December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: The Grand Compromise is Coming
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>By the way, I have no heard no good counters to my point that the "use of >crypto in furtherance of a crime" is quite analogous to "freedom of >religion shall not be abridged, but saying a heathen prayer in furtherance >of a crime shall subject the heathen to an additional five years of >imprisonment." Two differences: Saying a prayer, heathen or not, does not make the commision of the crime easier. Using a gun, or using crypto, does. Saying a prayer can be done in complete privacy and silence, making it impossible to tell whether someone is doing it. Using crypto generally involves some outward evidence. It is not all in your head. If some form of prayer were invented which did not have these properties, then it might be forbidden. The Marinsha prayer, shouted with the appropriate intensity, paralyzes the hearer for several minutes. Robberies have become common using this method. Making the Marinsha prayer illegal in all circumstances is too broad, but criminalizing it for use in the commision of a crime would be a plausible response.

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It ain't over till the fatman burns...
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Paul Bradley wrote: > > > I still am concerned about kids being subject to material that is > > inappropriate for their age group (what ever that may be). So how do I > > insure that my son/daugher does not get their hands on _THIS_ material? > > Supervision, plain and simple. However, if you honestly believe your > children are going to be harmed in some lasting way by any images they > might find there is clearly something wrong with the way you have brought > them up Good, strong beatings will also help to deter them from doing things that they find interesting or pleasurable. This will help to reinforce the concept that things which feel good lead to pain and punishment. Pictures of people burning in hell can be put in prominent places in the home, with constant verbal reminders that God will punish bad people who have different values than you. It is particularly important to impress on your daughter that she must keep her head covered at all times and never look a strange man in the eye or allow her ankles to show. Remind her that, as much as you love her, you will still be forced to join in stoning her to death if she choses to stray outside acceptable social standards. Impress upon your son that if he wants to have sex with teenage girls under the age of 18 he must move to a foreign country where he can receive millions of dollars in foreign aide while he does so. Explain that if he has sex with his teenage girlfriend in this country that he is an evil person and will be convicted as a sex offender (which will delay their wedding plans) and be marked for life as a child molester. Most important of all, carefully explain to your children that if their gaze ever happens to fall upon material which you find unacceptable that they will end up being murdering, drug-dealing pornographers because they are immoral dupes with no character or self-will. Use Paul and myself as examples of where libertarian thinking leads, in the end. After all, he is writing from DEMON.co.uk and I am writing from LUCIFER(a)dhp.com. If you are concerned about what your children may encounter on the internet that will expose their lack of character and morals, there is a program available that is even better than Cybersitter. It was sent to the list by fuck(a)yourself.up a few months ago. Check the archives for it or ask the cypherpunks list's on-call librarian, Tim C. May, how to find it. FlameMonger

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Re: Comparing Cryptographic Key Sizes II
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I can assure you >that in moving from a 1024 bit key to a 4096 bit key, the attackers >job is well in excess of 50x harder. Greatly in excess of a trillion >trillion times harder. First part true, second part false. See Schneier, p.160. Extrapolating using GNFS factoring indicates ratio of 1E21. If SNFS factoring becomes possible it is much worse, ratio less than one million.

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Re: New Laws in Oregon - "Land of the Legal betatest"
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ryan Anderson wrote: > We've got a relatively decent style of government here. Sure, as long as you don't step out of line, like at Kent State or Waco, or at the Democratic convention in Chicago. Any style of government is "relatively decent" if you don't rock the boat. Buy a fucking clue... Putting a "Fuck Clinton" sign in your front yard in America probably won't bring significantly different results than if one had put a "Stalin Sucks" sign up during his reign. I also doubt if our body count is significantly different than that of Stalin, either. If we all just keep our mouths shut as our rights and freedoms are stripped from us one by one, then we will have a "relatively decent" journey into oppression. ClueMonger

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tacdfipsfkmi: What the gov't wants
by fudman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What the government wants in a key recovery system. And, ummm: doesn't Benaloh work for Microsoft? >From ... Minutes of the February 19-20, 1997 Meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee to Develop a Federal Information Processing Standard for the Federal Key Management Infrastructure 2. Security Models working group chaired by Dr. Brickell. Dr. Benaloh was asked to give their report in Dr. Brickells absence. Dr. Benaloh said that there was a good deal of overlap between the requirements and framework groups and they are trying to separate the two. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He stated that from what the agencies presented, they are looking for a flexible mandatory standard, covering both stored and transmitted data, for commercially available off-the-shelf products. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A major issue noted was the matter of flexibility. The standard must be broad enough to allow products to be developed by anyone. The scope of this working group was stated by Mr. Chokhani as identifying things such as key recovery agents, TTPs, two entity systems, integrity, authorization of keys, confidentiality of information, and accountability, especially of key recovery agents.

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Shell cancels all but $25 pre-paid cards
by Brad Dolan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

About 6 months ago, Shell introduced pre-paid cards in $25, 50 and 100 denominations which could be used to ~anonymously pay for gas at the pump. Suddenly, Shell has withdrawn all but the nearly-pointless $25 cards. Security problems? Complaints from the Freehdom usurpers? Inquiring minds want to know.

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Re: Flag Burning...
by David Downey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>>You Crazy Americans . . . I dont think anyone else in the world >>would >>give a fuck someone burnt their countries flag, certainly not in >>Australia. What is it about your country? >>My friend is a New Zealander. When she was in school for a short >>while in America, she was beaten up for not reciting the "Pledge of >>Allegiance" in class everymorning. >>Pete Nicol >>Global Media Magnet >>nicol(a)iap.net.au ==================================================================== Although I agree that the U.S flag should not be burned (and yes I am also a veteran having served 8 years in the U.S Armed Forces), I can see other floks points in allowing the flag to be burned. I will never support it, yet since I served to keep the ability to choose a freedom that we enjoy, I do not oppose that sentiment. As to the Aussie that asked what the "fuck" we Americans give about whether or not our flag is burnt obviously does not understand how deep the grain of patriotism runs in American blood. It is something anomolous to riding a Harley. If we have to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand. In my mind it shows how little value the Aussies (or at least this particular one) place on their solidarity as a nation and belief in their own country. I place a HIGH value on my country and countrymen. (women too :-) ) That is why I get so upset when I see the degradation that is eating this country alive. All the values that made this country as powerful and great as it is are slowly being rotted away by some sort of malignant cancer that I can not fathom. I understand that The Cleavers are a concept that can never truly be lived up to, yet even if we came as close as Family Ties, I'd be happy! Some folks say that this is a symptom of too much freedom. I am inclined to agree to a certain extent, we Americans seem to have lost the ability to control ourselves and severely overindulge our whims sometimes. Yet, that is something that we have fought long and hard for, losing many a brother, father, sister, mother, uncle, aunt, and so on. Let me ask you this? Why are there so many individuals from other countries killing themselves to come live here, like the Cambodians, Vietnamese, Russians, and such? I'll tell you why. Because this country has potential, and strength. What strentgh? The strength of it's countrymen. The strength of ideals that are worth living and fighting for. Privacy is one of those ideals. That is why this channel exists! To unite us together, to try to stop the loss of one of the central themes to America. The ability to be private. To maintain a sense of individualism not found in many, many parts of the world. We stand together for the right to be human! For the right to be individuals, not clones! I for one, shall never be a clone. Neither government nor fellow human shall force me to bend my knee in deference, when that deference has not been earned. The government is trying to do that right now. That is why they are trying to take our privacy, if the know all that goes on, then control is easier. Whether through fear or through willingness, they do not care. They only want control. And we can not, should not, and many will not allow that to happen! I have seen what happens in countries where total control over their people has been achieved. The results are not pretty. Listen, Look, Learn, Aussie! You just might understand!! David Downey Case(a)EarthCorp.com digital_matrix(a)hotmail.com http://www.earthcorp.com/case I am a human first, an American 2nd, and free most of all! --------------------------------------------------------- Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------

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Crypto News
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

25 June 1997: A Canadian company claims it has a unique product that can spur acceptance of biometric encryption. The Touchstone device, from Mytec Technologies Inc. of Toronto, includes a patented technology called Bioscrypt-a coded key or personal identification number that can be decoded only when the user's finger slides across a scanner. Mytec says it adds a layer of security to the fingerprint scanning methods typical at other vendors. "What we do is slide a finger across a scanner, which takes the information in the finger pattern and allows it to descramble the encrypted key," said George Tomko, chairman and co-founder of Mytec. The finger itself becomes essentially an encryption key and can be used in place of a personal identification number at a keyboard, automated teller machine, telephone, or to scramble data over the Internet. "With this kind of technology, everyone's finger is a potential encryption key," said Mr. Tomko. ---------- NetDox, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce has granted export approval for NetDox ePackage, a secure Internet document delivery service. This makes NetDox the first U.S. company authorized to offer businesses a global digital delivery service protected by 128-bit encryption over the Internet without providing clear text access to key recovery agents. ---------- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. decided Tuesday not to regulate stored-value cards. ---------- Two long reports on Netscape/Verisign's and Microsoft's approval for 128-bit products export. ---------- Above reports in full: http://jya.com/cn062597.txt ---------- For those who've not seen it we offer the bill introduced on June 19 by Representative Markey, "The "Communications Privacy and Consumer Empowerment Act": http://jya.com/hr1964.txt It has a provision for data security and pre-emption of government regulation of domestic encryption.

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The value of free speech...
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> "Philip A. Mongelluzzo" <phimon(a)ix.netcom.com> writes: > > > How do we deal with child pornography and free speech in such a way > > as to allow both to exist and insure our children are not exposed to > > pornographic material until they are at a maturity level where they > > can deal with it? > > > A battle that must be won without killing the enemy to > > insure continued free speech. Quite a challenge I think. Now, do > > you have any idea how to do that? When I was twelve years old a man stepped out of the proverbial dark alley in my small hometown and offered me twenty dollars to give him a blow-job. I said no. In retrospect, if he had offered me a thousand dollars, I might have recognized the value of free speech at a much earlier age than I eventually did. Also, my parents used to let me go to out-of-town hockey games with other kids and Father Flanigan, admonishing me, "Don't let him stick his hand in your pants." I didn't. Today's world may seem more dangerous, with a greater chance of children's contact with unknown entities/weirdos, but I find it hard to believe that there is greater saftey to be had by keeping children ignorant of information that goes beyond this or that boundary of morality/integrity/world-view/lifestyle. If your children see a picture of a young child with a dick in his or her mouth and don't see anything wrong with it, then I don't think the problem is with the picture. TruthMonger TruthMonger

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One Ryder Truck--One Vote
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greg Broiles wrote: > Many of the exhortations to the > public consist mostly of "Hey! Get involved! Vote!", even where this > passive "voting" stuff created the very problems which led to the > exhortations. Voting is the new Catch-22/Damned if you do, damned if you don't, etc, etc. It's time for a new non-candidate that is a cross between Pat Paulsen ("If elected, I will not serve.") and Abby Hoffmean ("Steal This Book."). My inclination is for a candidate named "Fuck You!", but I'm sure someone else can come up with a more creative candidate. (Q: "If elected, what will you do for me?" / A: "Fuck You!") > Sure, let's write memes. But let's write memes that encourage people to > solve their own problems and avoid the use of unnecessary force. Of course, in the real world even the use of the minimum force necessary will probably result in damage to windows in buildings adjoining the Congressional and Senate buildings. Me Again "Hard Weapons, Soft Targets, No Compromise."

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