September 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Satellite Tracking of Suspects Requires a Warrant, Court Rules
by R. A. Hettinga 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

Didn't they do this kind of thing to Jim Bell? Cheers, RAH ------- <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/12/national/12GPS.html?th=&pagewanted=print&…> The New York Times September 12, 2003 Satellite Tracking of Suspects Requires a Warrant, Court Rules By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LYMPIA, Wash., Sept. 11 (AP) - The police cannot attach a Global Positioning System tracker to a suspect's vehicle without a warrant, the Washington Supreme Court said today in the first such ruling in the nation. The court refused, however, to overturn the murder conviction of the man who brought the appeal, William B. Jackson, who unknowingly led the police to the shallow grave of his 9-year-old daughter in 1999 after a G.P.S. device was attached to his vehicle. Spokane County deputies had a warrant for the tracking device used in that case, although prosecutors argued they did not need one. "Use of G.P.S. tracking devices is a particularly intrusive method of surveillance," Justice Barbara Madsen wrote in the unanimous decision, "making it possible to acquire an enormous amount of personal information about the citizen under circumstances where the individual is unaware that every single vehicle trip taken and the duration of every single stop may be recorded by the government." Justice Madsen raised the prospect of citizens' being tracked to "the strip club, the opera, the baseball game, the `wrong' side of town, the family planning clinic, the labor rally." The closely watched case had evoked worries about the police using the satellite tracking devices to watch citizens' every move. Doug Honig, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said the ruling was the first of its kind in the country. Attaching a tracking device to a car is "the equivalent of placing an invisible police officer in a person's back seat," Mr. Honig said. "Our state Constitution has very strong protections for privacy. Some other states also have very strong protections for privacy. This will be a strong precedent for them to look at and for any law enforcement agency around the country." The Spokane County deputy prosecutor, Kevin Korsmo, pronounced himself satisfied that Mr. Jackson's conviction had been upheld. But he said the court had expanded privacy rights for criminal suspects. Mr. Korsmo said that in previous cases involving surveillance by more conventional means, like binoculars or the naked eye, the Supreme Court held that there was no right of privacy for what a person did in public. In the Jackson case, the defendant sought to have the warrant thrown out, arguing that it was based on the slimmest of premises: If he was guilty, he might return to the scene of the crime. Prosecutors contended that the warrant was proper and that they did not even need a warrant; they contended that the device was equivalent to tailing Mr. Jackson in an unmarked car. The court agreed that the warrant was valid, but rejected the comparison between the device and tailing. "The devices in this case were in place for approximately 2.5 weeks," Justice Madsen wrote. "It is unlikely that the sheriff's department could have successfully maintained uninterrupted 24-hour surveillance throughout this time by following Jackson." A call to Mr. Jackson's lawyer was not immediately returned. Mr. Jackson reported his daughter missing the day she died. He was arrested nearly a month later after investigators used the G.P.S. system to map his routes to the burial site. He acknowledged burying his daughter but denied killing her. He said he panicked after finding her body in her bed. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 56 years in prison. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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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Re: Fatherland Security agents above the law?
by Tyler Durden 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

The US government, US media, and the American populace seemed to have created a bizarre little symbiosis for themselves. It now goes like this: An incident occurs, real or "could be real, really soon", manufactured by the media. Two people on 34th and 8th indicate on newscamera that they are scared and don't feel secure. Media reports on how people are not secure. Government leaders see media report on how "people are scared" and perform security-enhancing activites, including overseas. Overeseas, or at home, "an incident occurs"... And so on. Soon I'll install a security camera in th' crapper to make sure no terrorists get me while I'm on the can. -TD >From: pgut001(a)cs.auckland.ac.nz (Peter Gutmann) >To: camera_lumina(a)hotmail.com, cypherpunks(a)minder.net >Subject: Re: Fatherland Security agents above the law? >Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 18:10:24 +1200 > >"Tyler Durden" <camera_lumina(a)hotmail.com> writes: > > >"The Fatherland Security troops are publicly embaressed and showing their > >brown shirts." > > > >Well, I'm not convinced you guys have detected the right intended message > >here. > > > >Basically, the real message may be: "it's impossible to protect Americans > >through local policies alone". > >I thought it was "The news media will do anything for a story, even if they >have to manufacture it themselves". Given that the US is currently >obsessed >with terrorism, creating a sensationalist story related to it is a >sure-fire >winner, even if the more accurate wording of "ABC ships expensive yacht >ballast to US" would get less attention. > >(Come to think of it, I'm sure I could raise at least a moderate stink over > here by letting it slip that some of the America's Cup yachts that were >here > earlier in the year may have had (shock, horror!) dangerous radioactive > uranium in their keels, in violation of the government's anti-nuclear > stance). > >Peter. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with MSN Messenger 6.0 -- download now! http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/reach_general

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Re: unintended consequences: Davis recall leads to US internal passports
by Major Variola (ret) 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

At 11:53 AM 9/10/03 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote: >California's law against Driving While Speaking Spanish is only >about 10 years old, and was a Pete Wilson thing. >It happened about when I moved here - did other states start >doing similar things in the mean time? >The Feds started bullying states into collecting SSNs >when issuing drivers' licenses in the mid 80s, >ostensibly as a way of preventing duplicate registrations, >but I hadn't heard they'd been doing this. Interesting. I didn't know the history. What is morbidly fascinating is how the driver's license is/has become the internal passport. And now, when it is being brought back to a certification that one "knows how to drive", the scum who manipulated it into an internal passport are shiiting bricks. As a Ca driver, I'm in favor of it ---we have to pay for uninsured drivers insurace or risk collisions with them. As someone who won't be going to Mexico, I don't care if they require real passports (instead of a Ca driver's license) to re-enter the country. If the US wants to get real borders, that's fine with me. If they want to deport illegals, that's fine too, so long as they don't violate civil rights doing it. (Hint: stopping people on the street because they look foreign is not acceptable. The INS was doing that in Orange or San Diego county recently. I wrote to some mexican activist reminding them that no one in this country needs to speak to pigs, if you're not driving.) \begin{rant} Illegals (and unlicensed pharmacists) also drive an anonymity industry: credit-card-like debit cards that don't require proof of income, just cash; prepaid phones that don't require a billing address, etc. I've read that to enter a Fed building you need "ID". I'm curious what happens if you haven't got it. Adrian Lamo had his card. I'm currently ignoring the conscription notices I get from the local jury droids; if I *volunteer* someday (after reviewing fija.org) I'll be sure to be without ID. Also heard on the tube that 60K fake IDs are caught at the border annually. Wonder how many aren't caught. NIB magnets are probably overkill, but it was the first and last useful swipe my license's magstrip will see...

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open WiFi defense to RIAA
by Major Variola (ret.) 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

It should be massive fun when the RIAA sues someone who has an open WiFi network inhabited by unknown users. We await this defense. Doubleplus fun if the RIAA victim doesn't know he's sharing his bandwidth. We also anticipate someone being sued for downloading a rip of a song they have a vinyl. Ie, that they have legal rights to own a more convenient copy of.

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e-gold script to run from whitehat
by Anonymous via the Cypherpunks Tonga Remailer 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

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Quantum Computing Has Limits
by R. A. Hettinga 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

FNL is here <http://www.worldscinet.com/fnl/fnl.shtml>, but the text of the cited issue hasn't shown up there yet. Cheers, RAH ------- <http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_091103.asp> Technology Review: Quantum Computing Has Limits Technology Research News September 11, 2003 There are many long-term research efforts aimed at eventually producing a quantum computer, which would use the traits of atomic particles like electrons, photons and atoms to compute. Although it is extremely difficult to use such infinitesimally small parts, the weird quantum trait of entanglement would allow calculations to be carried out all at once on a series of numbers, making quantum computers fantastically fast. In theory, they could solve large problems that could never be solved by classical computers, including breaking all security codes. Quantum computers are not likely to ever replace classical computers for everyday use, however. Researchers from the University of Arkansas and Texas A&M University have shown that quantum computers, while theoretically useful for very large problems, are likely to always need very large amounts of power. According to their calculations, the statistical nature of quantum data, the practical requirements of inputting data into systems capable of carrying out entanglement, and the difficulty of error correction, or checking data, make quantum computers less efficient than classical computers for all but a few types of problems. The work appeared in the September, 2003 issue of Fluctuation and Noise Letters . -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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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Re: [cdr] Inferno: USPTO p0wn3d (fwd)
by Major Variola (ret) 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

At 05:45 PM 9/10/03 -0500, Jim Choate wrote: >"open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO which is to >promote intellectual-property rights...To hold a meeting which has as its >purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to >the goals of WIPO." Not surprising. Any beast that sees its habitat being destroyed will react this way. At the least, not running a conference for it; and perhaps lobbying beyond their charter. One imagines the Telegraph Union vigorously opposed the introduction of telephones. And think of the National Security (tm) implications of peer-to-peer communications like telephony! ------- One man's blowback is another man's feedback

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Anyone Remember Zero Knowledge Systems?
by R. A. Hettinga 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

<http://www.cryptonomicon.net/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=455> Cryptonomicon.Net - Anyone Remember Zero Knowledge Systems? Date: Wednesday, September 10 @ 11:15:00 EDT Topic: Commercial Operations / Services It seems that a day doesn't go by that there's new news about the RIAA suing another file swapper. First it's college students, then it's 12-year old honor students, and we hear that they're going after senior citizens next. With ISPs either volunteering or being forced to divulge subscriber information, it's a wonder that there isn't a technology to help shield user's online privacy with respect to their file swapping activities. Well... actually there is, and it's been around for a couple of years. We don't normally do commercial endorsements here, but when we see so much chatter from people on newsgroups talking about privacy protecting technology, we figured we should probably chime in. Way back in the late 90's a company called Zero Knowledge Systems was formed to develop privacy enhancing technology for the Internet. Their flagship product Freedom.Net was a giant onion-skin routing cloud with encrypted links. The idea was that someone desiring privacy would open an encrypted link with a Freedom.Net node and send it's internet requests through that node. That node in turn would encrypt the request and route it through another semi-randomly selected node using a different encryption key. This process would repeat until the request exited the cloud of encrypted packet routers and hits the target of it's destination. The response to the request would return via a similar convoluted, encrypted path. At the time, Freedom.Net was being pitched as a tool for human rights workers, whistleblowers, or even parents who don't want identifying information about their children being collected by heartless corporations intent on selling their kids the latest Anime action figures. Unfortunately, they never quite made a compelling enough argument for mass adoption of their system and eventually morphed the company into a manufacturer or more conventional privacy tools. Freedom still exists as a product, thought it is aimed at web users, only runs on Windows clients, and routes requests through proxy servers owned by Zero Knowledge Systems. It is interesting to ponder what would happen if the Freedom network were widely deployed and routing file swapping packets. One key feature of the original Freedom network was that routing nodes could (and would) be placed in different legal jurisdictions. Assuming that node operators actually logged packet traffic, organizations like the RIAA would be forced to subpoena node operators in multiple countries; a process humorously referred to as "Jurisdictional Arbitrage." Imagine a world where your file swapping software also included a Freedom-like client that routed your request through a maze of encrypting routers. The routers themselves could be placed in different countries. This could make for big headaches when the RIAA moves to subpoena logs of file swapper's activities. They couldn't get the logs from the ISPs because there's no way the ISP could peek in the traffic stream to identify offending content. They could try to put a sniffer on a US-based encrypting network node, but there's likely little information that could be gathered from this; the "payload" of a packet is encrypted with a key that the intermediate routers don't know. About the only place the RIAA could attack would be the servers. After all, all the encryption in the world won't help you if you publicize the IP address of your file store. I'm sure what keeps the record industry executives up at night is the worry that somewhere in the middle of the backwoods of Colombia or in the occupied territories of Israel / Palestine there are extra-territorial jurisdictions that can't be served with papers. Honestly, do you really want to be the process server that goes in to serve papers on FARC guerillas? The future is unclear, but while we start thinking about critical infrastructure, maybe we could think about a way to protect the record companies from financial ruin at the hands of FARC or HAMAS. Yes, I know there are several out there who would like to help destroy the RIAA and all they stand for. Yes, they are behaving in a manner indistinguishable from bastards. But they're our bastards, and if they are to be "taken down," there's a legal process for doing so. It's well known that Hollywood has much better political representation than Silicon Valley. What would happen if KaZaa or Gnutella or Sharmin Networks started operating an encrypted network? Would the RIAA move to outlaw encryption? Maybe the entertainment companies would buy the ISPs and block encrypted content from traversing their network. In any event, we see a whole new chapter in the privacy wars brewing. Don't say you weren't warned. This article comes from Cryptonomicon.Net http://www.cryptonomicon.net/ The URL for this story is: http://www.cryptonomicon.net//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=455 -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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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Re: Fatherland Security agents above the law?
by pgut001＠cs.auckland.ac.nz 12 Sep '03

12 Sep '03

"Tyler Durden" <camera_lumina(a)hotmail.com> writes: >"The Fatherland Security troops are publicly embaressed and showing their >brown shirts." > >Well, I'm not convinced you guys have detected the right intended message >here. > >Basically, the real message may be: "it's impossible to protect Americans >through local policies alone". I thought it was "The news media will do anything for a story, even if they have to manufacture it themselves". Given that the US is currently obsessed with terrorism, creating a sensationalist story related to it is a sure-fire winner, even if the more accurate wording of "ABC ships expensive yacht ballast to US" would get less attention. (Come to think of it, I'm sure I could raise at least a moderate stink over here by letting it slip that some of the America's Cup yachts that were here earlier in the year may have had (shock, horror!) dangerous radioactive uranium in their keels, in violation of the government's anti-nuclear stance). Peter.

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[Lucrative-L] ponderance of the day
by R. A. Hettinga 11 Sep '03

11 Sep '03

--- begin forwarded text

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