December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Statistical analysis of anonymous databases
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:12 PM 5/29/96, Alan Horowitz wrote: >I would ask, is there any known medical gain that has resulted from >such a data-base correllation. > >I do not accept a researcher's own statements as to the utility of the work >(S)he's done with someone's funding. Seen too much of it at close >quarters... Nor do I accept reeports in the lay press - these are >nothing more than re-gurgitated press releases from PR depts of institutions. Separating out issues of privacy, and addressing only your basic point about a "known medical gain that has resulted from such a data-base correllation," there are many obvious correlations which have been discovered by use of various data in data bases. The increased prevalence of sickle cell anemia in blacks, the increased prevalence of Tay-Sachs in Jews....all of these things are well-established (and important for dealing with health issues of these groups...that is, it is important and beneficial that someone made such correlations). Back to privacy issues. I am not arguing that the privacy wishes, contractually agreed to, of a patient be ignored. I am simply refuting your point that no medical gain has come from data base correlations. As to the "lay press," I read some issues of "Nature," "Science," "New Scientist," "Discover," and "Scientific American," the journals in which the scientists speak more or less directly, and I am convinced that statistical inference from data bases is indeed a powerful tool. (I am not saying that the privacy wishes and contractual language of patients is to be ignored on this basis, only saying that statistical inference is indeed valuable. So valuable, in fact, that the libertarian/cypherpunk solution is for patients to "sell" this information.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Asendmail Status & Politikal Rant
by Ben Holiday 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Well, asendmail has been running for several days now, handling outbound mix mail from my remailer. It appears to be getting the mail through reliably, although there are still a few bugs. After reading through the responses from other cypherpunks and interested parties, I decided to make a few changes to the software, the largest of which was support for a separate configuration file of text strings to be sent in SMTP's initial HELO command. It is possible to add as many lines as you care to in the list of fake HELO strings, which should satisfy the need (want?) for randomness in the headering of outbound mail, without restricting anyone to useing either faked site names, OR real site names. I'll be working on final preparation of README's and install notes, and should have a tar.gziped source available by friday at the outside. Once the initial software is released I'll put together a mail robot to help with gathering proxy addresses. I still need test mail to be routed through the mailer! Everything appears to be OK, but I'd like more chances to see what is happening with mail that gets resent this way. On to politiks: I understand that the entire concpet of this program is a bit controversial, and I can accept that. Personnaly I am not certain exactly how to feel about it. I suppose that I am not thrilled about the idea of cloaking the mailer this way, but at the same time I perceive it as an evil of requirement. I beleive very strongly that remailers SHOULD exist, whether or not the CoS, or the FBI agree; and I am willing to be a bit impolite if thats what needs to be. My only hesitation is that I'm afraid now might be to soon. At the same time I think it would be unfortunate if it came down to someone actually going to jail for remailing before people are willing to do something that may be a bit extreme. Anyway, someone raised the argument that the problem was political, and that a technical solution would do more harm than good - maybe you're right, I can't see the future, But it seems to me that I read somewhere that "Cypherpunks Write Code". This statement is amazingly profound in its implications. Anonymous communication on the net depends on the technical solutions embodied in the current remailing software, and cryptography applications. If, years ago, the cypherpunks had decided that a publicity campaign, political lobbying, and apologizing were the right course of action, anonymous speach on the internet would be virtually non-existant today. If the cypherpunks decide today that coding is not the answer, where will free speach on the net be in 5 years? I think it is very naive to beleive that the world is going to change enough, quickly enough, that remailers will become accepted, and protected, methods of speaking - no matter how politically correct we try to be. Why do we see big business and big government launching a full frontal assault on the remailers, while the mailing lists continue to operate without incident? Because the enemy's of free speach recognize where the true threat to their opression lies. Relying on politics to preserve our rights is like throwing down your gun and asking the bear to please not eat you. The powers that be want us to shut up. The programs that we write are the weapons that will defend our right to speak.

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online law-- new book
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

a quick word to the cpunks with legal interests. a great new book called "Online Law: the SPA's Legal Guide to Doing Business on the Internet" seems to me to be a superlative compilation. edited by Thomas J Smedinghoff. Addison-Wesley, 1996. extremely up-to-date-- in one section cites various court decisions from 1995 on the scientologists vs. netcom etc. heavy on the citations/footnotes of existing law. has very good coverage of encryption and digital signatures etc. and talks about their legal status. also, good info on copyrights, defamation, patents, online transactions, trade secrets, privacy, licensing 1st amendment, sexually explicit materials, email in the workplace, export control, trade practices, contracts, etc. I expect this volume is going to be widely praised and become a very definitive guide. it seems to me a quick look in this book would go about 95% toward resolving immediately a lot of the online debates I've read here and elsewhere about "what the law says". the price is also very good for something of this type, typically the law-related material is really expensive. ordering: (800) 238 9682 see http://www.aw.com/devpress ISBN 0-201-48980-5 $34.95 544 pages paperback

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Re: NRC crypto policy report to be released Thursday
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The initial September 14, 1994 announcement of the NRC National Cryptography project is at: http://www.wpi.edu/~ryant/ncp.html It describes the program and lists committee members absolutely certain to deny GAK tomorrow, trust them.

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NRC crypto policy report to be released Thursday
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was offline for the Memorial Day weekend, and I'm hundreds of messages behind on cypherpunks, so ignore this if it's redundant... But anyway, a reminder: The National Research Council's report on crypto policy will be unveiled tomorrow at the National Press Club at 1 pm in Washington, DC. I'm going to try my best to be there. >From their web page at <http://www2.nas.edu/cstbweb/>: The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council (NRC) has completed a congressionally mandated study of national cryptography policy. The final report, Cryptography's Role in Securing the Information Society, will be released to the public on May 30, 1996 at a public briefing. A large number of the authoring committee members will attend. The public briefing will take place in the Main Lounge of the National Press Club, 14th and F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C., from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, on Thursday, May 30, 1996. Committee members will respond to questions from attendees, and a limited number of pre-publication copies of the report will be available at that time. By the close of business on May 30, a summary of the report will be made available through this web page; the full publication will be made available when final printed copies of the book are available (probably around the beginning of August). The committee also intends to conduct a second public briefing on the report in Menlo Park, California at SRI International. The briefing will be held in the Auditorium of the International Building from 10 to 11 am on Wednesday, June.5. The address is 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California, 94025. For more information about the briefing at SRI, contact Alice Galloway at 415-859-2711 (alice_galloway(a)qm.sri.com) -Declan

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Re: [crypto] crypto-protocols for trading card games
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:56 PM 5/29/96, David F. Ogren wrote: >> On Wed, 29 May 1996, Simon Spero wrote: >> >> > Design a set of crypto protocols to support the issuing, trading, >> > and playing of such card games in real time (100ms compute time >> > per move) >> >> I'd been thinking about it from the opposite point of view: make up >> a card game (possibly electronic, like what you're proposing) that >> acts as intro to crypto for the untamed hordes of game players. >> >I've had similar ideas, but there are snags. Card playing via >encryption techniques is a great idea in theory, but in reality the >technical requirements often prevent implementation. I didn't comment earlier, because I didn't want to sound like the old-timer who claims an idea is an old one, but "card games" were in fact cited as a perfect example of a "tools needed" situation. At least 3 years ago, and probably closer to 3.5 years ago, there was discussion of the cryptographic primitives needed to play cards. (I mean on the Cypherpunks list...there was certainly academic research on "fair coin tosses over insecure lines" and "card games" going back at least 15 years. Specifically, some of the work on "mental poker" and "bit commitment" is very directly related to playing games over insecure lines.) In fact, one of the goals Eric Hughes and I had in our early discussions, before this group and this mailing list, was of what it would take to make real, or reify, the many academic results of cryptography. (Only the simplest of which are "secure communications" and "digital signatures.") Dice games, card games, numbers games, are only special cases of the larger issue of "mutually untrusted agents" and the interactions they can handle. I applaud Simon Spero's interest, even if it others raised similar issues a few years ago. Actually, little progress has been made, so there is much work still to be done. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Any pertinent info-remail,thanks.
by rarab＠localnet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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A billion transistors on a chip
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:01 PM 5/29/96, jim bell wrote: >At 03:46 PM 5/29/96 GMT, John Young wrote: >> 5-29-96. FiTi: >> >> Chips Galore [Editorial] >> Texas Instruments' claim to have developed a technology >> capable of inscribing 125m transistors, or computing >> elements, on a thumbnail-sized slice of silicon is >> remarkable chiefly because the technique is commonplace. > >Having been following the progress of IC technology for over 20 years, I can >recall when 1 million transistors/chip was the furthest-out prediction >"they" were willing to make. I was one of "them" as early as 1974, more than 22 years ago, when the leading chips of the day contained about 15,000 transistors. And I recall _many_ forecasts about the number of transistors which would be likely to be on a chip. Gordon Moore, a guy I had many dealings with in my years at Intel, had his charts and it was pretty clear where things were going. At least 20 years ago it was apparent that lithography trends would make a million transistors on a chip a reality by 1990, if not earlier. I recall Jim Meindl of Stanford, whose class I spoke to in the late 70s, was predicting a _billion_ transistors on a chip by the year 2000. I and my colleagues at Intel felt he was on target, and this was almost 20 years ago. And it appears he is on target, give or take a trivial factor of two or so. Final Note: I watched Jerry Junkins of T.I. make his "TImeline" (not to be confused with "TIMline") chip announcement yesterday, on CNN and CNBC. He died this morning of a heart attack, on a business trip to Germany. Texas Instruments was a rival of Intel's, but Junkins was undoubtetly a great business leader. He will be missed. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Austin Cpunks Meet Saturday
by Steve Tonnesen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Austin Cypherpunks will have a monthly general meeting on Saturday June 1 at 6:00PM at the Central Market Cafe on North Lamar. Look for the stack of crypto-related books. This is an informal meeting for discussion of assorted projects including the remailer, the video, recent crypto events, etc. -S

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WWW Security
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I just noticed that the WWW-security mailing list and group are run out of Rutgers. What opinions do people have on the current drafts, references to which can be found at http://www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/html.charters/wts-charter.html? Thanks, -Allen

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