December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Friedman (The Younger) Sings...
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wherein David Friedman teaches cryptoanarchy 101 to the folks at the Cato Institute. A RealAudio transcription from the Cato/Forbes ASAP conference on cryptography held earlier this year. Listen to this. It's important. Even if you know what he's gonna say already, it's a very good thing to have heard so you can point newbies to it. Cheers, RAH --- begin forwarded text To: rah(a)shipwright.com Subject: up your alley Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 12:11:39 -0500 From: Somebody Have you listened to http://www.novell.com/webcast/98/cato/crypto.ram ??? <somebody's .sig> --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 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'

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Hayek Quote of the Week - Rule of Law
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 12:17:05 EST Reply-To: Hayek Related Research <HAYEK-L(a)MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: Hayek Related Research <HAYEK-L(a)MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Hayek-L List Host <HayekList(a)AOL.COM> Subject: Hayek Quote of the Week - Rule of Law To: HAYEK-L(a)MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU Hayek Quote of the Week "It is often not recognized that general and equal laws provide the most effective protection against infringement of individual liberty, this is due mainly to the habit of tacitly exempting the state and its agents from them and of assuming that the government has the power to grant exemptions to individuals. The ideal of the rule of law requires that the state either enforce the law upon others -- and that this be its only monopoly -- or act under the same law and therefore be limited in the same manner as the private person. It is this fact that all rules apply equally to all, including those who govern, which makes it improbable that any oppressive rules will be adopted. It would be humanly impossible to separate effectively the laying-down of new general rules and their application to particular cases unless these functions were performed by different persons or bodies. This part of the doctrine of the separation of powers23 [fn23. See W. S. Holdsworth's review of the 9th edition of A. V. Dicey, _Constitution_, in the _Law Quarterly Review_, Vol. LV (1939), which contains one of the latest authoritative statements in England of the tradition conception of the rule of law. It deserves quotation at length, but we will reproduce only one paragraph here: 'The rule of law is as valuable a principle today as it has ever been. For it means that the Courts can see to it that the powers of officials, and official bodies of persons entrusted with government, are not exceeded and are not abused, and the rights of citizens are determined in accordance with the law enacted and unenacted. Insofar as the jurisdiction of the Courts is ousted, and officials or official bodies of persons are given a purely administrative discrection, the rule of law is abrogated. It is not abrogated if these officials or official bodies are given a judicial or quasi-judicial discretion, although the machinery through which the rule is applied is not that of the Courts.'] must therefore be regarded as an intergral part of the rule of law. Rules must not be made with particular cases in mind, nor must particular cases be decided in light of anything but the general rule -- though this rule may not yet have been explicityly formulated and therefore have to be discovered. This requires independent judges who are not concerned with the temporary ends of government ,,, " Friedrich Hayek, _The Constitution of Liberty_, Chicago: U. of Chicago. 1960. pp. 21-211. Hayek Quote of the Week is a regular feature of the Hayek-L list. --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 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'

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Felices Fiestas
by vdomingo＠medialabs.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Con mis mejores deseos de Felicidad y Prosperidad para el Año Nuevo. Víctor Domingo. Archivo Adjunto idea de mi amigo Antonio Montorio (http://villanos.net) _____________________ MediaLabs SuperMailer 2.5 http:\\www.medialabs.es\supermailer

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SNET: A Little Humor
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: BStokes45(a)aol.com Subject: SNET: A Little Humor Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 18:21:38 EST To: johnsonlm(a)prodigy.net, dstokes(a)wt.net, skeptichat(a)lists.sonic.net, wethepeople(a)onelist.com, NOEL123(a)juno.com, SNETNEWS(a)world.std.com, Roxrfun2me(a)aol.com -> SNETNEWS Mailing List Congress' Night Before Christmas "Twas the week before Christmas and those sly little elves, Our congressmen, labored to better themselves. They cared not a whit what the public might think "Let them eat cake," some said with a wink. And putting their thumbs to the tip of their nose, they waved as they shouted "Anything goes!" They scoffed at the thought that we might object, to a tax cut for the wealthy of a posh percent. They've got prerequisites-franking, per diem, and more -- bargain-priced haircuts and gyms (three or four!) Paid speaking engagements and meals on the cuff, celebrity status -- (they've sure got it tough!), Yet they claim they're in touch with the man on the street, as John Q. Public struggles to make both ends meet. If all workers decided what they were due, they'd be getting those fat paychecks too! But while we take cutbacks or raises quite small, and one out of 20 has no job at all, our millionaire Congress decides on the budget land trimming Medicare and Medicaid will do it, they say. In this season for giving, our Congress is taking. We've had it with them and our backs are breaking. With hard times, disasters, and layoffs on our dockets, we bit the bullet and they fill their pockets! Oh jobless, oh homeless, oh desperate and needy - dare anyone say our Congress is greedy? If in this feeling I'm not alone, take up your pen or pick up your phone. As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly, let the road of your anger mount to the sky. Indignant, outraged, appalled and beset let your congressman know that you won't forget! When election times comes -- and certain it will -- you're voting him out for passing that bill. More rapid than eagles, their elections assured they toasted each other and laughed at the herd. And I heard them exclaim with adjournment at hand, "Merry Christmas to us, and the public be damned! The Audit =========== A man, called to testify at the IRS, asked his accountant for advice on what to wear. "Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let him think you are a pauper," the accountant replied. Then he asked his lawyer the same question, but got the opposite advice. "Do not let them intimidate you. Wear your most elegant suit and tie." Confused, the man went to his Rabbi, told him of the conflicting advice, and requested some resolution of the dilemma. "Let me tell you a story," replied the Rabbi. "A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. 'Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck.' But when she asked her best friend, she got conflicting advice. Wear your most sexy negligee, with a V neck right down to your navel." The man protested: "What does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?" "No matter what you wear, you are going to get screwed." Does anyone find it strange that we can find humor in the truth? -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo(a)world.std.com -> Posted by: BStokes45(a)aol.com

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SNET: [Fwd: [FP] Biometric National ID Card Now A Reality]
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Lynford Theobald <telnet12(a)burgoyne.com> Subject: SNET: [Fwd: [FP] Biometric National ID Card Now A Reality] Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 08:51:19 -0700 To: "snetnews(a)world.std.com" <snetnews(a)world.std.com> -> SNETNEWS Mailing List This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------408C3A349997A1C52693F214 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Here is more on the same. LT --------------408C3A349997A1C52693F214 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: by bci for telnet12 (with Cubic Circle's cucipop (v1.21 1997/08/10) Sun Dec 13 20:32:27 1998) X-From_: owner-scan(a)efga.org Sun Dec 13 19:03:49 1998 Return-Path: <owner-scan(a)efga.org> Received: from inferno.serversystems.net (inferno.serversystems.net [207.15.209.253]) by burgoyne.com (8.8.7/8.8.6) with ESMTP id TAA04271 for <telnet12(a)burgoyne.com>; Sun, 13 Dec 1998 19:03:48 -0700 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by inferno.serversystems.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) id UAA00009 for scan-list.efga; Sun, 13 Dec 1998 20:14:22 -0500 Received: from alpha.airnet.net (page.airnet.net [207.120.51.2]) by inferno.serversystems.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA00006; Sun, 13 Dec 1998 20:14:18 -0500 Received: from scottmcd (209.64.77.41) by alpha.airnet.net (Worldmail 1.3.167); 13 Dec 1998 19:11:29 -0600 From: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds(a)airnet.net> To: "ScanThisNews Recipients List" <scan(a)efga.org> Subject: [FP] Biometric National ID Card Now A Reality Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 19:13:18 -0600 Message-ID: <000501be26fe$f051e480$294d40d1@scottmcd> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Importance: Normal Sender: owner-scan(a)efga.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: owner-scan(a)efga.org X-Web-Site: http://www.efga.org/ X-Mail-List-Info: http://efga.org/about/maillist/ X-SCAN: http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml ====================================================================== SCAN THIS NEWS 12/13/98 [forwarded from Larry Becraft] THE BIOMETRIC NATIONAL ID CARD IS NOW A REALITY... By Jon Christian Ryter Author of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AMERICA? and THE BAFFLED CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK America was rightfully alarmed in late September when Representatives Bob Barr (R-GA) and Ron Paul (TX) revealed the fact that somehow, unbeknown to anyone, and for some as yet unexplained reason, the National ID Card that Hillary Clinton, Marc Tucker and Ira Magaziner had adroitly concealed in the failed Health Security Act of 1994 had somehow "accidentally" been passed, in a somewhat illegal and unconstitutional fashion, and was now "the law of the land." Pictured (see link below) is the actual "Healthcare Passport" card currently being used in three American cities. Displayed is the front and back of that card. This photo was scanned from the brochure used by the National Institute of Health to introduce the new card in a seminar in Denver earlier this year. The word "passport" on the card had to have been a tongue-in-cheek addition, since it is the precursor of the internal passport that will ultimately control your ability to move freely throughout this great land. The card is biometric. Stored on this card is the complete medical history of the card's owner. Also stored on the card is every conceivable piece of information about that person. Imbedded in the card is a tracking devise. The plan to create and implement a National ID Card, while first made "public" in a private White House meeting on Nov. 11, 1993 and discussed in a disavowed protocol that detailed the dialogue of that meeting, is not uniquely a Clintonoid idea even though the National ID Card first appears innocuously concealed in the Health Security Act as a "healthcare benefits card" that the First Lady insisted had to be carried by every American--even if they refused to be covered by the plan--under penalty of law. The same card, in the form of a national driver's license, had just been mandated by the European Union for all of the new European States. A brief battle waged in Europe over the national driver's license. Most Europeans had experienced national identity cards in the past and realized quickly the new universal European driver's license was an internal passport that would give their new government the tool they needed to control their lives. The media immediately labeled those who resisted the EU driver's license as "globalphobes" who were against progress, and wanted to return Europe to the days of the cold war. They were the extremists. In the United States, the Clinton's knew a National ID Card spelled problems, regardless what name was put on it. However, as a healthcare card that provided each American with thousands of dollars of free medical care, they correctly surmised that the ramblings of the right wing zealots could be easily dismissed by the mainstream liberal media. The media did its job well. The Health Security Act was the best thing since sliced bread and peanut butter. According to the media, the Health Security Act would provide healthcare for the millions upon millions of uninsured Americans. The media even obliged by ignoring the obviously flawed cost assessments as well. Hillary demanded that Congress pass the Health Security Act without and changes--reminiscent of FDR's passing the "emergency legislation" that kicked off the New Deal without allowing members of Congress to even see the legislation they were voting on--and unconstitutionally granting Roosevelt almost dictatorial power over the United States. Congress wasn't buying. They read the Health Security Act. Then, they rejected it. It was, they declared, the most expensive social experiment in the world. Buried in the National Archives, in the working papers of the Hillary Clinton healthcare plan, was a game plan in the event the Health Security Act went down in flaming defeat. The game plan? Implement another healthcare act that provided healthcare for children. No one would dare deny healthcare to children. To introduce the plan, they called on Teddy Kennedy. Kennedy failed. Kennedy, they realized, was trusted by most Americans even less than the Clintons. Next they turned to Orrin Hatch, who teamed up with Kennedy and rammed the legislation through Congress. Healthcare for kids. Of course, everyone was in favor of it. Voting against it was a good way to lose an election. And, once the law was codified, the bureaucracy possessed the authority to simply expand it to include anyone and everyone. What was not in the legislation was funding to create a biometric health care card. The authority to do it was there, but not the money. For the money, the Clinton administration turned to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation, created by the founder of Johnson & Johnson, obliged and funded the experimental program which was kicked off in three western cities (noted above). What was introduced to members of the National Institute of Health in Denver as a card that will record the inoculation records of children, includes everything from DNA typing to that individual's medical, psychiatric and financial history. It was because the biometric card would also contain the psychiatric history of the cardholder that an employee of the National Institute of Health approached me and offered me the data that is contained in this report. In my initial meeting with the NIH employee, I was also told that this person had commented to a NIH executive that it was not good for the card to contain so much personal information that was not needed to monitor the rates of inoculation of the children covered by the program, since it would provide the government information that could easily be misused. At that point the NIH executive laughed and said: "What do you think we have do with the data we get from Medicare and Medicaid? We've been using it for years to apprehend and deport illegal aliens and to capture those wanted by the law." In the case of the Health Passport, which is the precursor of the National Driver's License that will go into affect nationwide on October 1, 2000, however, the is one added feature--it contains a tracking chip. At a recent National Institute of Health seminar, an NIH executive proudly displayed an electronic map created by the NIH computer technicians that pinpointed every Health Passport card holder in Denver, Colorado. It was a "living map" that would track each Health Passport card holder if and when they moved. Whether or not such a map had been created for the other two "pilot" cities is not known. NOTE: Before I left Washington this afternoon, I spoke for about a half hour with Stan Johnson of the Prophecy Club, and emailed Stan a copy of the Heath Passport Card. Stan has additional information on this subject, particularly with respect to a new computer mainframe that the government recently installed in Denver that ties in with the information I have been receiving from my own source in the National Institute of Health. Apparently this is the planned topic for the Prophecy Club's radio talk show next Monday (and because it is, I will not reveal any of the revelations that Stan shared with me on the phone this afternoon. I would strongly urge you to visit Stan's website for additional information. http://www.prophecyclub.com/ --------------------------------------------- http://www.westgov.org/hpp/hpp-web.htm HEALTH PASSPORT A Project of the Western Governors' Association - Frequently Asked Questions - Introduction to the Health Passport Project What is the Health Passport Project? The Health Passport Project is a three-city demonstration that uses what is called a "smart card" to put important health-related information at the fingertips of mothers and their children. People participating in the demonstration are those eligible for care under public health programs. The Health Passport Project is the largest health-care demonstration in the United States for smart cards and will be conducted over two years in the cities of Bismarck, North Dakota; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Reno, Nevada. The project will demonstrate how people can use these electronic cards to give up-to-date information to their health-care providers, including physicians, nurses, nutritionists and early childhood educators. Food Retailers Grocers who handle thousands of checks for nutrition benefits will find the new system involves less paperwork, results in quicker check-out, and provides more timely reimbursement. The Health Passport works like a bank card at the check-out counter. Benefits are automatically downloaded to the client's card at the retailer. Distribution of WIC benefits will be demonstrated in Reno and Cheyenne. More About the Demonstrations Which public health programs are participating? --- Bismarck, North Dakota The Family Doctors, Bismarck Burleigh Nursing, WIC, Head Start, Immunizations, Medicaid, the Optimal Pregnancy Outcome Program, and Maternal and Child Health Bertie Bishop (701) 255-3397 --- Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne Children's Clinic, the University of Wyoming Family Practice Residency Center, Laramie County Public Health Nursing, Medicaid, WIC, Head Start, Maternal and Child Health, and Immunizations Terry Williams (307) 777-6008 --- Reno, Nevada WIC, Immunizations, and Head Start Marty Brown (702) 883-6992 ------------------------------------------------- http://www.westgov.org/hpp/ http://www.westgov.org/wga/publicat/hppsum.htm Health Passport Information Technology: Toward a Health Card for the West "Congress is considering the most sweeping changes to the delivery of social services since the New Deal. In this environment, the Health Passport presents an innovative tool to help ensure the continued delivery of critical services to low income women and children--even as government sponsored programs are consolidated or eliminated. While devolution of authority to the states is expected to reduce duplicative federal administrative structures, the debate in Washington has done little to provide practical solutions. The Health Passport offers a tool to help achieve these administrative savings empowering citizens and preserving the integrity of services." ======================================================================= Don't believe anything you read on the Net unless: 1) you can confirm it with another source, and/or 2) it is consistent with what you already know to be true. ======================================================================= Reply to: <fingerprint(a)networkusa.org> ======================================================================= To subscribe to the free Scan This News newsletter, send a message to <majordomo(a)efga.org> and type "subscribe scan" in the BODY. Or, to be removed type "unsubscribe scan" in the message BODY. For additional instructions see www.efga.org/about/maillist.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Scan This News" is Sponsored by S.C.A.N. Host of the "FIGHT THE FINGERPRINT!" web page: www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml ======================================================================= --------------408C3A349997A1C52693F214-- -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo(a)world.std.com -> Posted by: Lynford Theobald <telnet12(a)burgoyne.com>

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politically correct bomb graffiti
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

..way too amusing.. Pentagon Decries U.S. Bomb Graffiti Tuesday, December 22, 1998; 1:24 a.m. EST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Department officials said Monday they were distressed about ``thoughtless graffiti'' referring to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on a Navy bomb being prepared for dropping on Iraq. The Associated Press last Saturday transmitted a photograph of a 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in the Persian Gulf waiting to be loaded on F-14 and F-18 jet fighters. The bomb bore several inscriptions, including one that said, ``Here's a Ramadan present from Chad Rickenberg.'' ``Department of Defense officials were distressed to learn of thoughtless graffiti mentioning the holy month of Ramadan written on a piece of U.S. ordnance during Operation Desert Fox'' in Iraq, chief Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said in a statement. ``Religious intolerance is an anathema to Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and to all Americans who cherish the right to worship freely,'' he added. ``The United States deeply respects Islam. We are grateful for our good relations with Arab and Islamic peoples, and we appreciate the important contributions of Muslim-Americans to the U.S. military and to our nation as a whole. ``I know our people in uniform respect and appreciate religious practices different from their own. This incident is a rare exception that does not reflect American policy or values.''

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You Have Won World Class Florida/Caribbean Vacation Package!
by ABDULRAZAQ＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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dbts: Georecursive Auctions (was Re: Friedman (The Younger)Sings...)
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 4:01 PM -0500 on 12/21/98, Somebody wrote: > > If it's on my hard drive, it ain't yours anymore, in other > > words. > > What are the assumptions? Assuming that you were given what is on your hard > drive, or can you have procured it by any means, like piracy, theft, etc. :-). I'm going to do a real rant on this, someday Real Soon Now, and you can see the germ of the idea in Freidman's talk, and in my old Shipwright rants <http://www.shipwright.com/>, and also, I think, on the Philodox site <http://www.philodox.com/>. More to the point, we all, as far as I can tell, stole it from Eric Hughes, who even went so far as to present a paper on the subject, long ago at a DEFCON far away. Who knows where *he* got it from, but that's enough geneology for the time being... The point I'm making above comes from Ronald Coase, the father of modern microeconomics, winner of Nobel for same, circa 1992?. The most important thing that Coase said, the thing which got him the Nobel, was that firm size was directly related to transaction cost. In an information economy, especially in a world of Moore's law (yielding increasingly geodesic networks, and the markets overlaid on them) and strong cryptography (digital bearer transactions, perfect pseudonymity, etc.), tranaction costs get *very* small indeed, and in a considerable hurry. To some, I believe clueless :-), people, the above means that we still get economies of scale, because the first copy of a given modern bloatware application, like Word for Windows, is enormously expensive compared to its replication cost, which is functionally free by comparison, even if you put a box around it, much less if you just put it up for download from the web. However, *I* say that if you can do profitable transactions in, say, the micropenny range, you get a world where the bloated, industrially-delivered code-in-boxes that we've all come to know and love starts to surfact, under its own weight, into smaller and smaller functional bits, each maintained by different, and much smaller, firms. I use open source software as my case in point. Notice that, since the cost of code itself is free, there is a huge, and expanding, diversity of very specialized code out there now. The writers of that code don't make any money on that code except by proxy, through enhanced reputation, and so forth. However, if you could drive the cost of *transactions* down, people *would* write code just for the money, and simply auction it off their websites to the highest bidder, and could do so, profitably, for rediculously cheap prices. More about that in a minute. Sure, Red Hat grosses $20 million, but that's more a function of the cost-domination of sneaker-netted CDROM over the still-scrawny lower capillaries of the internet. More to the point, I claim, it's the result of the cost of *credit-cards*, even *checks*, as a way to pay for code. Book-entry settlement, in other words, which is done "out of band", over private, hierarchical, and proprietary financial transaction networks. If it were possible to pay to download code, as you needed it, for instantaneously net-settled *cash*, and for sufficiently small enough bits of money, then the need, the price-economy, if you will, for large glops of code would go away. And, Coase's theorem says (I think) so too would the large firms required to generate those large glops of code. So, what we're left with is a world where the legalities of intellectual property are physically impossible to enforce, thus words like "privacy" cease to have any real meaning. If you can't enforce such an intellectual "property" law, it's kind of hard to call it a law, as most law professors and philosophers of law will tell you. Ironically, I claim, that's a very strong form of a *second* observation that Ronald Coase made, that you can't have markets without private property. Sounds like a motherhood, now, but he was the first person to articulate that clearly, back in the early part of this century, and it's one of the reasons he got the Nobel, of course. *My* variant on Coase says that you don't need *laws* to ensure private property in digital form. Cryptography will do just fine. Like I said, if it's encrypted, and it's on my hard drive, it's now *mine* no matter where I got it, laws or not. I mean, who's to know I have it to begin with, and, more to the point, who's going to take it away without my permission, especially in a world of encrypted offsite net.backups, m-of-n archival reconstruction, etc. Write software, not laws, to quote the my old cypherpunk chestnut. Yet, I claim, to finally answer your point :-), people who *make* new code in such abrave new world, *still* make the most money. No, not "publish", or even distribute new code, like Microsoft and Ingram do, but the actual guy plinking away in CodeWarrior, or whatever. The mind behind the code, the developer, let's call him, in a proper use of the now mostly corrupted word. Here's how. You write software for a living. You upgrade your existing code base, and you announce its availablity to the net. Everyone who has your code knows how good your work is, and they probably have a standing bid in to buy revs of it at some specific price, anyway. So, just like the specialist's book at the New York Stock Exchange, you, or your website's CGI, accepts those bids, highest to lowest, and, as new bids come in, you sort them into the queue of outstanding orders, by price, of course, :-), and accept them in that order. Notice something important, but obvious, here. The people who bid the highest get the first copy. We'll worry about Vickery variations on that auction some other time. Secondly, there's the fun part, the *recursive* part of "geodesic recursive" or neologically, and, this very afternoon, "georecursive", auctions. That is, if I paid a monster pile for the first copy, I must have such a profitable need for it that it's worth it to me to pay that much. Of course, one of the most profitable things I can do especially in a world where the net isn't quite geodesic enough yet, and Freidman hints at this in his Cato talk, is to *flip* that code. Frankly, this is nothing really now. It's done identically the same way that large institutions flip IP0's in the market for a hot stock, or, more properly, a recording company or software "publisher" puts "talent" under contract and remarkets their output in classical vertically-integrated, and I say, now-industrial, markets for those goods. So, back to the future, I pay through the nose to get to the first copy of your code, because I have an orderbook of my *own* to fill, and, more properly, I have sufficient bandwidth and processing power of my own to remarket it. Even more fun, someone *else* can buy from me, and resell what I sell them, *recursively*, ad infinitum, and, frankly I don't really *care* what they do with what I sold them, because I've already bought low and sold high. I claim, even with all this rampant "piracy", and, especially as the network gets more geodesic -- a process which these markets would probably *accellerate* by the way think what would happen if you could sell bandwidth this way -- the person who collects the most economic "rent" would be *you*, the originator of the new code. Just like a rock star, if the code was popular enough, but without the recording company. Well, actually, with lots of very *little* record *distributors*, all taking a haircut, and, rarely would any of them make anything near like what you made selling the first copies. I mean, new information always costs more than old information, right? And, of course, you, as a developer, will always have the *newest* information of all... Finally, it even behoves huge companies who control large blocks of intellectual property, record companies, and Microsoft, for instance, :-), to compete in this new kind of market, precisely *because* the the transaction costs are so low and the initial profit margins are correspondingly higher. It's *profitable* to play in this market, even when you're losing market share, paradoxically, to smaller players. Think of what happened to large movie studios in the 1960's and '70's, and how they were replaced, in the *production* of movies, by director-owned, mostly ad-hoc, "virtual" production companies, like Coppola's Zoetrope, or Speilburg's Amblin, or Lucasfilm/ILM. Even the new "studios", like Dreamworks/SKG are really director-run enterprizes (Spielburg and Geffen, remember?). The "directors", the "auteurs" of software, are pretty much the guys who write the code, yes? Everything else is just transaction cost. Cheers, Robert Hettinga -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.5 iQEVAwUBNn7OucUCGwxmWcHhAQFidwf+MZ8SLZffWvH7g+QMY6Q2Q3P4flVkEVpr keXiF7cXXKlv/zL48wX1fjan93MMwN65b9/o7aIe1Wvq1nQfFE1AhPaShYZwciz9 NpInA2+9Mrz30cU4Nj775gXHfCaFl68tUmKd8GwUBI4rwjrHKgFy5hFSWlxNQSFF yQ8idMnmC7fSIELZJOurejYM90nA4z9QZZibekVuP+u3e6ogkclCS8m3e3QznpWY yCTYHqFFc5JHHEHc4PCOALWei74/rTRVvaziEU3QQCvytXgsZu2j0OLkpukc4zqb eJD/+Zkc3d1pfTqxaR4tLatr+QXVEuxozwz3nyoo3mzfd0LbKdBdnA== =kKXa -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 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'

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No Subject
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

i got a mail message delivered by the friendly old postal service, from Toto. he says he has been elected Santa Calus (aka Santa Loco) of Yucca South CellBlock, at FCI-Tuscon but 'Santa is in The Hole (TM).' he is or at least was sharing a cell with a skinhead called 'reaper.' but reaper has 'great reading material' - such as GQ magaazine - so it's 'not as grim as it might seem.' he says he has come down with a skin condition that is still untreated by the prison authorities. his toto-eque notes to the prison staff on 'inmate request' forms don't seem to be helping. that's all.

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Amazing New Virus from NAI!!!
by remailer＠rugratz.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Network Associates has just announced an NT virus which spreads over LAN/WANs. Fortunately, there is a solution. To speak to an NAI customer service representative, please call 800 338-8754. * Written in "C", an initial estimates is that it took NAI programmers 200 or more man-hours to write. Fortunately, there is a solution. To speak to an NAI customer service representative, please call 800 338-8754. Remember, there's a FREE Solution for Licensed NAI Corporate Customers Or If you are not a Licensed NAI Customer, just click to purchase the necessary anti-virus products online on our handy webpage. http://www.nai.com/antivirus/remote_explorer.asp Network Associates: The company you can trust, because we bought out Phil Zimmermann! Copyright (C) 1998 by Your Friends at Network Associates

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