+P1rmX5xQiRo5sHpvYBlvvclVdGxJaJ6c E+n35ln3/FFMGiguk5TEr6tOG+vj6UNBW2VibggQ9HkMkQ+6yTeJRrWQVje+YxxY pygYrY6wfDB8F9aemkVIiypZqvo+UrG+IZwKSsuqZuFmyxu5VsnAzFB/NQS6z/fq WPnm23t51kj2d6e+1PDVJRmv1Gpjaj34xt9YIif7S7fXdMI8vRbopRkoFfbXcFsE +I+fzeIPINXde44duW/tUmVbPZcrwxNgL0xo7AZ3fwzYGqOw2cR3zNFH9iPWs6O5 iV+fNIx2f1sKl1MbkydEHtPVctLT3cqX0Bvi5f0k6XKdzmCMGSOr9g== =qWzV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Public Key at http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon Jean-Francois Avon <jf_avon(a)citenet.net> 2048 bits key ID:C58ADD0D 1996/03/01 fingerprint=52 96 45 E8 20 5A 8A 5E F8 7C C8 6F AE FE F8 91

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Re: V-chips, CC, and Motorcycle Helmets
by jf_avon＠citenet.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH(a)mbcl.rutgers.edu> wrote: > Has it? Currently, we've got the guys who deal with the public (the >politicians and the low-level bureaucrats) and the faceless drones (the rest >of the bureaucrats). The politicians can be protected, and already are to some >degree. The low-level bureaucrats aren't _that_ likely to be targeted by enough >people to make a difference, and the ones who go bad enough to do so can be >protected (or sacrificed, if that seems to be the way to keep the public >happy). The faceless drones can be even more faceless, and so very hard to >target. Just a question to you: What makes the faceless drones powerfull? JFA Over the clouds, the sun always shine. Public Key at http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon Jean-Francois Avon <jf_avon(a)citenet.net> 2048 bits key ID:C58ADD0D 1996/03/01 fingerprint=52 96 45 E8 20 5A 8A 5E F8 7C C8 6F AE FE F8 91

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Re: Another Motivation for the CDA (Federal Sentencing Guid
by Mutant Rob 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Note: This post is 100% free of crypto. Bill Stewart wrote: [..] > And the guys who just got busted for having fertilizer, diesel oil, > and drugs on their farm had a whole three ounces of marijuana and > personal-use quantities of crank. Maybe they were planning to blow up > buildings rather than stumps; but the Feds are trying to paint them > as max evil just to build up their case. Perhaps they were going to use the fertilizer for the grass and the heating oil to keep warm (or to keep the plants warm). It's possible... - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMUFBjyoZzwIn1bdtAQFAvgF/ZarRLbmt6KLiK3XPMWqdmPeGs5dg0Jpm aLndW+LmNJODCB2q4Xh9/IrCJ8awEvf9 =P4i6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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