December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Another briefing in Atlanta on the NRC crypto report,...
by CRYPTO 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Subject: Another briefing in Atlanta on the NRC crypto report, October 21, 1996 Cryptography's Role in Securing the Information Society A Public Briefing in Atlanta, Georgia Monday, October 21, 1996, 1:30-3:30 pm There will be a public briefing in Atlanta, Georgia by the National Research Council on this report. The briefing will be held at the Manufacturing Research Center on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology on Monday October 21, from 1:30 to 3:30. Dr. Herbert Lin, director of the NRC study will conduct the briefing. Questions from the audience will be entertained. For further information, please contact Dr. Myron L. Cramer (404) 894-7292, <myron.cramer(a)gtri.gatech.edu> at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. The event is open to the press and the public. Directions: From I-75/85 exit on Tenth Street and head West. Turn left on Hemphill Street and follow it to where it ends on Ferst Street. The Manufacturing Research Center is the modern building in front of you. Parking is limited; use public transportation or allow yourself extra time. If you have suggestions about other places that the committee should offer a public briefing, please send e-mail to crypto(a)nas.edu.

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Re: Internet plug pulled on Colombia's guerrillas
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 14:33:42 -0800, jim bell wrote: >>The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which >>has periodically paralyzed half the country with road blocks, >>found its route to the information superhighway barred. >> >>The Communist insurgents, who rose up in arms in 1964, >>embraced new technology last year in their fight to overthrow the >>government by launching a home page on the Internet. > >I couldn't resist smiling when I read this. Not that I want their access >cut; quite the opposite. But it is REALLY reassuring to see the authorities >behave in exactly the fashion you expect them to! Attempting to cut off >dissenting political voices IRL is de rigeur; now, this shows that they >believe "threat" to the government posed by allowing others to voice >contrary opinions on the 'net is real. It's particularly funny when you consider that the main justification for suppression is that insurgents (or rebels or freedom fighters or ...) kill people. Something along the lines of "We don't suppress unpopular views; we're just protecting our citizens". Now, it seems to me that that having a web page is a decidely non-lethal thing. <g> OTOH, it's probably more effective at getting the outside world to find out what's happening. Draw your own conclusions. # Chris Adams <cadams(a)acucobol.com> # <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp

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List of reliable remailers
by Raph Levien 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I operate a remailer pinging service which collects detailed information about remailer features and reliability. To use it, just finger remailer-list(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu There is also a Web version of the same information, plus lots of interesting links to remailer-related resources, at: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html This information is used by premail, a remailer chaining and PGP encrypting client for outgoing mail. For more information, see: http://www.c2.org/~raph/premail.html For the PGP public keys of the remailers, finger pgpkeys(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu This is the current info: REMAILER LIST This is an automatically generated listing of remailers. The first part of the listing shows the remailers along with configuration options and special features for each of the remailers. The second part shows the 12-day history, and average latency and uptime for each remailer. You can also get this list by fingering remailer-list(a)kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu. $remailer{"extropia"} = "<remail(a)miron.vip.best.com> cpunk pgp special"; $remailer{"c2"} = "<remail(a)c2.org> eric pgp hash reord"; $remailer{"penet"} = "<anon(a)anon.penet.fi> penet post"; $remailer{"flame"} = "<remailer(a)flame.alias.net> cpunk mix pgp. hash latent cut post reord"; $remailer{"mix"} = "<mixmaster(a)remail.obscura.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek ksub reord ?"; $remailer{"replay"} = "<remailer(a)replay.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut post ek"; $remailer{"ecafe"} = "<cpunk(a)remail.ecafe.org> cpunk mix"; $remailer{"amnesia"} = "<amnesia(a)chardos.connix.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ksub"; $remailer{'alpha'} = '<alias(a)alpha.c2.org> alpha pgp'; $remailer{'nymrod'} = '<nymrod(a)nym.jpunix.com> alpha pgp'; $remailer{"lead"} = "<mix(a)zifi.genetics.utah.edu> cpunk pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"nemesis"} = "<remailer(a)meaning.com> cpunk pgp hash latent cut"; $remailer{"exon"} = "<remailer(a)remailer.nl.com> cpunk pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"vegas"} = "<remailer(a)vegas.gateway.com> cpunk pgp hash latent cut"; $remailer{"haystack"} = "<haystack(a)holy.cow.net> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"ncognito"} = "<ncognito(a)rigel.cyberpass.net> mix cpunk pgp hash latent"; $remailer{"lucifer"} = "<lucifer(a)dhp.com> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"jam"} = "<remailer(a)cypherpunks.ca> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"winsock"} = "<winsock(a)c2.org> cpunk pgp hash cut ksub reord"; $remailer{'nym'} = '<config(a)nym.alias.net> newnym pgp'; $remailer{"balls"} = "<remailer(a)huge.cajones.com> cpunk pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"squirrel"} = "<mix(a)squirrel.owl.de> cpunk mix pgp hash latent cut ek"; $remailer{"middle"} = "<middleman(a)jpunix.com> cpunk mix pgp hash middle latent cut ek reord"; $remailer{'cyber'} = '<alias(a)alias.cyberpass.net> alpha pgp'; $remailer{"dustbin"} = "<dustman(a)athensnet.com> cpunk pgp hash ksub latent cut ek mix reord"; catalyst(a)netcom.com is _not_ a remailer. lmccarth(a)ducie.cs.umass.edu is _not_ a remailer. usura(a)replay.com is _not_ a remailer. Groups of remailers sharing a machine or operator: (cyber mix) The alpha and nymrod nymservers are down due to abuse. However, you can use the cyber nymserver. The nym.alias.net server will be listed soon. See http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/n.a.n.html for details. 403 Permission denied errors have been caused by a flaky disk on the Berkeley WWW server. Hopefully, this is fixed by now. The penet remailer is closed. Last update: Mon 30 Sep 96 6:45:05 PDT remailer email address history latency uptime ----------------------------------------------------------------------- jam remailer(a)cypherpunks.ca ************ 14:56 100.00% cyber alias(a)alias.cyberpass.net *****++**+** 33:36 99.96% dustbin dustman(a)athensnet.com ++-+-++++-- 1:11:40 99.94% winsock winsock(a)c2.org --------..-+ 6:56:13 99.81% exon remailer(a)remailer.nl.com #*+#*# -#*** 12:53 99.79% extropia remail(a)miron.vip.best.com ----.------ 7:25:48 99.62% balls remailer(a)huge.cajones.com ************ 5:03 99.40% haystack haystack(a)holy.cow.net #--*##*#### 13:56 99.17% amnesia amnesia(a)chardos.connix.com ----------+ 3:47:17 98.46% middle middleman(a)jpunix.com - - +- - + 1:27:49 95.92% squirrel mix(a)squirrel.owl.de --++++ +++ 1:56:13 92.08% replay remailer(a)replay.com **+****** * 4:11 91.92% lead mix(a)zifi.genetics.utah.edu + ++*++ .-* 2:49:27 91.01% mix mixmaster(a)remail.obscura.com ++++-++--+ 1:53:37 81.18% History key * # response in less than 5 minutes. * * response in less than 1 hour. * + response in less than 4 hours. * - response in less than 24 hours. * . response in more than 1 day. * _ response came back too late (more than 2 days). cpunk A major class of remailers. Supports Request-Remailing-To: field. eric A variant of the cpunk style. Uses Anon-Send-To: instead. penet The third class of remailers (at least for right now). Uses X-Anon-To: in the header. pgp Remailer supports encryption with PGP. A period after the keyword means that the short name, rather than the full email address, should be used as the encryption key ID. hash Supports ## pasting, so anything can be put into the headers of outgoing messages. ksub Remailer always kills subject header, even in non-pgp mode. nsub Remailer always preserves subject header, even in pgp mode. latent Supports Matt Ghio's Latent-Time: option. cut Supports Matt Ghio's Cutmarks: option. post Post to Usenet using Post-To: or Anon-Post-To: header. ek Encrypt responses in reply blocks using Encrypt-Key: header. special Accepts only pgp encrypted messages. mix Can accept messages in Mixmaster format. reord Attempts to foil traffic analysis by reordering messages. Note: I'm relying on the word of the remailer operator here, and haven't verified the reord info myself. mon Remailer has been known to monitor contents of private email. filter Remailer has been known to filter messages based on content. If not listed in conjunction with mon, then only messages destined for public forums are subject to filtering. Raph Levien

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RE: Looking for Qualified Individual/Firm to Contract for Cryptanalysis
by thad＠hammerhead.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I saw this > > I am looking for one or more people (or firms) who are qualified to perform > > world class cryptanalysis work. Please send mail to me at joswald1(a)msn.com > > call in the U.S. at +1 408.479.7874 > > > > Jack Oswald and then this... > [from alt.religion.scientology, where net-activist Grady Ward is a subject > of a lawsuit from the Scientologists...] > > Grady Ward posted updates in his case of alleged copyright and trade > secret violation. > > "Word as of September 26, 1996 at 10:00 AM is that the technician who has > been trying to 'crack' files apparently encrypted using PGP has admitted > that 'he can make no further progress' after a month of concentrated > effort. > > "The disks will remain in a safety deposit box until the 'ho reveals any > new plans for bringing in cryptography experts to assist in the analysis." [the 'ho here is a nasty name for the religions key lawyer, Helena Kobrin] The trial is happening in San Jose, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the attempted cryptanalysis is happening there, too. They've been working at it for a few months now. thad -- Thaddeus Beier thad(a)hammerhead.com Visual Effects Supervisor 408) 286-3376 Hammerhead Productions http://www.got.net/people/thad

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the theory of split currency
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Austrian-econ is an academic economists' list focused on so-called "austrian" economics, like Hayek, Von Mises, etc... Notice the last little bit about Patrick Leahy... Cheers, Bob Hettinga --- begin forwarded text Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 20:13:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Foldvary <ffoldvar(a)jfku.jfku.edu> To: Austrian Economics <AustrianEcon(a)agoric.com> Subject: the theory of split currency Organization: JFK University Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-austrianecon(a)agoric.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: AustrianECON(a)agoric.com Is there a name for a dual or split currency, in which there is one currency for domestic use and another, different appearing, currency for foreign usage? Does anyone know of any country which has had such a split currency? Is there any literature on such split currency? Here some thoughts on how it could function in the U.S.: 1) Domestic currency would not be legal tender outside the U.S. 2) Foreign US dollars would not be legal tender in the U.S. It would be illegal to hold foreign dollars in the U.S. Travelers would be required to convert them at customs. 3) The export of domestic currency would be illegal. 4) All exchanges between domestic and foreign currency would be required to be made in official exchanges, with the amounts recorded and reported to the government. 5) All previous currency would be declared of no value after a certain date. All conversions to new currency would be reported. What would be the implications for banking, international trade, and the market process? Would it affect the measurement of the money supply, and monetary policy? A motive for the government would be to control the underground economy, tax evasion, and the trade in illegal substances. This scenario is not entirely hypothetical. I have read that Senator Patrick Leahy introduced Senate Bill #307 to create such a split currency. The Bill failed to pass the Senate, but this shows the concept is out there. Is this worth investigation and theoretical examination? Fred Foldvary --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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LII FYI: NETDAY PRESS CONFERENCE (fwd)
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hang on to your wallets, everyone. Your tax dollars at work... Cheers, Bob Hettinga --- begin forwarded text Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 16:05:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Peter Marshall <rocque(a)eskimo.com> To: lii(a)pobox.com Subject: LII FYI: NETDAY PRESS CONFERENCE (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-lii(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: lii(a)pobox.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 08:42:11 -0400 From: Roanne Robinson <RROBINSON(a)ntia.doc.gov> Reply-To: roundtable(a)cni.org To: Multiple recipients of list <roundtable(a)cni.org> Subject: NETDAY PRESS CONFERENCE The following is a media advisory regarding today's NetDay96 press conference taking place at Hine Junior High School in southeast D.C. If you have any questions about the press conference or NetDay96, please don't hesitate to contact me. You also can find further information about NetDay96 by visiting NTIA's home page at www.ntia.doc.gov. Roanne Robinson National Telecommunications and Information Administration U.S. Department of Commerce <rrobinson(a)ntia.doc.gov> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Immediate Release: Contact: Paige Darden September 25, 1996 202-482-1551 ***** MEDIA ADVISORY RE LAUNCH OF NATIONAL NETDAY ***** WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Government officials are joining business and community leaders in kicking off national NetDay 96 to wire all K-12 public and private schools in more than 40 states for access to the information superhighway. Businesses, parents, educators, students and community volunteers will come together to wire more than 20,000 schools nationwide. Larry Irving, assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information, will join U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley to help lauch national NetDay 96. Irving's remarks will focus on the need to make sure that all of America's communities participate in this effort. "We can't afford to leave some of our schools behind -- all of our children deserve access to the tools that will enable them to be full participants in the Information Age," said Irving. WHO: U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley Assistant Secretary of Commerce Larry Irving NetDay Co-Founder John Gage of Sun Microsystems Robert Goodwin, Points of Light Foundation Corporate Partners, including BellSouth, Cisco Systems, MCI, Apple, AT&T, and others. WHEN: Thursday, September 26, 1:15 p.m. WHERE: Hine Junior High School 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Like California NetDay, national NetDay 96 will follow the classic barn-raising tradition. It will build on California NetDay, in which more than 20,000 volunteers came together in March 1996 to connect over 2,600 schools to the Internet. For more information, please call Anna Erdreich, U.S. Department of Education, 202-401-4389, or Paige Darden, Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), at 202-482-1551. ### --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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ASAP letter on e-cash
by Dustbin Freedom Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It seems our own Jim Ray has gotten published again, this time in Forbes ASAP's letters section ((Oct.7, page 18). A bit partisan-Libertarian, but good job, Jim.

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Bruce Taylor vs. John Perry Barlow, in HotWired's Brain Tennis
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 08:17:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Bruce Taylor vs. John Perry Barlow, in HotWired's Brain Tennis Taylor and Barlow have been battling it out in a HotWired Brain Tennis match for the last week. Check out some excerpts lobbed across the, um, neural nets... -Declan ********** Linkname: Wired Online: Brain Tennis URL: http://www.hotwired.com/braintennis/ --- Bruce Taylor, president of the National Law Center for Children and Families and a leading advocate of the Communications Decency Act, was also formerly a US Department of Justice and city of Cleveland prosecutor. John Perry Barlow is an Electronic Frontiers Foundation co-founder, member of The Well's board of directors, author, retired Wyoming cattle rancher, and lyricist for the Grateful Dead. --- Friday, 27 September 1996 Post No. 5 of 8 by Bruce Taylor I got you now, John Perry. You say "First Amendment!" However, not all detrimental speech is protected - treason, false advertising, defamation, obscenity, child porn, and incitement to violence. Indecent speech that's not obscene is protected among adults, but there's no constitutional right to provide it to minors. If you call up the rule of law ("This is a Nation of laws, not of men"), you are bound by its limits. The Supreme Court recognizes limits for indecent mass communications. The Court didn't say "less" restrictive (as the ACLU does - no law, less law, parent's problem), but asked whether the method chosen by Congress is the "least" restrictive means that is still effective in achieving its purpose. Big difference. State display laws don't say parents keep kids from stores, it says stores put porn out of reach. Dial-a-porn laws don't deny phones to kids or say warnings are enough, but require credit cards or PINs for adults to access sex messages. Responsible adults should take good faith steps that are effective for all but "the most enterprising and disobedient young people." Can adults obtain adult speech while shielding it from most kids? That is all the law and Supreme Court ask. Why ask adult society to help protect our children? Why not just leave it up to each parent? Why not rejoice in the public profanities your children hear on the subway? Because children have rights to a "decent society." Your child may hear cursing on subways, but New York's display law keeps Hustler centerfolds off walls and news racks. So you, too, benefit from what other adults must do in deference to your children. The Internet should not remain an "adult" bookstore for kids any more than Times Squares' should be open to kids. I also got you on philosophy, dear John. Our "'60s humanitarianism" was for social commitment, working together, selfless love for all the peoples of the world. Remember? Your refusal to hide your precious porn from the public Web seems like callous indifference to what kids will endure. To me, your position is appositive to true "liberalism." You sound like an elitist technohippie who can take care of his own, but doesn't care what kids would see, seek, suffer, or be seduced by. You're probably richer than I, maybe even smarter, but your protest has a bit of a whine. The CDA only asks Internet users to shield kids so kids can use it, too, and asks industry to give us the means of doing online what we do everywhere else. Use your brain and heart to help find the ways, to pressure the techno-industrial complex, to help make the Internet safe for kids. Try it, you'll like it. ************ On Friday, Bruce Taylor said "children have rights to a 'decent society.'" Today, Barlow replies "You will not be happy until you have imposed your moral code on the rest of humanity." Can we expect the world to share the same concept of "decency"? Discuss in Threads.... Monday, 30 September 1996 Post No. 6 of 8 by John Perry Barlow Bruce, remember what I said in my first post about shadowboxing? We're there, pal. You and I are not talking about the same "place." You're talking about physical, walking-around reality within a quaint conceit called the United States of America, and I'm talking the seamless and global continuity that is cyberspace. Now I will confess I misdirected the flow myself by referring to the First Amendment. I never should have done that, but I was strangely drawn into your reality-distortion field by all that talk about what "no one has the right to say." Utterly knee-jerk of me. I apologize. But here's the terrible truth of it: These obscenity statutes you cite, along with the First Amendment itself, are all local ordinances. Even the treaty to which you apparently refer offers spotty coverage as it has only six official signatories, as far as I can tell. There is not a single government on this Earth that has the right to regulate the rest of it. For better or worse. There are days when I wish there were. Certainly I would be delighted if I thought the protections in the Bill of Rights could be afforded to all God's children, just as you would no doubt be delighted if the sexual-conduct laws of Saudi Arabia could be applied to all "enterprising and disobedient young people," wherever their dirty minds be housed. But they can't. And unless the United Nations becomes a lot more effective, there will never be a world government sufficient to convey such rights or restrictions. So, should either of us wish to restrict or maintain liberty on the Internet, we can't turn to government to assist us. We are stuck with governance, which is to say, the order that arises from social etiquette, cultural ethics, practicality, and technological architecture. There is, in fact, plenty of comfort both of us can take from these. Since I am, as you charge, a technohippie, I'm convinced that as long as the Internet remains a packet-switched network, it will be very difficult to control the content of the whole. On the other hand, as long as there are folks like yourself who wish to construct sanitized zones within it, that same technical characteristic makes it fairly easy to filter out most of the tainted packets and to observe very carefully, as they do at both my daughter's high school and in Singapore, who is attempting to get what. We are looking at opportunities for global liberty and local authoritarianism, and that should make us both happy. But you and the rest of your kind in the US Congress wish to think locally and act globally. You will not be happy until you have imposed your moral code on the rest of humanity. And I can imagine few aspirations more elitist than that, Bruce. ###

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Katz on cypherpunks, in HotWired's Media Rant
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Background: the cypherpunk/pw:cypherpunk account used for HotWired's Threads discussion section has been used for anonymous flaming and attacks. --Declan] Linkname: The Netizen - Media Rant - Jon Katz URL: http://www.netizen.com/netizen/96/40/katz0a.html HotWired The Netizen 30 Sep 96 [...] In addition, the digital culture has long been demonized by the outside world and is inherently defensive and edgy. Cypherpunks give us fascinating insights into this subject, since their equivalent exists in no other medium, and they epitomize the often mindless verbal violence that characterizes some parts of the Net. Their original purpose - techno-anarchy and advocating unfettered access to information - conflict head-on with the Web's mainstreaming and the arrival of the newly wired middle class. Cypherpunks don't want real confrontations or discussions, or they would reveal their identities and make it possible to respond, as most flamers do. They are among media's rarest and at the same time most easily recognized subspecies: nihilists. Anonymous communication makes verbal violence easy. Since most flamers don't know their targets and won't ever meet them, it's easy enough to attack individuals and question personal motives, with none of the social consequences of face-to-face verbal assaults. And Net communication also offers no filter: because it's instantaneous, people often don't take the time to cool off, reflect, or take another look at the messages they mail and post. When tempers flare here, it doesn't even take the time of a phone call to pop off. So, hostile messages are often impulsive and frequently regretted, apologized for, or taken back and clarified. Since the Net makes communication so easy, it makes corrections, criticism, and discussion inevitable. Nobody who writes or posts on the Web should expect anything less than sustained and continuous challenge and critique, something that is rarely permitted in mainstream journalism. Web writers and posters have to see these as integral to their work - not simply attacks - and as healthy antidotes to conventional media arrogance and elitism. Accompanying the hundreds and hundreds of personally assaultive messages I've gotten - as opposed to the thousands of simply critical ones - there is a strange and recurring phenomenon: If you respond quickly and respectfully, the overwhelming majority of hostile emailers either apologize, change their tone, or write back in a more reflective, serious, or friendly way. Most of these posters are stunned that anyone read their mail in the first place, or, even more amazingly, responded to it. [...]

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POLL RESULTS
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, Last week I offered an informal poll as to the reputational effect of "John Anonymous MacDonald" and other apparent nyms. I received responses from 31 of you. All were signed by known Cypherpunks; none were anonymous. I was not surprised to find absolutely zero respect for "Anonymous." In addition, there were no negative comments about Tim and in most cases, high marks for his restraint and dignity under the circumstances. Perhaps not so surprisingly, a significant number of you expressed the belief that the "Anonymous" posts come from Demetri Vulis. Following, are a few samples of what respondents had to say. (They are reproduced without atribution because I had not asked permission to do so in my origninal poll request.) S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clearly, John Anonymous MacDonald is losing points. Tim's reputation is unaffected. ... I'd be suprised if anyone regarded Anonymous with any degree of respect anymore. As for Tim May, he already had a good rep in my book to start with, and by not responding in a similar matter (at least not publicly) to these people, his reputation is enhanced even more. ... Who is John Anonymous MacDonald...We can only surmise that his real joy is playing with himself in public. ... Anonymous is a total moron who'd be annoying me greatly if I hadn't managed a decent killfile. ... The posts are idiotic and childish, and reflect quite badly on the sender (presumably Dmitri Vulis KOTM). If anything, they provide a reason to pay *more* attention to tcmay. ... As with any public display of poor taste, anonymous shows themselves lackjing in judgement. I credit Tim for not responding. ... I personally think that these anonymous attacks are pointless. They are just stupid insults, and they don't do anything negative to Tim's reputation except show that someone likes abusing remailers. Perhaps Tim's reputation may get enhanced by the fact that someone has to go this low to debase him. ... It seems to me that anyone who is unwilling to allow the abused party to respond personally is undeserving of anyone's respect. To feel the need to do it in a public forum with however many thousands of people are on these lists is a sign of insecurity and weakness... ... Tarnished - John Anonymous MacDonald Enhanced - Tim May (due to his restraint!) ... Tim's reputation is definately being enhanced, if it's fair to judge a man by the ememies he keeps. ;) ... ...Since these annoying posts started a week or so ago, I have (for the first time ever) begun killfiling people and messages on the cp list. Right now I am killing all messages from John Anonymous MacDonald, Dmitri Vulis, and any message in the "daily ... regarding TCM" thread(s). I hope this madness can end, so we can get back to more normal traffic levels on the list. ... Dimitri 'Anonymous' Vulis' reputation has gone way out on the negative side. (He's been an obvious nutcase from the start...) TC May's positive reputation has increased from his handling of these attacks. ... This kind of post shows Anonymous to be at the social level of a grade school child. If s/he grows up, I may change my mind. It does nothing to effect my opinion of Tim May... Anonymous is making a public mockery of him/herself. ... The anono-twits lose by a mile.... ...It's not much different from graffiti - some people put up interesting posters on walls and telephone poles, and write interesting stuff on bathroom walls; others scrawl empty vulgarity... ... Anonymous's reputation went instantly from 0 to negative infinity. Tim May's reputation is unaffected. ... It certainly does nothing to harm Tim's reputation, from where I stand. Thank God for procmail! ... Well, as Tim has managed to sit back and take it, and I've killfiled the main perpetrators. I'd say it makes a public mockery of Anonymous. ... ...it seems evident that some non-anonymous posters aka KTOM seem to understand how to *abuse* our American freedom's but don't understand about *responsible* use. Is this a deliberate attempt to damage this list or is it that some folk just can't handle freedom? ... ...I killfile Foolish Voolish and most of the others, just because of these ridiculous ad hominem attacks on Tim. ... Anonymous' claims make him look stupid simply because they have no technical or political message - just dirty words...Tim May's reputation is enhanced, I think, by the fact that *other people* come in and dispute Anonymous' claims, over and over again.

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