December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: More on "Fraud" and Anguilla
by Vincent Cate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> I've been thinking about this whole "Taxbomber" issue of "fraud." Again, what I said was my lawyer called and said it was illegal to sell fake passports in Anguilla. The fraud was taxbomber saying he never sold fake passports in his post to the net of "feel sorry for me my ISP made me relocate even though I never sold fake passports". > (I'm > still not completely sure whether Taxbomber lost his account at Offshore > Information Services Ltd. because: > > a) what he was offering actually violated Anguillan law (was there a > determination that selling camouflage passports violates a specific > statute?) My lawyer, probably the top lawyer in the country, said it is illegal in Anguilla. I don't have a copy of that law. > b) what he was offering constituted fraud (to whom? His customers certainly > knew what they were buying. To potential victims in the future?) Not clear if it is defined as fraud by the law. > c) he brought unwelcome attention to Anguilla in general and to Offshore > Information Services Ltd. in particular. (Vince's mention that the whole > island had read the story suggests something to this.) This is part of it. If nobody knew where he was things might have continued as they were. I mention it as a lesson learned. > d) he violated some particular clause of his service agreement with > Offshore Information Services Ltd. We did not have any contract. I have since posted a page with the policy. Fair point. > Now I read from this that Vince is encouraging "multi-level-marketing > companies" to use his service. Am I wrong on this? > > Another name for this, commonly used, is "pyramid scheme." Or "Ponzi > scheme." Well, multi-level marketing does not need to be pyramid scheme, but you are right that it could be bad news. So I have taken off that encouragement from my web page. Thanks. -- Vince ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vincent Cate vince(a)offshore.com.ai http://www.offshore.com.ai/vince/ Offshore Information Services http://www.offshore.com.ai/

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Re: Anguilla story...
by Vincent Cate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim >Vince: > >In a nut shell, taxbomber.com was on my system in Anguilla. He was > >selling "camoflauge passports". One David Evans of Bloomberg Business > >News wrote an article where he quoted taxbombers page saying something > >like "it is illegal to use these passports to open up bank accounts, but > >there is little chance of getting caught". I got a call from my lawyer who > >had seen the article (along with just about everyone else in Anguilla) and > >he told me that was illegal in Anguilla and I should cancle the account. > >I did and taxbomber moved to another provider in another country. > > > >1) A number of cypherpunks are dissapointed that I did not fight to my > >death to defend this guy. > > I think you're overstating the case made by some of us, or, at least, by me. Your not dissapointed? > What I said was that your policies need to be spelled out, and that I saw > little evidence of "fraud" in what the guy was doing. Ok. I now have a link from my main page to a page with my policy. What I said (or meant to) was that MY LAWYER SAID IT WAS ILLEGAL IN ANGUILLA. In my first post I quoted the wrong part and said "this is fraud by taxbomber - he did sell fake passports". I meant to quote a part where he said something like "I never sold fake passports". It may be covered in the anti-fraud sections of the laws. > And that if you cut > off accounts (without warning, it sounds like) He got a little warning, then only web access was cut off. And I forwarded his email and was the nameserver for his domain name so that he could move right away to another site. Then he sent a message to the Internic to move the management of his domain to another site. > based on fairly flimsy (it > seems to me, and to Duncan, and to others) advice, then certain > reputational consequences are likely to follow. Understood. > By the way, from what you quote this guy as saying ("it is illegal to use > these passports to open up bank accounts, but there is little chance of > getting caught"), I _still_ see no fraud. Not saying that is fraud. The most I said was encouraging fraud. It has been pointed out that under common law using another name is not fraud. However, under certain countries laws using a fake passport to open a bank account may be defined as fraud. > >2) If the guy did not mention where his site was, the reporter probably > >would never have mentioned Anguilla and me in the article. > > Is this the real issue, that what he was doing brought bad publicity to you > and to Anguilla? It is both a lesson to be learned, and part of the overall situation. > These issues need to be aired. Of course you have every right to run things > as you wish, modulo contractual arrangements you may have entered into with > your customers and your Internet providers. But we on this list have > certain ideas about what an "offshore information provider" should provide. Sure. And you can run your offshore services as you wish. I like mine better. :-) > Contrast this case with the well-publicized cases recently where Neo-Nazi > material is being hosted on U.S. web sites. If selling fake passports is illegal in Anguilla, and the US has freedom of speech, they are not comparable. -- Vince ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vincent Cate vince(a)offshore.com.ai http://www.offshore.com.ai/vince/ Offshore Information Services http://www.offshore.com.ai/

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Anguilla...etc.
by Greg Kucharo 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

While Tim may be right that nobility is lost when backing down to the authorities, the fact is that this game has little to do with noble purposes. Check that, obvious noble purposes. While most on this list would agree that free flow of information is noble we have all seen that this is otherwise with people in power. As I stated in my last post, the Swiss have maintained thier "haven" for many years by playing both sides. In accomodating everyone they avoid harassment. This way the Swiss maintain a good system and live to fight another day. ??????????????????????????????????????? Greg Kucharo sophi(a)best.com "People want chaos for about 5 minutes. Then they want some money and a backrub." -Bruce Sterling ???????????????????????????????????????

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Capital and Taxes
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:18 PM 8/13/96, Brad Dolan wrote: >... and while I'm ranting... > >Can somebody explain why: > >1. Good jobs of the future are knowledge jobs which require little >capital investment. > >and > >2. We need a capital gains tax cut to encourage capital investment to >stimulate the growth of good jobs of the future. > >? Sure, as an investor in some small companies and a high-risk startup, I'll give some thoughts on what motivates _me_, and why a capital gains tax cut would help the economy. First of all, let's dispense with any confusion between "capital investment" and anything related to "capital goods" or "capital equipment." The two things are not at all the same. Consider a business that needs (or claims/hopes/plans) $1M in initial seed money to get rolling. Sure, some businesses get started with less, or with nothing, and finance growth out of sales. But a million bucks is not at all uncommon for a startup company that needs some work to be done before sales get started. Note that this million dollars has nothing to do with buying "capital investment," in the sense I think you mean (and in the sense I think Bart Croughs meant). It may all go to salaries for, say, 5 people for a year or two, plus office expenses, some other expenses, etc. Maybe even $50K worth of computers. This a "knowledge-intensive" company with very little needed in capital equipment. How is this money raised, and what calculations does a potential investor make about the risks, rewards, returns on investment, etc.? For one thing, the gains on such an investment over some time period (typically 3-6 years) are _capital gains_. These are now taxed at a marginal rate of 28% Federal plus whatever state and local taxes may apply, Here in California, the effective total marginal tax rate is 38-40%, depending on some factors. (In several industrialized countries the capital gains tax rate is zero, or nearly zero.) But this 38% rate doesn't even tell the whole story. Suppose that I want to make a $100K investment in this company my friends are trying to start. Money has a cost, both in the "rent" that is charged on it, or the "rent" that _could have_ been charged to another for an alternate use, and on something else that's terribly important: taxes must be paid on other assets sold to raise the $100K. For example, if I own shares in Intel, bought many years ago, I have to sell $160,000 worth of Intel stock, send a $60,000 check to Uncle Sam and Uncle Pete, and then send the remaining $100,000 to my friends. If the new investment *doubles*, my $100,000 gain is taxed at 38% and I'm left with a gain of about $62,000. It doesn't take a number theorist to see that I may as well have not even bothered. So long as I just sit on the Intel stock, no taxes are owed. Sounds like a no brainer to me. Yes, taxes will _someday_ have to be paid...but many of us are hoping, praying, and pleading for a cut in the capital gains tax rate...at least a rollback to the 22% rate of yesteryear (and 4% or less in states). This huge "backlog" of unrealized capital gains (aka gains on paper, but not yet taxable) is what is being spoken of when people like Jack Kemp and Steve Forbes speak of "unleashing" the capital gains now tied up due to the high tax rates. (Letting capital flow more easily will also make for a more efficient market. It may be that I would've liquidated much of my Intel holdings had the tax penalty not been so high.) There are many more things I could say, but this is already too long. Just don't think in terms of "capital" as just being "capital equipment." It is really "investment" in all its many forms. "Free the capital--and I don't mean D.C." --Tim May, author of "DOS Capital" 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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Political Burnout
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To those of you who are tired of the Republican National Convention. And particularly to those who are ALREADY tired of the Democrat National Convention, despite the fact that it hasn't started yet. Remember those irritating signs beside the road, advertising some new apartment complex or housing development that you pass on the way home? You know, the ones which say, "If you lived here, you'd be home by now." Well, as you watch these conventions (conventia?), imagine a sign on the Information Superhighway, just up ahead. It says: "If your country were operated under the principles of 'Assassination Politics', not only would this convention be over by now, it wouldn't have even started!" We return you to your regularly scheduled farce. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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WinSock Remailer Now Available By E-Mail
by Joey Grasty 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The first alpha release of the WinSock Remailer is now available via e-mail. Due to problems setting up user authentication on my homepage at http://www.c2.net/~winsock/ I have decided to distribute it via e-mail until I can get user authentication working. In order for you to receive the WinSock Remailer, I have to be reasonably sure that you are a US or Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Therefore, you will need to review a copy of the License Agreement and fill out the required information. Then clear-sign the agreement with PGP and mail it to me at jgrasty(a)gate.net. Don't forget to tell me where I can find your PGP public key so that I can check the signature. No signed license agreement, no remailer. In order for me to have a good feeling that you are not a foreign national, I need to have the following information check out: a. Verify that your address is within the boundaries of the US or Canada. I will do this by checking if you are in a public address database such as "88 Million Households Phone Book". b. Verify that your name and e-mail address is the same as in your public key. This is basically the same method that Netscape is using at: http://wwwus.netscape.com/eng/US-Current/ to verify citizenship or permanent residency, but the process is not automated. I don't like having to enforce clearly unconstitutional ITAR regulations, but I'm not ready for an extended stay at Club Fed. - ---------------------------cut here----------------------------------- WinSock Remailer License Agreement This is the license agreement between Joey Grasty and the end user of the WinSock Remailer. Name of User: <your name> Street Address: <your street address> Town, State, Country: <town>, <state or province>, <country> Phone Number: <your phone number> E-mail Address: <your e-mail address> Where to find your PGP Public Key: <instructions> 1. Joey Grasty grants to you a non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, license to use this Alpha version of the WinSock Remailer (the "Software"), in binary executable form for evaluation and trial use purposes only. 2. JOEY GRASTY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ABOUT ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION MADE ACCESSIBLE BY THE SOFTWARE, FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED GRATUITOUSLY AND, ACCORDINGLY, JOEY GRASTY SHALL NOT BE LIABLE UNDER ANY THEORY OR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY YOU OR ANY USER OF THE SOFTWARE. JOEY GRASTY DOES NOT HAVE ANY OBLIGATION TO SUPPORT THIS SOFTWARE OR ISSUE ANY UPDATES IN THE FUTURE. 3. While Joey Grasty intends to distribute a commercial release of the Software, Joey Grasty reserves the right at any time not to release a commercial release of the Software or, if released, to alter prices, features, specifications, capabilities, functions, licensing terms, release dates, general availability or any other characteristics of the commercial release as he sees fit. 4. Title, ownership rights, and intellectual property rights in and to the Software shall remain in Joey Grasty and/or its suppliers. You agree to abide by the copyright law and all other applicable laws of the United States including, but not limited to, export control laws. 5. Joey Grasty may terminate this License at any time by delivering notice to you and you may terminate this License at any time by destroying or erasing your copy of the Software and notifying Joey Grasty of this action forthwith. This License is personal to you and you agree not to assign your rights herein. This License shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida and, as to matters affecting copyrights, trademarks and patents, by U.S. federal law. This License sets forth the entire agreement between you and Joey Grasty. 6. Use, duplication or disclosure by the Government of any locality, state or country, its elected officials or employees, is forbidden. 7. You may not download or otherwise export or reexport the Software or any underlying information or technology except in full compliance with all United States and other applicable laws and regulations. In particular, but without limitation, none of the Software or underlying information or technology may be downloaded or otherwise exported or reexported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, North Korea, Iran, or Syria or (ii) to anyone on the US Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the US Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. By downloading the Software, you are agreeing to the foregoing and you are representing and warranting that you are not located in, under control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list. 8. JOEY GRASTY OR ITS SUPPLIERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR (a) INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES OF ANY SORT, WHETHER ARISING IN TORT, CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF JOEY GRASTY HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR (b) FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL NOT APPLY TO LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY TO THE EXTENT APPLICABLE LAW PROHIBITS SUCH LIMITATION. FURTHERMORE, SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THIS LIMITATION AND EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. 9. HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES. The Software is not fault-tolerant and is not designed, manufactured or intended for use or resale as on-line control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, in which the failure of the Software could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage ("High Risk Activities"). Joey Grasty and its suppliers specifically disclaim any express or implied warranty of fitness for High Risk Activities. Clear-sign this agreement with your PGP public key and e-mail it to jgrasty(a)gate.net. - -------------------------------cut here------------------------------------ Thank you for your patience with this crude form of distribution. Regards, -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQB1AwUBMhE2UsODO2V89BZZAQGOLAL9GU15R4N/6xIZCJGYaQ0Vlw4e7rqP06+d YH5806om50v/+8P9OKrxBOECEHPJLirFQcITXsYMn/DkVAcTVTrz9rKfJdzToeyB Bwr4vgpMqKw4oZnFGJa1PvUotSjTnETT =Arts -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Joey Grasty jgrasty(a)gate.net [home -- encryption, privacy, RKBA and other hopeless causes] jgrasty(a)pts.mot.com [work -- designing pagers] "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin." -- John Von Neumann PGP = A7 CC 31 E4 7E A3 36 13 93 F4 C9 06 89 51 F5 A7

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Re: India, Productivity, and Tropical Climes
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:31 PM 8/13/96 +0600, Arun Mehta wrote: > As regards IBM, its agreement with the government of India, under > which it was allowed to operate in the country, stipulated that > it would produce here, and transfer some technology. Instead, as > the government found, all it did was sell time on second-hand > computers (1401's as I recall, and this was mid to late '70s). > IBM was asked to either dilute, or live up to its original > agreement, which it wasn't prepared to do, so it left. Every single foreign computer company left during roughly the same period, as did almost all foreign companies and anybody who had a choice. The reasons generally given by those who left, for this mass exodus, which eventually sent the government into insolvency, is that Indian ]officials were arrogant, rude, dishonest, corrupt, continually broke contracts and agreements, and attempted to exercise direct power over everyone and everything. If indian government officials have a different version, I would not regard that version as coming "from the horses mouth" --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: Anguilla...etc.
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:21 AM 8/14/96, Greg Kucharo wrote: > While Tim may be right that nobility is lost when backing down to the >authorities, the fact is that this game has little to do with noble >purposes. Check that, obvious noble purposes. While most on this list >would agree that free flow of information is noble we have all seen that >this is otherwise with people in power. As I stated in my last post, the >Swiss have maintained thier "haven" for many years by playing both sides. >In accomodating everyone they avoid harassment. > This way the Swiss maintain a good system and live to fight another day. Let me be clear that I am not talking about "noble motives." In the sense of somone sacrificing himself for the good of the herd, blah blah. Rather, there is an "archetype," if you will, of what a "remailer" is, what a "data haven" is, what a "tax shelter" is, etc. While we cannot reasonably expect a remailer to exactly match the archetype, we can point out obvious deficiencies. For "data havens," we have very few examples, compared to operational remailers. We have the fictional form in Bruce Sterling's "Islands in the Net," some of whose plot twists have some parallels to the current Anguilla situation. Another is the form described in Ross Anderson's "Eternity Service." What might we expect of a true data haven? I've tried to describe several of the attributes in my earlier posts, mainly by asking questions about specific examples (bomb-building instructions, "Kill the monarchy" screeds, etc.). Interestingly, with several of these examples, Vince has said that he is not interested in having this kind of material on his site. His invitation for Multi-Level Marketers to avoid U.S. and other laws by locating on his service has now been withdrawn, from his latest comments. (To the person who sent me mail explaining that MLM schemes are not illegal in the U.S., indeed, some are legal and some are not. I said as much. And for those which are legal in the U.S. or France or wherever, they would hardly have any need to use Vince's service, would they? I surmised from his invitation that he was encouraging MLM/pyramid scheme operators to avoid their parochial fraud laws and use the services in Anguilla.) I plan to do more looking at just who is left, who is using Offshore Information and what kinds of services they are offering. Not to harass Vince, of course, but to better look at the envelope of what is considered OK and what is not. If i find that all the "juicy" stuff is gone and all that is left is booking sailing cruises around the Carribbean, I'll hardly call it a "data haven." Which is not to say it's not still a useful and profitable business for Vince, just that it has no Cypherpunk relevance. --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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Re: More on "Fraud" and Anguilla
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:29 PM 8/13/96 -0400, Vincent Cate wrote: > Again, what I said was my lawyer called and said it was illegal to sell > fake passports in Anguilla. The fraud was taxbomber saying he never sold > fake passports in his post to the net of "feel sorry for me my ISP made me > relocate even though I never sold fake passports". He never sold fake passports. If his passports had been marked "United States of America" or some such they would indeed be fake. They were not fake. Who says that only generally recognized governments of major nations are entitled to issue passports? > > a) what he was offering actually violated Anguillan law (was there a > > determination that selling camouflage passports violates a specific > > statute?) > My lawyer, probably the top lawyer in the country, said it is illegal in > Anguilla. I don't have a copy of that law. You should. The fact that you do not indicates alarming willingness to bend over, which is inconsistent with the way you represent your service in your ad. Amend the ad, or employ more spine. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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2600 (the magazine)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi all, The current issue of 2600 is out. I bought mine at Barnes & Nobles. It has a couple of articles on cryptography as well as a port scanner program for Linux. Jim Choate

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