December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: The Grand Compromise is Coming
by Blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:01 AM 6/25/97 -0700, Tim May wrote: >We need to get beyond the sentimentality of concentrating on the >"innocents" and instead coldly analyze what needs to be done, and then do >it. ................................................................ After having done what needs to be done, would you then be open to letting any of the remaining, surviving innocents be apprised of who it was almost done them in? .. Blanc

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Re: The Grand Compromise is Coming
by Blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:01 AM 6/25/97 -0700, Tim May wrote: >We need to get beyond the sentimentality of concentrating on the >"innocents" and instead coldly analyze what needs to be done, and then do >it. ................................................................ After having done what needs to be done, would you then be open to letting any of the remaining, surviving innocents be apprised of who it was almost done them in? .. Blanc

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Re: LOSE MONEY FAST!!
by Blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Gosh, this sounds a lot like Detweiler: lots of EXCLAMATIONS and vague, circulating references to unrecognizeable entities, full of recriminating psychological accusations intended to elicit a sense of underlying guilt for some kind of immoral attitude. Think he'd make a good lawyer. .. Blanc

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SAFE: Intl Relations Committee
by geeman＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- fyi --- does anyone know for sure what the amendments are/were? SECURITY AND FREEDOM THROUGH ENCRYPTION (SAFE) ACT Committee on International Relations: Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade approved for full Committee action amended H.R. 695, Security and Freedom Through Encryption (SAFE) Act. anyone know what happened in the Senate Judiciary today?

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Digital Signatures
by patrick van eecke 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and Information Technology from the University of Leuven is currently carrying out a study on the legal aspects of Digital Signatures. The current and draft legislation, policies and practices of the European Member States as well as the EC's most important trading partners is being investigated and analysed. Final aim of the study is to provide tools for a common European legal instrument regarding Digital Signatures. More information about the project and important links you can find on the website: http://www.law.kuleuven.ac.be/icri/

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Another shoe drops
by Brad Dolan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Raids Against 'Interim' Autonomist Zine In Berlin On June 12, 1997, more than 500 police in Berlin carried out a series of raids aimed at criminalizing the weekly autonomist publication 'Interim'. State agents searched several houses in the Berlin districts of Friedrichshain, Neukolln, and Kreuzberg. Several individuals were charged with various felonies including "rewarding or supporting illegal actions". Police also raided several printing presses. A successful criminalization of the Interim would, in practical terms, be much more of a blow to the German radical-left than the recent state campaign against the underground publication Radikal, because whereas Radikal has only been sporadically published over the past few years, Interim has appeared *every week* since the late 1980s. Published as a forum for discussion for Berlin's radical-left autonome scene, the magazine has political relevance all across Germany, as it provides an anonymous forum for publishing communiques from militant action groups, mobilizations for demonstrations, and debates on politics and strategy. The following is a translation of a statement issued by Interim following the recent raids. --- "You Can't Ban A Concept" Statement From Interim Magazine - June 12, 1997 Interim has been published weekly for nine years. State surveillance, repression, and investigations have not stopped it from appearing. The 1995 Verfassungsschutzbericht' [annual report from Germany's Office to Protect the Constitution] stated that "a high degree of trust and discipline among the makers of the magazine" have prevented the authorities from being able to close it down. But now the powers that be feel they can do just that. Therefore, we'd like to say the following: 1. There is no permanent Interim editorial group, nor a fixed publishing location. The magazine is continually made and put together by different people. 2. If any papers were found anywhere during the police raids which also appeared in the Interim, that doesn't mean a thing. The Interim has a public mailing address, anyone can send us papers or documents, and as far as we know, it's not a crime to receive mail. 3. The cops dismantled printing presses, confiscated computers and files, filed charges against individuals. It's ridiculous to think that this will stop the Interim. Because the Interim is a communications CONCEPT: uncensored, according to the law, published according to its own rules in the interest of an anonymous exchange about theory and praxis of undogmatic left-radical politics. As long as the ruling powers are bent on destroying society, a radical resistance movement will be necessary, and it's not possible for a discussion of this necessity to take place within the boundaries of the laws of the powers that be. If Schonbohm [former General, now Interior Minister in Berlin] tries to stop our communication exchange by confiscations and arrests, he might just as well try to handcuff a mountain stream. If forced to operate entirely outside of legal boundaries, that's what we'll do, and there will always be people willing to make this communications concept possible and who can run it and diversify it. 4. We view the raids against part of the Interim's structures at this point in time as a flanking maneuver in the war which Schonbohm and Ladowski have declared. At a time when resistance to their cleansing policies is increasing - inner-city actions, university congresses, mobilizations by squatters, the homeless, and immigrants - the state wants to eliminate the forum by which all these forms of resistance can be linked together. Even if we aren't able to continue the discussion about our politics (our politicians??), one thing is clear: Schonbohm has declared war, and we will react. Repression breeds revolts. We promise that the next issue of the Interim will be published on time, with the theme of how we can go on the offensive against those who want to cleanse the city [before it becomes Germany's capital again]. All those who wish to participate in this discussion will find ways of getting their texts to the Interim. Interim - Weekly Berlin Info --- Interim On The Internet In order to do something about the criminalization of the Interim, Trend Online in Berlin has set up a Solidarity Homepage for the publication with news about the recent raids, and we at Arm The Spirit have set up a mirrorsite. This is to be seen as an expansion of the publication, not a substitute for it. Interim is a weekly hardcopy publication and plans to stay that way. Trend Online's Interim Solidarity Page: http://www.berlinet.de/trend/interim/ Arm The Spirit's Interim Mirror Site: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/INTERIM/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective based in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation materials on our listserv called ATS-L. For more information, contact: Arm The Spirit P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada E-mail: ats(a)etext.org WWW: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats ATS-L Archives: http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l MRTA Solidarity Page: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit

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LaMacchia's Revenge, from The Netly News (fwd)
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 05:47:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan(a)well.com> To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Subject: LaMacchia's Revenge, from The Netly News http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1107,00.html The Netly News Network June 25, 1997 LaMacchia's Revenge by Declan McCullagh (declan(a)well.com) David LaMacchia's pirate warez site once hummed quietly along on a DECstation 5000 just down the hall from the study lounge on the top floor of MIT's Stratton Student Center. LaMacchia claims its original purpose was to let visiting netizens exchange software. But soon -- either inevitably or intentionally, depending on whom you believe -- more and more copyrighted programs began to appear. This was enough to prompt the federal government to charge the MIT undergraduate in April 1994 with the crime of wire fraud. The indictment argued that his FTP-like site permitted "on an international scale, the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted software, without payment of software licensing fees." Yet a federal judge dismissed the case that December, ruling that while LaMacchia was wrong -- and could be sued in civil court -- the aspiring computer scientist was not guilty as charged. Judge Richard Stearns said, "It is not clear that making criminals of a large number of consumers of computer software is a result that even the software industry would consider desirable." Guess again. A group of software companies, including Microsoft and Adobe, yesterday requested new laws to eliminate what they termed the "LaMacchia decision" problem. When a warez site operates for free -- as most do -- companies currently must sue for damages in a civil court. In other words, giving that copy of Quake to your dad is not -- yet -- a federal felony. [...]

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CDA Overturned
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

06/26/1997 10:07 EST Court Nixes Internet Smut Provision WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress violated free-speech rights when it tried to curb smut on the Internet, the Supreme Court ruled today. In its first venture into cyberspace law, the court invalidated a key provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

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CDA Overturned - AP Write through 9-0
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

9-0 I called it. 06/26/1997 10:16 EST Court Nixes Internet Smut Provision WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress violated free-speech rights when it tried to curb smut on the Internet, the Supreme Court ruled today. In its first venture into cyberspace law, the court invalidated a key provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Congress' effort to protect children from sexually explicit material goes too far because it also would keep such material from adults who have a right to see it, the justices unanimously said. The law made it a crime to put adult-oriented material online where children can find it. The measure has never taken effect because it was blocked last year by a three-judge court in Philadelphia. ``We agree with the three-judge district court that the statute abridges the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment,'' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court. ``The (Communications Decency Act) is a content-based regulation of speech,'' he wrote. ``The vagueness of such a regulation raises special First Amendment concerns because of its obvious chilling effect on free speech.'' ``As a matter of constitutional tradition ... we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it,'' Stevens wrote. Sexually explicit words and pictures are protected by the Constitution's First Amendment if they are deemed indecent but not obscene.

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NEWS.COM - Rumor Mill
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

No Freeh lunch? http://www.news.com/Rumors/0,29,,00.html At the end of the article... While hackers were getting busy, the crypto honchos were getting dissed in D.C. Apparently, a group of bigwigs, including Louis Freeh of the FBI, William Crowell of NSA, Peter Neumann of SRI, and Ray Ozzie of Lotus, flew all the way out to the nation's capital for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on cryptography, only to be informed 20 minutes before the meeting that it had been canceled. Grumbling ensued as the various participants stormed back to Dulles airport. The meeting may pick up after the July 4 recess.

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