September 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

[cdr] Inferno: USPTO p0wn3d (fwd)
by Jim Choate 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 11:29:32 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Inferno: USPTO p0wn3d It seems that the veritable US Patent and Trademark Office, promulgator of such wonderful ideas as sweeping patents on basic software algorithms, seems to have revealed more of its true colors in recent statements. In defending U.S. opposition to a recent World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) meeting on "open collaborative models to develop public goods" and after significant Microsoft lobbying, Lois Boland, director of international relations for the USPTO is quoted as saying: "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." Lessig is furious: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001436.shtml "The Quiet War Over Open-Source" http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A… linked from http://www.effaustin.org/ The meeting has been quashed. But the idear seems quite rooted.

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[cdr] Inferno: securityfocus.com.securityjobss || Iraq Sr Network Security Engineers (fwd)
by Jim Choate 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 13:18:42 -0500 To: hell(a)ssz.com Subject: Inferno: securityfocus.com.securityjobss || Iraq Sr Network Security Engineers Interesting... ----- Forwarded message from Dan Warschawski <warschad(a)excite.com> -----

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unintended consequences: Davis recall leads to US internal passports
by Major Variola (ret.) 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

Licenses as IDs at airports questioned WASHINGTON Federal officials and lawmakers raised serious concerns Tuesday about the continued use of driver's licenses at airports and U.S. borders in light of California's new law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain the widely accepted means of identification. "If driver's licenses are given to people who are illegally in the country, then that puts extra burdens and difficulties on our inspectors at the border," Hutchinson said. "If you don't have integrity in the driver's licenses that are issued, then it really undermines the whole premise of allowing U.S. citizens to travel abroad and come back with limited proof of U.S. citizenship, without a passport." The wisdom of using driver's licenses for identification was also questioned Tuesday in a congressional watchdog report that found that fraudulent licenses are passing muster at airports, border crossings and motor-vehicle offices. The full report by the General Accounting Office has been classified for security reasons. But in public testimony prepared for the Senate Finance Committee, Robert Cramer, director of GAO's office of special investigations, warned about relying on driver's licenses for identification. Davis had refused to sign such a law before, citing homeland security concerns. His about-face was questioned by some as a move to garner support in the Latino community. excerpts from http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=56388&section=NEWS&subs…

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[cdr] An IRC server is available...
by Jim Choate 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

Hi, Open Forge, LLC is making a IRC server available on kraken.open-forge.com on port 6667 available for use. The current channels include a #cypherpunks. For more information please visit the SSZ & Open Forge homepages. -- -- ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.com www.ssz.com www.open-forge.com

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[cdr] CNN.com - Judge: Pop-up ads a 'burden' but legal - Sep. 9, 2003 (fwd)
by Jim Choate 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/09/judge.popups.reut/index.html -- -- ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.com www.ssz.com www.open-forge.com

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[p2p-hackers] Project Announcement: P2P Sockets (fwd from bradneuberg@yahoo.com)
by Eugen Leitl 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

----- Forwarded message from Brad Neuberg <bradneuberg(a)yahoo.com> -----

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[cdr] China to stop police torturing suspects (fwd)
by Jim Choate 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11480 -- -- ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.com www.ssz.com www.open-forge.com

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Mexican Town Forgoes Law for Order
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40332-2003Sep7?language=printer> The Washington Post washingtonpost.com Mexican Town Forgoes Law for Order Mayor Abolishes Traffic Fines in a Bid to End Bribery by Police Officers By Kevin Sullivan Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, September 8, 2003; Page A15 ECATEPEC, Mexico -- Park where you like, speed if you want to, run a red light, don't bother renewing your driver's license and let that seat belt flap in the wind. Nobody's going to bust you as long as Mayor Eruviel Avila Villegas is in charge. Avila's first official act when he took office last month was to abolish parking and traffic fines in this city of 2.5 million people just north of Mexico City. Avila, 34, a soft-spoken lawyer with curly hair, is nobody's anarchist. He's just looking for radical new ways to solve one of Mexico's most annoying problems: cops demanding bribes. The mayor's theory is that if police officers can't threaten drivers with tickets, they can't shake them down. "We are renewing and revolutionizing our city," he said. "People will always speed. They will always park illegally. But this way they won't have to pay bribes." Many Ecatepec residents said they feel liberated by the policy, which gives them at least a temporary respite from the money-grubbing officers who are among the great nuisances of daily life in Mexico. "This isn't a gift -- this is something we deserve," said a delighted Guadalupe Flores, 38, who works in a hotel in this working-class city. Police are less happy, some for obvious reasons, and others because they said they fear chaos when unchecked human nature is the only law on the streets. "People know we can't do anything and they laugh in our faces," said officer Erasmo Rosas Buenrostro, who has been armed with nothing more than a whistle since Avila confiscated all the ticket books in town and piled them up on his desk in city hall. It is impossible to calculate the cost of corruption in Mexican life, although Francisco Barrio, who was known as Mexico's anti-corruption "czar" when he was federal comptroller, estimated that it could be as high as 9 percent of the gross domestic product. The head of Pemex, the state oil monopoly, has said corruption costs the company $1 billion a year. Bribes are paid for everything from getting a car inspected to persuading the phone repairman to come before Christmas. A survey by Transparency Mexico, the local branch of Transparency International, showed there were at least 200 million shakedowns a year, two for each of Mexico's 100 million people. As officials have become more open about the economic and social costs of police corruption, several initiatives have been launched, including the purging of entire police forces and starting over in some towns. In Mexico City, police chief Marcelo Ebrard recently began paying his officers a cash bonus for making an arrest. The idea is to make being clean more lucrative than being dirty. But with police typically earning just a few hundred dollars a month, and with no pension when they retire, officers on the beat still tend to behave as if every driver were an ATM. In Ecatepec, Avila said, a dozen of the city's 177 traffic officers simply stopped showing up for work when the new policy was announced on Aug. 19. Police here earn an average of about $420 a month, but some were adding as much as $2,000 a month to their salaries with bribes from drivers, several officers said. They said those who disappeared have probably moved to other cities and taken jobs in police departments that still tolerate bribery as a way to beef up low salaries. Ecatepec is a sprawling city of humble barrios where those lucky enough to have work commute by bus to jobs in Mexico City. It is part of the leathery hide of poor, tough cities that ring the capital in Mexico state. Avila said it's the kind of place that requires radical new ideas to root out nasty old habits. He dismissed criticism that the policy would bring chaos to the streets, saying, "I don't think anybody's going to say, 'Let's go to Ecatepec because they don't have laws.' " He said drunken driving and other criminal offenses would still be punished. He said he believed people would behave responsibly without the threat of fines for routine traffic offenses, and he said the policy so far seems to be working. Avila is not worried about losing revenue from traffic fines. "For every peso that went into the city's coffers, five went into the pockets of the police," he said. "The social benefit of doing this is greater than what we lose in revenue." Avila said that if the anti-bribery scheme works, he plans to extend it to other city departments; his next step will be to eliminate most city building permits. "We should trust our people and give them a chance," Avila said. "If they don't respond well, we'll have to go back to the old way." One day recently, a long line of cars was parked next to the town square, exactly where the roadway is painted with huge yellow and white "NO PARKING" signs. Jose Cruz Hinojosa, 39, said he was picking up his daughter from school and would not be illegally parked for long. Cruz said he definitely liked the mayor's campaign to wipe out corruption, but added, "This one change is not going to stop it." Traffic police officer Manuel Hernandez stood just up the street, shaking his head. He said he would certainly have ticketed Cruz and the others a few weeks ago, but now he can't. "The people know they can run red lights, they can do anything they want," Hernandez said, with obvious disgust. "It's not good, but what can we do?" Avila said he doesn't mind a few angry officers because he is determined to improve the image of his city and its police department. He has his work cut out for him. Earlier this year, 42 Ecatepec officers were arrested and charged with selling drugs to children. Officers have been charged in recent years with the murder of a 10-year-old they were trying to kidnap for ransom and a string of robberies that left 17 people dead. Last year, Ecatepec also became the punch line to a national joke when it was disclosed that Avila's predecessor had given himself a salary of almost $540,000 a year. When Avila took office, he immediately reduced his salary to $108,000 a year, fired the old police chief and set out on his zero-tolerance anti-bribery policy. In many ways, Avila is also part of a national effort to change the image of his political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Corruption and mismanagement became endemic in Mexico during the PRI's 71-year single-party rule, which ended when Vicente Fox was elected president in 2000. Since then, the PRI has tried to polish its image and, thanks in part to Fox's sputtering attempts at government reforms, won big in national midterm elections in July. In Ecatepec, the PRI has taken back the reform agenda: Avila's overpaid predecessor was from Fox's National Action Party, or PAN. Avila is trying to soften the blow to police officers by increasing other benefits. He said he is doubling the value of the monthly packet of basic foodstuffs that each officer receives to $100. He said he will change officers' hours -- now 24 hours on, 24 hours off -- to regular eight-hour shifts. And he said the city will begin paying for uniforms and repairs to patrol cars. As in many Mexican cities, the officers here have had to cover these costs. "The police don't have the trust of the people," Avila said. "I want to give them the means to be honest." -- ----------------- 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: cats
by Major Variola (ret) 09 Sep '03

09 Sep '03

At 08:12 AM 9/9/03 -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote: >On Mon, Sep 08, 2003 at 11:15:31AM -0700, Tim May wrote: >> "Dogs can't conceive of a group of cats without an alpha cat." --David >> Honig, on the Cypherpunks list, 2001-11 > > > Cats always have an alpha cat. And they often have pissing contests to >determine the pecking order. This is just as true of house cats as it is of >lions. First, many cats (e.g., mountain lions) do not form social groups beyond the mother raising the cubs. Female African lions reportedly do hang out together. Second, if you examine the context of the original post, the statement was a metaphor about leaderless ("anarchic") assemblies such as this list. In particular, the Feds (dogs) haven't historically understood that this list is the equivalent of a grad lounge or spontaneous beach party: there are multiple conversations, no one is moderating or otherwise choreographing squat. When cats encounter each other by chance, they may assert dominance, (linguistic pissing contests are not unheard of here :-) but their lives are not structured around following, or smelling the higher-up's ass. --- "While acknowledging himself an Anarchist, he does not state to what branch of the organization he belongs" ---Discussing Leon Czolgosz' shooting of President William McKinley

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[cdr] CAPPS-II: Green/Yellow or Red for freight?
by J.A. Terranson 09 Sep '03

09 Sep '03

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Southwest/09/09/plane.stowaway/index.html Man shipped from New York to Texas in crate Tuesday, September 9, 2003 Posted: 10:31 PM EDT (0231 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal officials are investigating how a man managed to hide inside a crate that was flown by a major cargo carrier from New York to Dallas, Texas. Charles McKinley wanted to go to his father's house in Dallas and decided to "ship himself rather than pay for a ticket," said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Suzanne Luber. McKinley secured himself in the crate, apparently with some help, along with his computer and some clothes. The incident highlighted a potential hole in aviation security. Luber shipped himself through cargo carrier Kitty Hawk Inc., which said it was told by the shipping firm, Pilot Air Freight, that the crate was loaded with computer monitors. The crate, marked as containing computer equipment, was picked up at a company called Metrotech in the Bronx, New York, and driven to John F. Kennedy International Airport, and then to Newark, New Jersey, where it was placed on a Kitty Hawk cargo plane, she said. "The plane actually went to Buffalo. From Buffalo it went to Fort Wayne, Indiana. There was a change of planes onto another Kitty Hawk cargo plane, and he ended up at DFW [Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport]," Luber said. He was then driven to the intended address, which was his father's house in De Soto, a suburb 14 miles south of Dallas. Carl Smith, assistant chief of the De Soto Police Department, said that when the deliveryman went to remove the box from the truck he noticed a person inside. Authorities believe Smith had moved something he had been using to cover himself, so the driver was able to see him through a slit in the crate. "At that time, the young man kicked one side of the crate out, crawled out, got his box, and walked around to the back of the house," Smith said. The driver contacted police. McKinley is being held at the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, Smith said. Authorities have not released his age, but news reports said he is 25. Luber said authorities detained McKinley on outstanding warrants for theft of a check and a traffic violation. The TSA is working with the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office to investigate and determine if there are any federal charges for this incident. "We've made significant improvements in cargo security, but we do have more, more to go," Luber said. TSA teams have examined cargo carriers and the airport facilities they use to load packages "to determine strengths and weaknesses in cargo security," she said. The TSA has a cargo security advisory committee that is expected to provide recommendations for additional security as early as October 1, she said. "The bottom line is just like passenger security there's not just one single silver bullet," Luber said. "We're taking a layered approach. "Should Congress ask us, we are ready to train cargo pilots as federal flight deck officers." Federal flight deck officers are armed with guns in the cockpit. Richard Phillips, chairman and chief executive officer of Pilot Air Freight, said his company rigidly adhered to TSA procedures, keeping the crate off a passenger plane and placing no travelers at risk. "It is unfortunate that one individual would choose to flaunt air regulations," he said. A spokesman for Kitty Hawk Cargo added, "This is a very unusual incident." CNN correspondent Patti Davis contributed to this report.

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