December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: ITAR satellite provision
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, jim bell wrote: > The wording was > clearly intended to be an exception to a rule. What the wording doesn't > include is the "exception to the exception," most likely because they > weren't thinking in too great a detail when they wrote the regulations. Yow. The "if we put it in a rocket it's exportable" interpretation made me think twice before posting the text of that definition, because it's seductive and wrong. I posted it because it's amusing to think about and because we all had a good laugh about it at the Mac crypto conference; but I'd feel like a jerk if someone got themselves in a lot of trouble with an enthusiastic misreading of that sentence out of pages and pages of regulations (plus quite a few more pages of opinions interpreting those regulations). > It appears that the government left a loophole so large that you could > drive a truck...er...shoot a rocket through it. If you think you've found an enormous loophole in a regulation which has been around for 15-20 years, you should double-check your research and get a good nights' sleep. Law is like science this way - if you think you have found room-temperature fusion you should stop and check your work. It's much more likely that you're not reading carefully or you've missed something. -- Greg Broiles | "We pretend to be their friends, gbroiles(a)netbox.com | but they fuck with our heads." http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | |

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Pager security
by Dave Emery 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Lest anyone doubt this, pagers in the US have the same exact vulnerability as those in the UK. No current paging systems use any kind of serious encryption and all can be intercepted by using a scanner, a very simple data detector consisting of one IC and an ordinary PC running appropriate software. I wrote a USENET article about decoding POCSAG paging back in 1993, and am aware of at least four different individuals who have implemented programs based in part on my description of the protocol - three of whom have sold the product to the hobbiest market. Dave Emery N1PRE die(a)die.com

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RE: gack vs. key escrow vs. key recovery
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Vladimir Z. Nuri, [who still doesn't get it] what is the precise difference between gack, key escrow, and key recovery? [and] I'll be watching the debate closely, as the true extremists incapable of compromise (and thereby living in a fantasy world) show their colors.... ............................................................................... The precise difference is: who is in control. In order to understand this critical point you must understood the idea of having personal authority as a standard for living. But you would expect that everyone should accept being subject to inspection by default, as if governments owned everyone within the national boundaries and keeping personal things away from them were a sin. The more that governments obliterate the lines of division between what is exclusively one's own to manage and what they have "the right" to share in (including holding your extra keys) or to demand (access to private communication), the less defined the concept of individuality becomes (as compared to being a "borg" of the State) and the more difficult it becomes intellectually to uphold one's separateness from it, since it all seems to be the same, undifferentiated control over things in general ("we are all One - how could you object?"). It is right to resist any attempts by the State to assimilate everyone into its fold by blurring the boundaries of authority (in its favor). It is a better thing to strengthen each individual's ability to maintain their own, than to put them in a situation where they *must* use the assistance of (become dependent upon) the (supposed) benevolence and rational judgement of an overwhelming overseer. It is better to reserve the right of authority over who & when anyone may keep one's software keys in escrow. It is better than to forfeit the right to make that decision on one's own good time and according to one's own plan, which would otherwise weaken that authority. .. Blanc [If 51% of the true extremist voters would elect Harry Browne, GAK would not be a problem.]

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Re: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Tue, 1 Oct 1996 20:50:17 -0700, John Anonymous MacDonald wrote: >> "What?" I asked. "Unless you're talking about import restrictions." >> >> "Exactly," he said. >> >> -Declan > >I don't doubt that they can do this if they really want to, but I >wonder what legal basis they will use for import restrictions. > >Are there any current import restrictions for products on can legally >manufacture, sell, and use in the United States? > >Thanks. They could easily levy a $1*10^99 tariff per byte. That might have the same effect... <g> # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: [NOISE] ITAR Satellite
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:46 PM 10/3/96 -0400, David Lesher wrote: >Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law sez: >> >> Alas, a common fallacy. >> >> You have committed a prohibited export when the stuff lands outside the >> USA....It's not illegal when it goes up ("by reason of the launching" and, >> e.g. *stays up* in orbit) but it is illegal when it comes down abroad. >> > >"I just shoots them, who CARES where they come down? >It's not my department, said Werner Von Braun...." No... not exactly. "Vhen the rockets go up... who cares vhere they come down... That's not my department... says Werner Von Braun." Tom Lehrer. 1965. "That was the year that Was." Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: Clipper III on the table
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Tue, 1 Oct 1996 19:34:23 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >As for IBM's involvement, they've played around with the NSA for decades. >Nothing new there. Fortunately, today they're just a marginal player. This is a very dangerous statement to make. IBM is nowhere near as powerful as they were, but they're still very solidly entrenched in the business world*. Money is what will ultimately decide this issue - if Bill Clinton's VISA was abused after a hacker sniffed a network transaction ITAR would be dead within seconds! * - people have said that OS/2 is dead. Well it turns out that IBM is making several *BILLION* in sales every year on it from their business deals. According to figures I've seen, they have a high percentage of the F500 market. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: White House crypto proposal -- too little, too late
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Wed, 2 Oct 1996 10:27:46 -0700 (PDT), Joe Shea wrote: > You just managed to justify your own censorship of the list, >Declan. Talk about clueless! How'd that old line go about cooking implements and carbon deposits? As has often been enumerated on the list: If someone wishes to say something - anything - to a group of like-minded people, that is his choice. If they choose not to listen, that is their choice. If declan chooses not to forward mail to a list he moderates, it's his choice. He doesn't force anyone to read that list. He certainly doesn't force them to avoid any other lists. If they don't like his list or disagree with his views they can show their disapproval by going elsewhere (seealso: Free Market) Consider your argument in a different light: Do you complain that Rush Limbaugh never lets the head of N.O.W. or Bill Clinton do a show? # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Uruguayan 'pirate' radio seized
by aaron＠burn.ucsd.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I thought that I had sent this out already to my various private lists, but it appears that I haven't. From my perspective of involvement in Free Radio and support for armed struggle, I consider it important. Feel free to redistribute this. If you can improve the translation, or find additional information, please send me a copy. --Aaron The Spanish original follows my translation. La Jornada (Mexico), 23 September 1996 Uruguayan pirate radio equipment seized; transmitted EZLN messages. Ap y Dpa, Montevideo, 22 de septiembre. Uruguayan military intelligence services confiscated the transmission equipment of a clandestine radio station that broadcast messages of Mexico's EZLN, according to the Defense Minister, Raúl Iturria. He speculated that it could have involved the promotion of collective armed uprisings, and possible terrorist acts. According to a report in the Uruguayan periodical El País, the raid on the broadcaster 'La Intrusa', located in the Montevideo suburban barrio of La Teja, allowed the discovery of "subversive plans" and radio messages sent from the Lacandon jungle and from Nicaragua, although not 'codified' by the military intelligence services. [Can any Spanish speakers clarify the last clause? See original below.--Aaron] The Nicaraguan instructional materials contained formulas, systems of putting together explosives, and some suggestions for illegally obtaining the various materials necessery for the armaments to reach their maximum potency. The instructions were put to music, with Central American rhythm, explaining directly and even joyfully the means of equipping any group. In the international communications broadcast by the pirate radio, reporters, presumably Uruguayan, reported from the Mexican jungle "whole chapters of tactics useful for confronting the enemy", and these made reference to impending contact with unidentified inserrectional forces of Chile, according to the newspaper. According to a Uruguayan broadcast official, the police operation also allowed the seizure of propaganda material and materials for making molotov cocktails that were used by members of the pirate radio station against patrol vehicles in their area of operation. ******************************************* La Jornada 23 de septiembre de 1996 Confiscaron en Uruguay equipo de radio que difundía mensajes del EZLN. Ap y Dpa, Montevideo, 22 de septiembre. Los servicios de inteligencia militar de Uruguay confiscaron los equipos de transmisión de una estación de radio clandestina que difundía mensajes del movimiento rebelde Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, de México, informó hoy el ministro de Defensa, Raúl Iturria, quien especuló que podría tratarse de la promoción de alzamientos armados colectivos, y eventuales acciones terroristas. De acuerdo con información del periódico matutino uruguayo El País, el allanamiento a la radiodifusora La Intrusa, ubicada en el barrio suburbano La Teja, de Montevideo, permitió descubrir ``planes subversivos'' y mensajes radiales enviados desde la Selva Lacandona y de Nicaragua, aún no codificados por los servicios de inteligencia militar. El material instructivo nigaragüense contenía fórmulas, sistemas de ensamblado para explosivos y algunas sugerencias para la obtención ilegal de los distintos materiales necesarios para que el armamento alcanzara su máxima potencia. Las indicaciones eran musicalizadas, con ritmo centroamericano, dijo, al explicar directa y hasta alegremente el modo de pertrechar a cualuqier grupo. En las comunicaciones internacionales difundidas por la radioemisora pirata, reporteros, presumiblemente uruguayos, informaban desde la selva mexicana ``capítulos enteros de tácticas ejecutables para enfrentar al enemigo'', y en ellos se hacía referencia a un próximo contacto con fuerzas insurrectas de Chile aún no identificadas, precisó el diario. Así, el operativo policial permitió incautar, además, material de propaganda y elementos para la fabricación de cocteles molotov que, según dijo el director nacional de Comunicaciones de Uruguay, Ernesto Dhel, eran utilizados por los miembros de la radioemisora ilegal, contra los vehículos de patrullaje instalados en su área de acción.

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[FUN/GAMES] re: airhead
by attila 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Deana Holmes" <mirele(a)xmission.com> writes: .Sheesh. .You know you're doing good when both Dmitri Vulis and Attila both badmouth .you. (For the record, Attila's badmouthing consisted of stating via private .email that I was "the same air head pseudo-intellectual who has poisoned .her own life with hatred and ignorance in so many other venues.") . .Some people are just terribly threatened, I guess. . threatened by an airhead?!? ROTFL ...reminds me of the man driving in the country with his blond bimbo, when they crest a hill and see YABB in the middle of a grazing field rowing a boat, ...absolutely oblivious to all else. our fearless BB demands her date stop as they pull abreast of the scene; our BB nimbly jumps from the car, runs to the fence line, and commences screaming at the YABB who is still rowing away with all her heart. BB, returning to the car, is asked by her date what she was screaming at YABB. "Oh," BB said, "I was sooo mad! I told her she was a disgrace to all blonde [bimbos]; ...and that if I could only swim, I would come out there and thrash her..." Go on home, Deana; you have been in one more than too many intellectual arguments with only one oar and half the deck. --attila 04 10 96 : 06 20 15 UT -- "Why should I go the circus? Congress is in session." --Will Rogers

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Re: Export laws don't just affect crypto
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Tue, 1 Oct 1996 00:05:16 -0700 (PDT), Lucky Green wrote: >The recent posts about GPS made me research the state of the art of GPS >receivers. Seems they are getting pretty good. Two pounds, sub-meter >accuracy, attitude determination, all at altitudes up to 60,000 feet and >speeds up to 1,000 nmph. But what really caught my eye was the fine print >at the bottom of the spec sheet: > >"Higher altitude and velocities up to 25,000 nautical miles-per-hour >options are available in the U.S." > >I gather from this that as long as you are in the US, you are welcome to >use this technology for applications that require larger than 1,000 nmph >speeds. > >Seems the software industry is not the only industry that's suffering >from silly export control laws. Possibly - certainly there are plenty of legislators who'd do it. I'd heard, however, that the precision of your signal could be increased by getting a fix on more than 3 satellites at a time - and that the GPS network had been designed to 'blanket' the Northern Hemisphere. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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