December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Talk of Banning Research into Human Cloning
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This has some tangential list relevance in that it involves the Brave New World, so to speak, of the government deciding what research is legal and what is not. Clinton is asking Congress to ban research into human cloning. Importantly, this is not a proposal to cut federal funding of such efforts, as this would be unexceptionable (except to certain obscurantists). That is, the NSF or HHS or NIH or whatever is free to not fund all sorts of research projects. (Obviously many of us would cut nearly all such funding.) No, Clinton is asking for Congress to *ban* such research, regardless of where the funding came from. "Clone a cell, go to jail." "Clinton's proposal would make illegal any attempt to create a human being using the so-called somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that produced Dolly the sheep, in which an adult cell was fused with an egg. " Though I'm not a constitutional expert, this would seem to me to be a violation of various rights. A First Amendment right to speak and publish as one wishes for one, a Fourth Amendment right against search and seizure and to be secure in one's papers, and probably more general rights that have long-held that government agents cannot tell people what books they may read, what thinking they may do, and whom they may asssociate with (if the Civil Rights Act is viewed as the unconstitutional anomaly it is). Only a very few types of research are banned. And these are all ostensibly "national security" areas. Namely, chemical and biological warfare research, heavily regulated (private companies can do such research, but only with government approval, supervision, and generally _for_ the government). And nuclear weapons research (probably as part of the Atomic Energy Act). (If anyone can think of other "bans on research," besides weapons areas, let me know.) But a ban on cloning research would not be a matter of "national security," only of ethics and religious beliefs. Whatever the arguments for banning unapproved research into CBW and nuclear weapons, banning cloning research is an entirely different set of issues. Will Congress pass such a ban? Unknown. (They didn't pass the last such ban Clinton asked for.) Will the Supreme Court hear the case if such a ban is passed and then challenged? Unknown. Any implications for crypto? If Congress can successfully make certain types of science illegal, felonizing the search for truth, why not a ban on certain types of mathematics research? --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Talk of Banning Research into Human Cloning (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 12:32:18 -0800 > From: Tim May <tcmay(a)got.net> > Subject: Talk of Banning Research into Human Cloning > (If anyone can think of other "bans on research," besides weapons areas, > let me know.) Class 1 drugs. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Sun to fight MS w/ new workstations [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > New Unix workstations, lower pricing seen as bulwark against Microsoft > NT > > January 12, 1998: 1:11 p.m. ET > > Java goes to set-top boxes - Jan. 9, 1998 > > Sun cross-pollinates Intel - Dec. 16, 1998 > > More related sites... PALO ALTO, Calif.(Reuters) - Sun Microsystems > Inc. will launch a new line of workstations Tuesday, aiming to > challenge its rivals and blunt the spread into markets for > high-powered desktop computers used by engineers of PCs using > Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT. > [INLINE] The new workstations are the result of a two-year effort by > Sun to design products that greatly reduce the cost of the computers > used by power-hungry engineers, while still providing the blistering > performance they demand. > [INLINE] "This is really big. We think we can create an alternative to > [PCs running] NT," Ed Zander, president of Sun Microsystems Computer > Co., the company's largest division, said in an interview with Reuters > ahead of the announcement. [text deleted] ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Re: Congratulations!
by nobody＠nsm.htp.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>To: Anonymous <anon(a)anon.efga.org> >cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com, abuse(a)MCI.Com, >hostmaster(a)cyber-dyne.com Ha, ha, ha! who CC'd the "Congratulations" thread to those addresses?? <LOL> (would they know how to smurf d00d?) This list gets fucking better!

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USPS loosing business to email [CNN]
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > U.S. POSTAL SERVICE LOSING BUSINESS TO COMPUTERS > > e-mail vs. snail mail January 12, 1998 > Web posted at: 3:25 p.m. EST (2025 GMT) > > NEW YORK (CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service is facing stiff > competition from computers, according to an article in the January > 19 issue of Time Magazine. > > Electronic mail could replace 25 percent of conventional mail, or > "snail mail," by the year 2000, the article said. > > The Postal Service lags behind Federal Express and United Parcel > Service in shipping packages. The latter already moves 80 percent of > the country's packages, according to the article. [text deleted] ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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DCSB: Michael Baum; PKI and the Commercial CA
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Michael S. Baum VeriSign, Inc. PKI Requirements from a Commercial CA's Perspective Tuesday, February 3, 1997 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Requirements for the provision of commercial certification products and services are under consideration by many companies. Similarly, efforts to regulate certification authorities (CAs) and public key infrastructure (PKI) are proliferating by many domestic and foreign governments. Underlying many of these efforts is the intention to assess and assure quality and trustworthiness, and yet the nature, scope and regime to accomplish these goals remain elusive or at least have been balkanized. This presentation will consider CA and PKI requirements from the experiences and perspective of a commercial CA. It will survey current approaches to ascertaining quality and performance as well as their limitations. It will then propose a path forward. Many of these issues are present real challenges to both the CAs and the user community. A lively dialog is welcomed. Michael S. Baum is Vice President of Practices and External Affairs, VeriSign, Inc. His responsibilities include developing practices and controls under which VeriSign conducts its public Digital ID and private label certificate operations. Mr. Baum is the Chair of the Information Security Committee, and Council Member of the Section of Science and Technology, of the American Bar Association. He is Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ETERMS Working Party and a Vice Chairman of the ICC's Electronic Commerce Project, a delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on behalf of the ICC. He is a member of various digital signature legislative advisory committees. Mr. Baum is co-author (with Warwick Ford) of Secure Electronic Commerce (Prentice Hall, 1997), author of Federal Certification Authority Liability and Policy - Law and Policy of Certificate-Based Public Key and Digital Signatures (NIST, 1994), co-author of Electronic Contracting, Publishing and EDI Law (Wiley Law Publications, 1991), and contributing author to EDI and the Law (Blenheim Online, 1989), and the author of diverse information security publications including the first American articles on EDI law. He was honored as an EDI Pioneer in 1993 (EDI Forum) and was the Recipient of the National Notary Association's 1995 Achievement Award. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, February 3, 1997, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $32.50. This price includes lunch, room rental, various A/V hardware, and the speaker's lunch. ;-). The Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men (and no sneakers or jeans), and "appropriate business attire" (whatever that means), for women. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your lunch if the Club finds you in violation of the dress code. We will attempt to record this meeting for sale on CD/R, and to put it on the web in RealAudio format, at some future date. We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, January 31st, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $32.50. Please include your e-mail address, so that we can send you a confirmation If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: March Joseph Reagle "Social Protocols": Meta-data and Negotiation in Digital Commerce April Adam Shostack Digital Commerce Security: Beyond Firewalls May Jeremey Barrett Digital Bearer Certificate Protocols We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Commmittee, care of Robert Hettinga, <mailto: rah(a)shipwright.com>. For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to <mailto: majordomo(a)ai.mit.edu> . We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Robert Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.3 iQEVAwUBNLutasUCGwxmWcHhAQGiBwf6A7rhL5aztElh5nDDLgGU7vjBdXuryH+x OKnzXLE5364SLIr5KoRIfjRU0WB07jtB8bKeaE9DeiZbSC5i6QODmzK3cBfljVUx Ju5pBKeTwcvVtDXzcBjB9swL2TvNtv77x7dQLitZmziMjgX2tUR1yPhdbRnsJ0kl 8kBuWl681sh3oPEq4fGXTVDcP/vx31riZkZHhVcFHG/vyfR4eUznKe0lq1L1babb mwro6uPZ0W5Sy6F9rllqdPVbXGTh6LxlGwWbcBf9oO8+D+HAZAtjNm80WhtpN8aF Kbd115jJgkxdUlBeU44gib1r2ViV0rvNBI6sW/jwyUzYGQYhnyDJpg== =2cOQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Feds to Idaho: Kiss Our Butts
by Eric Cordian 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The manslaughter case against Ruby Ridge shooter Lon Horiuchi was effectively neutered today when a federal judge acquiesed to demands by Justice Department lawyers and moved the case out of Idaho's jurisdiction and into federal court. This means that Horiuchi will be tried in federal court in front of a federal jury on state manslaughter charges, and not in front of a jury from Idaho's Boundary County, where the shooting took place. This ruling, by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, came just six days after Boundary County Magistrate Quentin Harden ordered Horiuchi to stand trial. State manslaughter charges had been filed against Horiuchi for the death of Vicki Weaver in August. The Justice Department, which has denied that Horiuchi did anything wrong, provided the lawyers who argued that any case in which federal agents are acting in their official capacity may be transferred and tried in federal court, in front of a federal jury. The trial is scheduled to begin March 10. Horiochi has continued to work for the FBI since the charges were filed. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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Trial jurisdiction options
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ARTICLE III. Section 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; -- to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls; -- to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; -- to Controversies between two or more States; -- between a State and Citizens of another State; -- between Citizens of different States; -- between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States; -- and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects. In all Cases, affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Re: rant on the morality of confidentiality
by Blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mad Vlad wants to know: >something most anarchists here will deny is the existence of something >that could be called *immoral science*. is there such a thing? ............................................................ No. There are, however, immoral scientists. One way to skew the interpretations of what you write, besides bringing up the subject of morality, is to describe things in ways which do not correspond to their actual manner of existence: "science" does not exist without those individuals who have set themselves to pursue it. They should bear the blame if they practice it immorally. You again have brought up several issues which can be examined separately and do not necessarily coexist: . being a scientist . pretending to be scientific . choosing to pursue science . being smart enough to pursue scientific research . being successful in the scientific pursuit of truths . giving a damn about the consequences of the effects of research as it affects humanity or other living things (as when it is imposed upon them) . responsibility in science . responsibility in science as practiced by mendicants of the State . the regulation of responsibility per se . the regulation of the methods of science . the support of irresponsible scientific methods, by slaves of the State . anarchist cypherpunkery I become exceedingly uncomfortable at the realization that I have to buy an astronomy magazine from the store, paying yet again for info, in order to find out some of what they're doing at NASA. To think that a responsible citizen like myself must go out searching for the info themselves, using whatever resources they can find or pay for, in order to become informed! There are all sorts of things that government employees do not "share" with those who pay the bills. There is a book in Objectivist literature which presents the idea of "context dropping", which is, that in order for some people to function as if things were normal and that what they're doing is consistent with moral principles, they must drop a part of their information out of sight, out of thought, so that their actions appear logically related and make sense - they eliminate elements from the given context, crucial essentials which make the difference in its character. People like these might practice secrecy in keeping information from others, but equally significant, they also hide things from themselves. So that's one thing which would explain some scientist's lack of moral principles in the pursuit of science. Then it must be explained why so many people aren't complaining about it. Are they insensitive to their mistreatment, sitting ducks for opportunists? Or maybe these taxpayers are equally immoral, thinking only about promised benefits, forgetting about the disadvantage of losing control over the quality of their life? It's possible for some people to override the boundaries of decency, even if they're otherwise smart enough to pursue science. But what would you expect cryptographers to do about it? .. Blanc

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Federal govt. & Science - Const. limits
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Congress has *no* authority to ban *any* scientific research. In fact they are specificaly enjoined to *promote* it. Section 8. The Congress shall have Power... [text deleted] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; [remainder deleted] ARTICLE IX. The enumeration of the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make | | violent revolution inevitable. | | | | John F. Kennedy | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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