December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Mandatory Voluntary Self-Ratings
by David K. Merriman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 11:17 AM 05/9/96 -0400, Joseph M. Reagle Jr. <reagle(a)MIT.EDU> wrote: >> I've figured out where my differences between myself and others >lay. The _only_ system and service that I am aware of that is distributing >PICS labels is RSAC. (http://www.rsac.org) They are what one could call an >objective and non-arbitrary content rating system rather than an >"appropriateness" system. "Appropriateness" systems will be valuable 3rd >party systems when the vigilantes and fundamentalists wish to create label >bureaus. For self labeling, if many people (main stream people) are going to >use that system within their browser, it will have to have mind share. If >it's going to have mind share, I think it would be advantegeous to it to be >a descriptive label rather than "appropriate." Hence, much of the concerns >I'm hearing aren't so worrisome to me. SurfWatch is offering self-rating via a web page at their site. It spits back the appropriate 'meta' tags to embed in an html document. Dave Merriman -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMZFQ+MVrTvyYOzAZAQFM+gP/edsvNSSkeiyZVBuJyWYCK82J7O1zG5O8 jI5cGj22R/qSPAhhpZj6pLFxvoKnuUc7P+8QzAao1ccxihZpy5ZW3fzM/+pyn6dW B126/l4R+SRCrDiPV+5HeXyBTXAiWYMjRAuv2nZtHVIiLjQrjziwrug4H/4U26GP NEbKT8Uqwno= =UAbu -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------- "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> http://www.shellback.com/personal/merriman/index.htm

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www.cdnow.com accepts ecash
by bryce＠digicash.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Cool. Get your fresh CD's via WWW and UPS. Pay with Mark Twain ecash. This is the first thing (excepting, of course, BAP, cyberbuck gambling, and pornography) that I actually want to buy with ecash. And I spend time crawling www.cdnow.com even when I don't want to spend money, just to read the words and look at the pictures. http://www.cdnow.com/ This has been a public service announcement. CDNow is not paying me. (Although, of course, they are welcome to send me some free CD's in return for my kind words...) Bryce Disclaimer: NO. I'm not speaking for anyone else. Not even the company mentioned in the From: line. PGP sig follows -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.1b2 iQB1AwUBMZIn9EjbHy8sKZitAQELPAL9G6lYkqhbTdYrt0YFe4VjF9jyyjxznCi2 SY3f86o2XvD86AMUQkVT31GhQAmGC6TN2cJ0pQDRpHfh5Qk+IZFgd3iyEEZqzrmc UztgRNEhaIFgYXjV33gzRE5sk+fnpQaL =H96X -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Compu$erve, Netscape offering Lotus Notes competitor
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There is no mention in either of these articles about what encryption protection will be used; it does appear that Netscape Navigator software will be used, which does have some protections (very little for the out-of-US stuff, of course). Jeff? -Allen >Copyright 1996 Nando.net >Copyright 1996 Bloomberg >COLUMBUS, Ohio (May 9, 1996 12:41 p.m. EDT) -- CompuServe Corp. this fall >will offer corporate customers Netscape Communications Corp. software used >to share documents over computer networks. >The move presents another challenge to International Business Machines >Corp.'s Lotus Notes software, whose popularity has declined as companies opt >for cheaper Internet software capable of many of the features Notes offers. >Using Netscape's software, company employees and partners in distant offices >can exchange and work on documents at the same time. Netscape also is >developing audio and video technology that will let employees talk to each >other. [...] >Columbus, Ohio-based CompuServe already offers Lotus Notes and decided to >strike an agreement with Netscape because customers were asking for a >similar, cheaper product. [...] >CompuServe will offer Netscape's server software, used to relay information, >and Internet browsing software. Terms of the marketing and development >agreement weren't disclosed. >Netscape's software is based on technology it acquired with the purchase >last year of Collabra Software Inc. [...] >Copyright 1996 Nando.net >Copyright 1996 Reuter Information Service >COLUMBUS, Ohio (May 9, 1996 12:47 p.m. EDT) - CompuServe Corp. and Netscape >Communications Corp. said Thursday they will jointly create a managed >intranet service that will allow a company's employees to communicate over >in-house computer networks. [...] >Intranets refer to private corporate networks that are designed to make use >of Internet software tools. >Under the strategic partnership, the two firms will offer so-called >groupware, a category of software that allows employees to share >applications and electronic mail. They will manage such networks on behalf >of corporate customers. >Customers will have access to features such as electronic mail, online >discussion groups and document-sharing that allow them to share and >co-develop information in new ways. >The service is slated to be available this fall, using Netscape's Navigator >browser and server software.

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Re: Mandatory Voluntary Self-Ratings
by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: Wed, 08 May 1996 19:34:50 -0400 >To: tcmay(a)got.net (Timothy C. May) >From: "Joseph M. Reagle Jr." <reagle(a)mit.edu> >Subject: Re: Mandatory Voluntary Self-Ratings > >At 09:58 AM 5/8/96 -0700, you wrote: >>At 9:31 PM 5/7/96, Joseph M. Reagle Jr. wrote: > >>Should "voluntary self-criticism" become widespread, I expect to rate all >>of my posts as suitable for children of all ages, suitable for >>hypersensitive feminists, suitable for Jews and Gentiles alike, and so on. >>Regardless of whether I'm advocating post-birth abortions or forced >>encheferation of Muslim girls. > > I've figured out where my differences between myself and others lay. The _only_ system and service that I am aware of that is distributing PICS labels is RSAC. (http://www.rsac.org) They are what one could call an objective and non-arbitrary content rating system rather than an "appropriateness" system. "Appropriateness" systems will be valuable 3rd party systems when the vigilantes and fundamentalists wish to create label bureaus. For self labeling, if many people (main stream people) are going to use that system within their browser, it will have to have mind share. If it's going to have mind share, I think it would be advantegeous to it to be a descriptive label rather than "appropriate." Hence, much of the concerns I'm hearing aren't so worrisome to me. > > I'll have more on that when a case study I'm working on with some colleagues for a Sloan on ecommerce course at MIT is finished.. (in about a week, and I should then be making that and my thesis available.) > >>I say it's a waste of our time to even be thinking or worrying about how to >>implement an infrastructure for ratings. In fact, building such an >>infrastructure could make later imposition of "mandatory voluntary ratings" >>(Orwell would be unsurprised) a greater likelihood. > > Maybe, maybe not, hard to say... This or the -L18, both are easy for an ignornant legislator to approve. > _______________________ Regards, Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words. -Spinoza Joseph Reagle http://farnsworth.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle(a)mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E

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RE: self-ratings vs. market ratings
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: Vladimir Z. Nuri > >you are free to assume any connotation you like. but in my view >they are pretty much interchangeable. they are both "meta >information"-- information about other things or information. ............................................................... The fact that I, like others, am "free to assume" any connotation means that there easily can exist confusion surrounding the definitions of these terms, and that this can then create controversy in discussions over what anyone means when they make references to them. Those who intend to apply these concepts must determine what they think they are doing (rating content, or establishing someone's reputation?) and must communicate it to others clearly so as to be definitely understood, else risk further compounding of confusion. The word & the concept of "reputation" has been in use for much longer than "rating". In the most recent applications of the term "rating", the idea has evolved to include such things as electronic web page content. It refers to a deliberate, conscious intent to establish a measure, an estimate, or evaluation, of something that an individual or group presents (information) or provides (service). The rating is intentionally applied and is intended to be used for communicating to those who are seeking this specific kind of information, where a reputation evolves "on its own", so to speak, as a coincidence of being generally known. "Reputation" is more a passive reference to the past, where "rating" is actively in regard of a present condition (with future expectations). [These are just comments I have on this subject; I myself don't pay much attention to ratings, as my own measures of things & people tend to be quite different from most, and therefore not very useful for my purposes. So that's all I have to say about it, "Vlad".] .. Blanc >

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Runtime info flow in Java
by Christian Wettergren 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi! I'm presenting my licentiate research proposal next week, and I thought that some of you might find it interesting. I'd like to find others that are working with similar projects, to have some people to discuss with. The actual proposal is available at http://www.it.kth.se/~cwe/phd/licprop.ps I've included an abstract below. Comments are most welcome. Regards, Christian Wettergren KTH/Teleinformatics. Licentiate Thesis Proposal Seminar ================================== Title: "Runtime Information Flow Analysis and Security" Candidate: Christian Wettergren Time: Wednesday, 15th May, 15:00--16:00 Place: Room Telegrafen, Dept. of Teleinformatics, KTH, Electrum Bldg., lift B, 5th floor, Kistagangen 16, 16440 Kista, Sweden Committee: Gerald Maguire, KTH/Teleinformatics Sead Muftic, SU/DSV Enn Tuygu, KTH/Teleinformatics Abstract: Today's computer security systems are fragile and brittle. I believe this statement to be consistent with practical experiences. One can for example observe the regularity of alerts from CERT. Many of the problems are caused by data-driven bugs in application programs. It is important to find a security paradigm that is more stable for the communicative and networked world of tomorrow. I propose a new way of doing information flow analysis of programs. This information flow analysis is done in runtime, and will provide detailed information about influences of the process to the access control decision process. The information flow is based on sets of subjects instead of preallocated security classes, thus decoupling the flow analysis from the access control. The runtime analysis is performed by special code that is run along with the original program. It shadows the computation and keeps track of the information flows within the program. A special compiler emits this shadow code. I will implement such a compiler for the Java language. Issues about the compiler and the shadow code will be discussed in the thesis. The thesis will also investigate the behaviour of the shadow code for programs with different communication patterns. For more information contact Christian Wettergren, +46 (0)8-751 14 91, cwe(a)it.kth.se. You can also retrieve the licentiate thesis proposal from http://www.it.kth.se/~cwe/phd/licprop.ps.

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Re: Mandatory Voluntary Self-Ratings
by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Couple quick things: At 11:46 AM 5/9/96 -0700, you wrote: >I don't like the use of the term "objective" here. (I object!!) No, it isn't the best term, there is some bias which can be an issue with dealing with this at the international level, but I think there are solutions to that... >a judgement like "child approved" is more subjective than "sex: moderate", >but they are both value judgements. It doesn't even say "sex: moderate", but "(s 3)", and then the parent can consult a chart that is a summary of the questions that directly ask about the content: VIOLENCE ALL (0) HARMLESS CONFLICT; SOME DAMAGE TO OBJECTS 1 CREATURES INJURED OR KILLED; DAMAGE TO OBJECTS; FIGHTING 2 HUMANS INJURED OR KILLED WITH SMALL AMOUNT OF BLOOD 3 HUMANS INJURED OR KILLED, BLOOD AND GORE 4 HUMANS INJURED OR KILLED, BLOOD AND GORE WANTON AND GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE TORTURE; RAPE So we can argue about "objective," but this is _atleast_ very "non-arbitrary" and the process (if people are non-malicious) is deterministic. >now, it seems that the author might as well put the tags in his material >himself instead of going through this submission process. This is a significant issue. >also, above we have the claim it is "fully automated". what??? it >sounded to me like the page designer has to submit a special form >to this service and then go and grab the tags to manually put in his own >page? this is "fully automated"??? Try it for your own page and see! >also, JR, you say the system does not determine "appropriateness". >but in my view it does indirectly. an author can "falsify" his submission >to say that his page has no sex or violence. (who is to say he is >wrong? the internet ratings police?) this will implicitly determine >the "appropriateness" of his page for people who screen their >browswers based on the keywords that were affected. People who misuse the system can be fined. (By using the system one also has to "AGREE"). However, the status of this contract is up at grabs IMHO since they relied on trade mark to enforce their system (the pic on a box). Now, gifs and the like (banners) may still be of issue, but the real meat here is a system (s 3 l 2 v 0), there is no IP protection for this, and if there aren't signatures, this can be a serious problem. >creator, as it should be. (in my view ratings and the content should >be made as independent from each other as possible in the sense >that ratings are not tied up in the content itself) I see it as an author provided a value added service to his content same as anyone else. _______________________ Regards, Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words. -Spinoza Joseph Reagle http://farnsworth.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle(a)mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E

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Re: Remailer in a box
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"loki(a)infonex.com" 9-MAY-1996 00:59:47.21 >Cyberpass (www.cyberpass.net) offers UNIX accounts without dialin access >for $7 per month. These are available anonymously, and can be paid for with >ecash. After taking a look at www.cyberpass.net, I can see why you're encoraging people to use it - about like Sameer encouraging people to use c2.org. Your work on remailers does give you some reputation capital, however. The signup form isn't very clear about anonymnity, BTW - I suggest dividing it into optional and mandatory sections, and stating what will be the policy for a lack of the optional ones. What's the 17- vs 18 differentiation for? Thanks, -Allen

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Re: Applicable Models for Trust Calculations (Re: Dempster-ShaferTheory and Belief Networks (Re: Transitive trust))
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"reagle(a)MIT.EDU" "Joseph M. Reagle Jr." 9-MAY-1996 18:30:11.78 >The very term "Web of Trust" makes one pause with respect to independent >events. Quite. Keys signed by an individual who turns out to be untrustworthy may very well be keys of nyms of that individual; under many circumstances, all are trustworthy or none are trustworthy. -Allen

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Re: Remailer in a box
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"loki(a)infonex.com" 9-MAY-1996 00:59:47.21 >This could be done with a trivial modification to the source and >destination blocking lists (just change the sense of the checking). In other words, just change them from blocking to allowance? How much technical knowledge does this take? I can see doing the incoming with procmail. >Cyberpass (www.cyberpass.net) offers UNIX accounts without dialin access >for $7 per month. These are available anonymously, and can be paid for with >ecash. Interesting. Having ones at other than c2.org is useful for backup purposes. >Yes, but I only give it to remailer operators. The "bramble" might get >flooded otherwise. Operators see the repercussions of their actions. Does it use how busy the remailer is to determine the approximate frequency of the messages, or does it just keep on going with whatever you tell it? Thanks, -Allen

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